Vernon Lee writes in the Preface to Hauntings, "My ghosts are what you call spurious ghosts... of whom I can affirm only one thing, that they haunted certain brains, and have haunted, among others, my own." First published in 1890, Lee's most famous volume of supernatural tales occupies a special place in the literature of the fantastic for its treatment of the femme fatale and the allure of the past, along with the themes of thwarted artistic creativity and psychological obsession. This collection, which includes the four stories originally published in Hauntings and three others, enables readers to consider Lee's work anew for its subtle redefinitions of gender and sexuality during the Victorian fin-de-siècle. The appendices, which include extensive excerpts from writings by Lee's predecessors and peers, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and Lee's brother Eugene Lee-Hamilton, allow the reader to see how Lee takes on the themes and preoccupations of the late-Victorian period but adapts them to her own purposes.
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Editorial Reviews
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"At last we have a modern edition of Vernon Lee's most important ghost stories! Maxwell and Pulham have made it possible to study and teach this key fin-de-siècle writer, whose work so deserves fresh attention. The impeccable annotations will add greatly to our understanding of Lee's many artistic and literary references. A fine set of additional readings document the rich exchange of ideas and materials in her literary circle. Readers new to Lee will be fascinated by her masterful evocations of the past, while old friends will delight in the full critical apparatus. Brava!" (Martha Vicinus )
"Aficionados of the fin-de-siècle and modernism have always been fascinated by the art historian, aesthetician, and fiction writer Vernon Lee, and her audience has increased dramatically in the last decade. This timely edition of Lee's supernatural stories reveals the nooks and crannies of Lee's brain as she studies those of European art, architecture, and taste. These witty stories, a veritable Italy of the mind, are more psychological than supernatural. They illustrate Lee's belief that only the absolutely modern writer can raise real spectres of the antique, only the truly sceptical can depict belief with such passion." (Regenia Gagnier )
"Ghosts don't exist: they are experienced. Starting from this observation, later echoed by Freud, the liminal late-nineteenth- early-twentieth-century figure Vernon Lee became the first master of the modern supernatural tale. Lee's masterpiece, Hauntings, returns to life with additional stories in a first-rate edition from Broadview Press, with valuable contextual materials provided by Catherine Maxwell and Patricia Pulham. Let the work of seduction begin." (Richard Dellamora )
"Aficionados of the fin-de-siècle and modernism have always been fascinated by the art historian, aesthetician, and fiction writer Vernon Lee, and her audience has increased dramatically in the last decade. This timely edition of Lee's supernatural stories reveals the nooks and crannies of Lee's brain as she studies those of European art, architecture, and taste. These witty stories, a veritable Italy of the mind, are more psychological than supernatural. They illustrate Lee's belief that only the absolutely modern writer can raise real spectres of the antique, only the truly sceptical can depict belief with such passion." (Regenia Gagnier )
"Ghosts don't exist: they are experienced. Starting from this observation, later echoed by Freud, the liminal late-nineteenth- early-twentieth-century figure Vernon Lee became the first master of the modern supernatural tale. Lee's masterpiece, Hauntings, returns to life with additional stories in a first-rate edition from Broadview Press, with valuable contextual materials provided by Catherine Maxwell and Patricia Pulham. Let the work of seduction begin." (Richard Dellamora )
From the Back Cover
Vernon Lee writes in the Preface to Hauntings, "My ghosts are what you call spurious ghosts... of whom I can affirm only one thing, that they haunted certain brains, and have haunted, among others, my own." First published in 1890, Lee's most famous volume of supernatural tales occupies a special place in the literature of the fantastic for its treatment of the femme fatale and the allure of the past, along with the themes of thwarted artistic creativity and psychological obsession. This collection, which includes the four stories originally published in Hauntings and three others, enables readers to consider Lee's work anew for its subtle redefinitions of gender and sexuality during the Victorian fin-de-siècle. The appendices, which include extensive excerpts from writings by Lee's predecessors and peers, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and Lee's brother Eugene Lee-Hamilton, allow the reader to see how Lee takes on the themes and preoccupations of the late-Victorian period but adapts them to her own purposes.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you Pulham and Maxwell!,
By Wildeguy "wildeguy2000" (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (1890) (Paperback)
At long last a nice affordable scholarly edition of Lee's short stories. The editors did an excellent job of keeping up with Lee's often overwhelming citational practices. "A Wedding Chest" is daunting to read with all of its Latin and Umbrian historical references. Most readers probably would not be able to decipher the rich context of Lee's exotic phrases: "magnae odor sanctitatis" anyone? This edition should help students reading Lee for the first time to grasp the historical and artistic context in which Lee wrote.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric tales of obsession,
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This review is from: Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (1890) (Paperback)
Vernon Lee was a learned young woman. At age twenty-four, she published a critical study of eighteenth-century Italy that made her name in the literary and artistic circles of 1880. The very erudition that impressed her contemporaries, however, calls for the help of editors today. Broadview, as usual, has done a great job of explaining Lee's allusions and putting her into context.At the same time, I must confess I sometimes skimmed the footnotes. Vernon Lee's tales have a quirky emotional energy that swept me along irresistibly. This edition combines a story collection called Hauntings and miscellaneous tales that showcase Lee's eccentric imagination. One of the longer stories, "Oke of Okehurst; or The Phantom Lover," is to my mind a masterpiece of the literature of obsession. I would urge readers to buy this book for "The Phantom Lover," if nothing else. The prose style is technically dazzling and the psychological complexity of the characters unbelievably rich. The narrator is an artist who's been commissioned to paint Mr. and Mrs. Oke. Alice Oke confounds him with her absent gaze and far-away smile. The atmosphere in the Oke mansion is heavy with ancestors, and in fact, the painter soon discovers that Alice Oke of 1880 is consumed by the spirit of Alice Oke of 1626, a proud and dangerous woman. This mania will lead to no good. Vernon Lee, in her introduction to Hauntings, declares her preference for ghosts from the remote past. In "Amour Dure," a young Polish historian falls under the spell of a terrifying beauty dead three hundred years. In "A Wicked Voice," it's the musical spirit of an androgynous eighteenth-century singer who unhinges the mind of the protagonist. The introduction paints an intriguing picture of Vernon Lee, who did her best to mystify future biographers. She eludes categorization - too decadent to be a true Victorian, too exotic to be a strict Modernist. Lee's luscious prose is not always easy reading. But having dived into it, I'm glad I did.
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