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Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton

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The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. Highly recommended.

I was unaware that Edith Wharton, known for such insightful novels as The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, and Ethan Frome (as well as the popular movies these novels inspired), had indulged in writing ghost stories other than "Afterward" until I found this collection. In Ghost Stories, Wharton reveals her mastery of the psychology of horror-where ghosts terrify through their oblique influence on the human mind and emotion-and where these human foibles create their own horrors.

Wharton's ghosts take many forms-from the loyal retainer in "The Lady's Maid's Bell" to the loyal retainers of a different sort in "Kerfol"; from the guilt behind "The Eyes" to the guilt recognised "Afterward"; from the mysterious "Mr. Jones" to the ghostly and ghastly "Miss Mary Pask." Some of these visitations are not seen, or, in the case of "Kerfol," even heard. They fulfill various functions: To protect the secrets of the past, to bring the secrets of the past to light, to warn the present about the future, and to remind the living of the dead.

Like the best ghost story writers, Wharton begins each tale with a scenario that seems ordinary enough. Early on, she drops subtle clues that build from a feeling that something is somewhat amiss up to a sense of fractured reality that shatters one's assumptions. Wharton masterfully creates ironic twists ("Miss Mary Pask"), innocent victims (the wife in "Afterward"), and nontraditional ghosts ("The Eyes," "Kerfol"). In many cases, the reader is one step ahead of the narrator or protagonist (Hitchcock's definition of suspense), creating a delicious sense of inevitable, unavoidable doom.

If you are looking for the gore and thrills of today's tale of horror, you will not find them in Wharton's work. If, on the other hand, you appreciate the subtle, growing sense of terror that M. R. James insinuates into The Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, you'll discover the same feeling of the fine line between this world and another that can manifest itself at any time and in any way when the need arises. These are stories to be read, savored, and read again-alone, of course.

Diane L. Schirf, 28 December 2003.

These are ghost stories the way they should be, though the dense style of the period might put off readers expecting a quick, effortless read. Don't confuse these traditional ghost stories with the kind of campfire tales gathered in regional collections. These stories are fully plotted and provide the quiet "authentic shudder" most readers of "literary" ghost stories expect. For the thoughtful sensitive reader who wants to linger in the dusk awhile, THE GHOST STORIES OF EDITH WHARTON and ROALD DAHL'S BOOK OF GHOST STORIES are the best collections to have.

The impact of these stories may hit you long after you've read them. These are stories you don't forget, yet you're compelled to reread them. Edith Wharton has given us one of the most delightful ghost story collections I've ever read. It is the characters that make an impression. Long after you've put the book down, they come back to you...

Edith Wharton was a master of the ghost story, and these stories linger in the mind long after the book is over. Above all, the stories are incredibly rich in atmosphere: Wharton is not writing to give thrills but rather chills, and the subtle, nuanced dread evoked in so many of these stories testifies to her immense talent as a writer. These are supernatural tales of the highest quality, and the book is absolutely essential for anyone who loves the classic ghost story.

Edith Wharton is an acknowleged giant of the fiction novel. But this particular book of hers needs to come complete with a disclaimer. I would suggest: DON'T EXPECT TO READ THE AVERAGE GHOST STORY HERE. My one negative thing to say about this book is actually a positive. I could only read one of these stories at a time because I had to think one story over before I went on to the next . My tendency is to sit down with a book and read it cover to cover with minor stops along the way for everyday life to intervene. I have been reading this book for over a week now because each story makes me stop after I have read it to have a nice long thinking session regarding what I have just read. I loved that.

My favorite story of the eleven story collection is titled, "Afterward". The title means that a person did not know if they had met the ghost at Lyng in Dorsetshire until long, long afterward. A superb rendering of a mystery which began so quietly that Mary Boyne didn't even know she was involved in it until it was too late.

Another favorite is "Kerfol" which takes place in Brittany and involves a pack of dogs and how they got where they were. Or were they there at all?

And then there is "Bewitched" a masterpiece which made me shiver while reading about the frozen New England winter even though it was 90 degrees outside my house. Wharton's descriptions of the physical appearances of all those involved in this wonderfully frightening tale is straight from the Grant Wood painting American Gothic, except with all the wintery background painted in by Edith Wharton.

Very highly recommended. These are not the modern man's ghost stories even though they were published in 1973. Some have no resolution, you have to decide for yourself how you think the situation ended. Some may not seem like ghost stories at all until you think about them afterward. Some are like those odd occurrances which make you wonder if you really got all your information straight and if you might, just might, be imagining things. A bonus for me were the black and white drawings which accompanied each story. The writing is wonderful but I had expected that from Edith Wharton. What I had not expected was to be so totally engrossed.

I read this anthology on the heels of reading a similar anthology of horror tales by Bram Stoker. I was surprised to find that Wharton easily surpasses Stoker as a writer of gothic tales. I had expected that the author of Dracula would be better at this genre, but no.

Some of the stories, like Kerfol, compare well with the best gothic tales of Vernon Lee, using foreign aristocratic settings and historic elements quite deftly. Wharton is equally adroit with stories that use American settings, including those that are quite outside her own native culture of old New York. "The Trimph of Night", for example, is set in upstate NY and deals with what happens when a man shirks his responsibility for stopping an evil man. "Bewitched" is set somewhere in New England, possibly CT like Ethan Fromme because the town of Starkfield is mentioned a few times in the story, as it is also mentioned in Ethan Fromme. "Bewitched" leaves much to the imagination, and after one reading it is not yet clear to me what exactly happened in this one. I know I will have to re-read it soon. "The Eyes" appears to be set in New York, and I was surprised at how full of gay subtext the story was, as if the protagonist in the tale was perhaps inspired by a homosexual man that Wharton knew, but did not quite like...Henry James perhaps, though I am sure she knew others.

This little anthology made me feel sorry that Wharton never gave us a gothic novel or two. The book shows that she certainly had an imagination for the disturbing and the macabre, although perhaps not enough interest in such subject matter as to compel the writing of a novel in that vein. Expect very fine, genteel ghost stories, but don't let my descriptors fool you. The tales are frightening and effective, and I believe them to be some of the best American gothic you can find.

This book of ghost stories by Edith Wharton is a treasure for any Edith Wharton fan. Her ghost stories are superb with the same flowing rhythem of a wonderful author. Some of her plots are story lines are simple but they still manage to put me in a thumping heart stage!

Don't Miss "Afterward," a Great Ghost Story, June 15, 2007

Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my negative reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews as almost soon as they are posted. Oh, well.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks, and note that a short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to some great stories.

I read "Afterward," a 40-page story, many years ago, and I wrote "Good!" by it in the table of contents.

Another great story of the supernatural is the "Willows," by Algernon Blackwood (not in this collection, of course). Both of these stories are highly recommended, but I won't ruin the stories by saying much about them. They are "short stories," after all.

Check out my other longer reviews. Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated. Read the "Willows" wherever you can find it. Thanks.

In the preface to the collection, Wharton, like many early 20th century practitioners of the form, bemoans an assumed downfall of the ghost story, collapse of the fantastic imagination, etc., in terms that will probably seem overblown to modern readers aware that the ghost story has not, in fact, died out. But she also offers what I think are sage words on the aesthetics of the ghost story:

"The 'moral issue' question must not be allowed to enter into the estimating of a ghost story. It must depend for its effect solely on what one might call its thermometrical quality; if it sends a cold shiver down one's spine, it has done its job and done it well. But there is no fixed rule as to the means of producing this shiver, and many a tale that makes others turn cold leaves me at my normal temperature. The doctor who said there were no diseases but only patients would probably agree that there are no ghosts, but only tellers of ghost stories, since what provides a shudder for one leaves another peacefully tepid. Therefore one ought, I am persuaded, simply to tell one's ghostly adventures in the most unadorned language, and 'leave the rest to Nature.'"

That Wharton denies that the "moral issue" is not relevant to the estimation of a ghost story should not lead the reader to conclude that her stories are only light-hearted divertissements. They are, in point of fact, almost always driven by a philosophical concern or a metaphorical connection to actual daily life. "Mr. Jones," for example, is simultaneously a satisfying antiquarian ghost story, with the discovery of a family secret among ancient papers; an ironic reflection on the delicate balance of power between servants and masters in the early 20th century; and a genuinely dark piece of fiction with a mostly absent yet powerful and malevolent ghost.

One of Wharton's virtues is her ability to take the plot devices used in stock ghost stories and, by using her gifts for atmospheric descriptions of place and succinct evocations of human psychology, breathe new life into them so that they become terrifying all over again. "Afterward," perhaps the single finest of her ghost stories, takes what could be a trite concept of ghostly revenge and turns it into a disturbing meditation on the nature of guilt and complicity and the sheer mysteriousness of the universe. "The Triumph of Night" uses its ghostly forewarning of disaster to emphasize its narrator's isolation and fear. And "Pomegranate Seed" begins with a ghost so narrowly metaphorical that it could seem like a joke, and treats its psychological effects so seriously that what started in humor ends in genuine despair.

There are a couple stories here that are non-supernatural. I won't say too much about them because the absence of ghosts sometimes comes as a surprise, but I will note that both are satisfying in subtly different ways from the stories with "genuine" ghosts; one is almost bitterly satirical, while another is quietly melancholy and rather touching.

In narrative terms Edith Wharton's ghost stories, often concerned with the aristocracy, with old, large houses, and with shadowy spectres who have unfinished business, may sound too traditional for the knowing sensibilities of the contemporary reader. But, like her friend Henry James, Wharton was interested in the psychological as well as the literal trappings of the ghost, and it's that interest that makes her ghost stories satisfying, relevant, and perhaps even unsettling to the reader of today. Surely the point being made in the following excellent paragraph is timeless:

"No, she would never know what had become of him-- no one would ever know. But the house ~knew~; the library in which she spent her long lonely evenings knew. For it was here that the last scene had been enacted, here that the stranger had come, and spoken the word which had caused Boyne to rise and follow him. The floor she trod had felt his tread; the books on the shelves had seen his face; and there were moments when the intense consciousness of the old dusky walls seemed about to break out into some audible revelation of their secret. But the revelation never came, and she knew it would never come. Lyng was not one of the garrulous old houses that betray the secrets entrusted to them. Its very legend proved that it had always been the mute accomplice, the incorruptible custodian, of the mysteries it had surprised. And Mary Boyne, sitting face to face with its silence, felt the futility of seeking to break it by any human means."

Although I respect and enjoy Edith Wharton's other writings ("The Custom of the Country", "The Age of Innocence") I was terribly disapponted with this collection of ghost stories. If you are looking for well written stories in Wharton's style and don't care about a 'scare factor', I suppose you could spring for these. If you are looking for the slightest bit of chill down your vertebrae, move along, move along. This didn't ruffle a single hair on my body, nor a whisker on my face. Two stars for the writer's sophisticated word craft.

Wind In Hare