The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories [Import] [Paperback]

Robert Aickman (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Fontana (1973)
• ISBN-10: 0006132480
• ISBN-13: 978-0903981088
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,712,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second volume in a great series, February 2, 2007

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (Paperback)

Throughout the two decades from 1964 to 1984, Fontana published a remarkable skein of ghost story collections, piloted by R. Aikman and later by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, no mean supernatural authors themselves. Some of the paperbacks in this series, which winds its way up to the "20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories" are now collectors' items and worth over a hundred dollars apiece.

For this second book in the series, Robert Aickman selected twelve supernatural tales, including his own "The Inner Room." Four of my top fifty ghost stories also appear in this volume: "Man-Size in Marble" by Edith Nesbit; "Thurnley Abbey" by Perceval Landon; "The Inner Room" by Robert Aickman; and "Afterward" by Edith Wharton.

These are the stories in the 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories:

"Playing with Fire" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-- The author was a long-standing member of the Society for Psychical Research, and became more interested in the paranormal after the untimely death of his son. The séance in this story calls up an unexpected creature out of the darkness.

"Man-Size in Marble" by Edith Nesbit--This fascinating Victorian author supported herself, her husbands, her children, and her husband's children by his mistress through her writing. She definitely didn't model the wimpy wife in this story on herself! Newly-weds find the perfect, secluded cottage where they can paint and write in peace. However local legend has it that no one ever stays in the cottage on All Saints' Eve.

"How Love Came to Professor Guildea" by Robert Hichens--Father Murchison makes friends with the brilliant Professor Guildea who "had a poor opinion of most things, but especially of women." Nevertheless, something falls in love with him.

"The Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen--Twenty-five years after her first love disappeared into the cauldron of WWI, Kathleen gets a letter from him reminding her of their 'anniversary.'

"A.V. Laider" by Sir Max Beerbohm--In a sleepy hostel by the sea, two Englishmen fall in together and one has an odd tale to tell concerning palmistry.

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" by Edgar Allan Poe--The narrator attempts to mesmerize a man on this deathbed with disturbing results.

"Our Distant Cousins" by Lord Dunsany--A fantasy about a trip to Mars in an aeroplane. I have no idea why the editor chose to include this story in this collection--maybe to set up his own story which follows it.

"The Inner Room" by Robert Aickman--A gothic revival doll house entrances a little girl, whose parents reluctantly buy it for her. "It was not one of those dolls' houses of commerce from which sides can be lifted in their entirety." The little girl has to peer through the doll house windows to learn about her new acquisition. Her brother determines mathematically that there is an inaccessible inner room. Years later, after the girl has grown to adulthood, she stumbles across a house in the woods that has the exact appearance of her old doll house. Will she finally learn what is in the inner room?

"Thurnley Abbey" by Perceval Landon--The new owners of Thurnley Abbey invite one of their friends to stay overnight, without telling him that he will be sleeping in the haunted bedroom. Believing the creature that appears at his bedfoot to be a hoax, the angry guest tears it apart bone by bone.

"Nightmare Jack" by John Metcalfe--Rubies stolen from an Eastern idol haunt the thieves who stole them.

"The Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce--The coroner's jury listens to the story of a man's mysterious death, as told by the only eye-witness.

"Afterward" by Edith Wharton--A nouveau-riche American couple renovate an old English manor. There supposedly is a ghost, but no one ever realizes that he or she saw it until well after the fact.