Customer Reviews

The Haunted Looking Glass (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

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The trouble with most ghost stories is that they're never sufficiently scary enough: even many of the stories of such masters of the genre as M. R. James and Sheridan le Fanu seem insufficiently frightening, often given the limited frame of the short story. Years before his recent death, the great illustrator Edward Gorey assembled a best-of-the-best collection of the most frightening of all ghost stories (accompanied by his personal illustrations), and his choices do not disappoint. Many of the stories have the sickening, terrifying quality of a bad dream (such as Stoker's "The Judge's House" and E. Nesbit's "Mansize in marble"), while even the shorter pieces which have little in the way of characterization (such as "The Empty House") are genuinely frightening and evocative in terms of atmosphere. The very best stories--"The Monkey's Paw," James's "Casting the Runes," and Dickens's "The Signalman"--are little masterpieces of suspense and mood.

NYRB wisely decided to break from its standard cover format by allowing Gorey's original handlettered illustration remain intact; his moody drawings for each story are also kept. This is a nice little collection.

I bought my copy of, The Haunted Looking Glass, when it was first published in 1959. I still read out of it but the pages are brittle and yellowed. As a teacher I recommended it to my kids for halloween reading and they managed to find hardbound copies for 5 bucks each and they devoured it just as I did. Edward Gorey published several books under the "Looking Glass Library" label and I regret not buying them up. It is a collection of pretty strong ghost stories that provide a good start for a young ghost story reader. It is also a set of ghost story classics that belongs on the shelf of any genre collector. Many of the stories such as W.F. Harvey's, "August Heat," are frequently anthologized but some like E. Nesbit's, "Man Sized in Marble," are rare and truely eerie. I am sorry that the new edition of The Haunted Looking Glass was not was not printed in hardback. My copy crumbles a little every time I touch it and with Halloween coming it has stories that beg to be read. Savor M. R. James' "Casting the Runes" and experience the three-wish-curse formula in W.W. Jacob's, "The Monkey's Paw."

Edward Gorey's quirky and often macabre drawings have been delighting his fans for two generations. In "The Haunted Looking Glass," we find another set of apposite illustrations to accompany his collection of his favourite ghost stories. Recently re-released in the excellent New York Review of Books Classics series, readers will find it to be an agreeably discomforting guided tour through some of the high spots of the golden age of ghost story writing, the Victorian and Edwardian period. There are worthy old chesnuts such as "Casting the Runes" and "The Monkey's Paw" and "August Heat," as well as unexpected gems from E. Nesbit ("Man-size in Marble") and Bram Stoker ("The Judge's House"). A contribution from Charles Dickens ("The Signalman") is especially memorable. This is a wonderful collection of stories, and readers are urged to find out for themselves what lurks within the haunted looking glass!

This is one of the most interesting books I've read of late, I must say. It's a collection of short fiction from the turn of the last century, writer Edward Gorey's favorites, and they range from odd to downright spooky. It begins with explorers in a haunted house, and over 250 pages manages to cover much of the breadth of late Victorian English ghost stories.

Each tale is definitely unique. A couple involve haunted houses, some demons from hell, mysterious magic, ancient curses, strange events, and normal humans on the underbelly of society, afflicted with a dose of the supernatural. There are both long ones, nearly novellas, and more succinct pieces. None are truly gruesome or horrifying, with the exception of "The Body-Snatcher", but rare are the pages that will not send chills down your spine. These writers were the masters of their times, thrilling audiences from newspapers and bookstands. These are tales to be told in the cover of darkness, where the shadow takes firm grip upon the soul of the unwary, tales to be told aloud, for the chuckle and boom of a voice will bring their ghosts to life.

To those who would enjoy such tales, and I believe that includes a very wide range, this book is probably one of the best samplers of the genre, a solid footstep from which more can be found. Certainly several of the authors I've already sought out more from. At least some of the stories are bound to appeal to almost anyone, especially on a foggy night around a fireplace. Some are better than anything I've ever read from Stephen King and other modern dealers of this type. Not to mention that I simply enjoyed the archaic dialect of these, being a fan of the old styles. You will not regret picking this book up, as it so forcefully captures the imagination. Not all so captured me, but as I said, variety is the key here, and something is bound to appeal to everyone.

My personal favorites were probably Harvey's "August Heat" and James' "Casting the Runes", on opposite ends of the book, nicely pulling me in and leading me out. "Heat" is short, sweltering, and eerie, ending in such a way that is simply too powerful; "Runes" about a the thrilling unraveling of a mystery surrounding a warlock who hexed a man. "The Thirteenth Tree" is perhaps not the most exciting, but definitely is mysterious. The title of "A Visitor From Down Under" has a double meaning, and the story embodies the psychadelia and madness of the period. Rats both haunt and protect a university student in "The Judges House", but little can stop the real horror that lives there. In "The Monkey's Paw" one wish brings ruin on a family, and a second used in desperation seems to bode more... "The Empty House" casts its siren call over an old woman, who brings her nephew in only to witness an invisible murder. The namesake of "The Signalman" has some ability to see future accidents. And in the bloody "Body-Snatcher", medical college students must take criminal steps to ensure a supply of cadavers, until one turns on them.

Edward Gorey's Haunted Looking Glass may be my all time favorite collection of ghost stories. All twelve selections are well-crafted, frightening tales. With the exception of two classics, The Body-Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Signalman by Charles Dickens, these stories are not unduly familiar. Each story is enhanced by a haunting illustration in the inimitable style of Edward Gorey himself.

The other ten stories include The Empty House (Algernon Blackwood), August Heat (W. F. Harvey), A Visitor from Down Under (L. P. Hartley), The Thirteenth Tree (R. H. Malden), Man-Size in Marble (E. Nesbit), The Judge's House (Bram Stoker), The Shadow of a Shade (Tom Hood), The Monkey's Paw (W. W. Jacobs), The Dream Woman (Wilkie Collins), and Casting the Runes (M. R. James).

These stories all qualify as truly frightening stories, ones that you will remember. Many anthologies of ghost stories suffer from one of three problems: the stories are not very frightening, the selections are uneven in quality, or the stories are good, but they are all familiar classics. Edward Gorey avoided all three pitfalls.

Edward Gorey's Haunted Looking Glass was first published in 1959, then reprinted in 1984 by Avenel Books (my copy), and is now available as a New York Review of Books Classic (2001). This book would make a great gift for Halloween, or for that matter any time of the year.

As I write these words, I am wearing a grey sweatshirt. On the front of the shirt is a drawing by Edward Gorey of a bedraggled cat sprawled on its back atop a stack of five thickly bound tomes. Above the picture are the words: "books. cats." Below the picture are the words: "life is good." Perhaps this would be a good place to mention that I am an unabashed lover of books, cats-- and the art of Edward Gorey.

This leads me to _The Haunted Looking Glass_ (1959), edited and illustrated by Edward Gorey. There are three pictures of the looking glass-- one on the front cover, one on the back cover, and one as a frontspiece. The glass is oval-shaped with a curtain partly draped over it. Reflected in each glass is a spectral figure, but each mirror displays a different ghost.

Each of the twelve stories has a Gorey illustration. The drawing for R. H. Malden's "The Thirteenth Tree" shows twelve trees clustered around a pool. Or... does it? There in the middle... Could that be another tree? It is in keeping with the story:

But were there only twelve? My first impression was that there were more. That was absurd. I counted them again just to make sure, and, as I had thought, there was one at each corner with two in between. But as soon as I looked at them altogether I got the impression that there were more. But I could not have said where the additional one (I felt sure it was only one) was... (83-84)

The drawing for Wilkie Collins's "The Dream Woman" shows a pale-haired, pale-gowned woman with a clasp-knife that she switches from hand to hand before she stabs. The illustration for Bram Stoker's "The Judge's House" shows an empty room with a tall chair, a rat, a bell rope, and part of a portrait that are somehow sinister. The sketch for E. Nesbit's "Man-Size in Marble" catches the statue of a knight in prayer. But is he lying down or standing? The illustration of W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" shows the four central characters looking at the tiny little paw on the table. It seems to be harmless, doesn't it? And the illustration for Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatcher" shows a scene in a morgue.

The remaining stories are also turn-of-the-century British pieces: Algernon Blackwood's "The Empty House," W.F. Harvy's "August Heat," Charles Dickens's The Signalman," L.P. Hartley's "A Visitor From Down Under," Tom Hood's "The Shadow of a Shade," and M. R. James's "Casting the Runes".

All of the stories are very good. Oh, I suppose you can make quibbles here or there. The Dickens and the Stevenson are not the authors at their _very_ best. The Harvey has an ending that is somewhat contrived. The Stoker and the Jacobs are overly familiar. And so on. But when all is said and done, these are good ghost stories of an old-fashioned and literate nature. And they do have those wonderful illustrations. Highly recommended.

C'mon. Handpicked by Edward Gorey. Served up on a silver spoon.
What are you waiting for?

This is a collection of short stories selected by Edward Gorey, covering the genre of ghost stories. Each tale is illustrated by him. These are in the classic mode of leaving most of the true horror "off screen" in the mind of the reader. Authors included in the collection range from Charles Dickens (The Signalman), Robert Louis Stevenson (The Body-Snatcher), Bram Stoker(The Judge's House), E. Nesbit (Man-size in Marble) and Wilkie Collins (The Dream Women), among others. Each brings their own take on the style and the range of scare factor varies between stories. I found "The Judge's House" to be particularly creepy. Also included in the collection is "The Monkey's Paw" which I can remember being told as an evening ghost story as a child. It still maintains its chill factor. Some of the tales have the classic foreshadowing where you see what is going to happen, yet are powerless to stop the characters or stop reading. "August Heat" is a great example of that. I found it to be a good collection and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of oblique fright and horror.

How could Edward Gorey's favorite ghost stories *not* be fantastic? With his own illustrations, to boot. I'm thrilled I happened across it, because it's the best collection I've read. Every story is a little masterpiece (and every story required me to sleep with the lights on after I finished it). There isn't weak story in the collection, and if you like creepy stories, every one is a must-read.

I had high hope for this collection; loving Gorey and his bizarre sense of humor I expected him to find an odd collection of great stories. Unfortunately, they are mostly mediocre (to my mind), and with very few exceptions not chilling or startling at all.

There was one fantastic story, though: "August Heat" by W.F. Harvey. I'm grateful for this entire collection, for that one story. It is short, tight and incredible. Not a "ghost story", so to speak, but a chilling one none the less. I highly recommend it and was thrilled to find that others liked it enough to type it up online. I found several places, so look it up and read it--you'll thank me later.

The best part of the book, of course, was the full page illustration, incorporating the title and a bit of the story, before each selection. For a Gorey fan, that made it almost worth slogging through the not-so-good stories.