Gertrude Atherton was born in San Francisco in 1857, and died in 1948. She eloped at the age of nineteen, took up writing against her husband's wishes, and after his death became a protegee of Ambrose Bierce, whose influence can be seen here in those stories, The Dead and the Countess, Death and the Woman and The Striding Place, which have an overtly supernatural element. The Striding Place was rejected by one editor as 'far too gruesome', but was in Atherton's view 'the best short story I ever wrote'. Elsewhere, The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number, The Tragedy of a Snob, and A Monarch of a Small Survey the psychological takes precedence over the supernatural. And in The Bell in the Fog (reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw, and dedicated to Henry James) the supernatural and psychological combine to brilliant effect: an angelic child bears a striking resemblance to an old portrait. Is she a reincarnation of her ancestor? And will she turn out as unangelic in adulthood as that distant ancestor turned out before her?
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good,Not Great, Ghost Story Collection,
By Stephen Hancock "Scholar born 300 years late." (Snellville, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Bell in the Fog & Other Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) (Paperback)
I wouldn't have bothered to review this particular book of ghost stories, but I thought that the previous review-more the star rating than the review itself- left a unfair impression. It's true that Atherton was no M.R James or J.S Le Fanu, but how many are? I think this collection is a perfectly fine example of the second tier of late Victorian ghost story collections. After you've read the masters of the genre, if you, like me, love these old stories, you'll want to take a look at some of the works of the lesser lights of the period, which thankfully have suddenly been reprinted en mass by Wordsworth Books in the U.K. It's been a long time since a publisher has bothered to take a bunch of these wonderful old collections and even a few novels (like Le Fanu's "House By the Churchyard") and reprinted them in very inexpensive editions. Up until now, many of these were only available (IF available at all) in very expensive sets by small press publishers, or in the original collections which fetch high prices on the auction and second hand book sites.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not for one sitting,
By
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This review is from: The Bell in the Fog & Other Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) (Paperback)
These are fine, well-constructed stories. And uniformly grim. Not grim in a gruesome sense (in "The Striding Place", Atherton does indulge in the lurid, but it's tame by today's standards), since most of these are neither supernatural or mystery stories but psychological studies that explore, with a heavy dose of irony, life as tragedy. Well worth reading, just not straight through.
8 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Uninspiring...,
By Tebes "Buchlieber" (Niagara Region, ON) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bell in the Fog & Other Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) (Paperback)
I couldn't get through this collection. The stories I read were well-written but not memorable. There are so many great books to read by more competent writers of "mystery" and the "supernatural" - Poe, M.R.James, Borges, Doyle, Lovecraft, Chesterton, Collins. When you have nothing better to read, when you have explored other avenues and read everything else you have ever wanted to read in your lifetime and just need something to pass the time, then I might recommend it. Otherwise, well, read Poe, M.R. James, Lovecraft, etc...
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The great author had realised one of the dreams of his ambitious youth, the possession of an ancestral hall in England. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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Miss Webster, Miss Williams, New York, San Francisco, Delfina Carillo, Santa Ursula, Webster Hall, Lady Carnath, Rancho de los Olivos, United States, Doña Martina, Del Monico, Padre Ortega, John Talbot, Fifth Avenue, Blanche Mortlake, Miss Leslie, Schuyler Churchill Webb, Casa Ortega, Webster Lake, Elinor Holt Browse Sample Pages:
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The great author had realised one of the dreams of his ambitious youth, the possession of an ancestral hall in England. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unwritten play, grande pêche Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Webster, Miss Williams, New York, San Francisco, Delfina Carillo, Santa Ursula, Webster Hall, Lady Carnath, Rancho de los Olivos, United States, Doña Martina, Del Monico, Padre Ortega, John Talbot, Fifth Avenue, Blanche Mortlake, Miss Leslie, Schuyler Churchill Webb, Casa Ortega, Webster Lake, Elinor Holt Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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