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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The pestilence that walketh in darkness",
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 Third Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories: 3rd (Paperback)
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, 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.
Robert Aickman selected ten supernatural tales, including his own "The Visiting Star" for this third book in the series. This editor could never be accused of selecting shabbily-written tales for his book, but he tends toward 'atmospheric' rather than 'frightening' ghost stories. A perfect example of what I mean is "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions--probably one of the most famous supernatural tales in this difficult genre, but the climax builds slowly through seventy-three languorous pages. I've read it several times over a period of years, and my main reaction is still an urge to grab the leading character by the shoulders and give him a good shaking. These are the stories in the 3rd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories: "Negotium Perambulans" by E. F. Benson--This author is one of my favorite supernatural writers, and was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury so he comes by his ghosts and his religion naturally. A young boy is sent to West Cornwall to live with his uncle, the vicar of the small, isolated fishing village of Polearn. His uncle's hellfire sermons and a sinister, carved panel on the altar-rail are the only shadows on the boy's otherwise bucolic existence. "The End of the Flight" by W. Somerset Maugham--A young man puts in to a small village on the north coast of Borneo and is invited to stay at the residence of the District Officer. He is pleased with his accommodations until his host tells him the tale of his previous guest. "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions--A middle-aged writer named Oleron searches for a cheaper place to live and is attracted to an old, boarded up house amidst the tenements and alleys of London. His friend, Miss Bengough takes an unreasonable dislike to his new lodgings. Oleron should have trusted her intuition. "The Dream" by A. J. Alan--The narrator has a recurrent dream about a beautiful woman in black who beckons him to sit down beside her. "The Stranger" by Hugh MacDiarmid--Is the stranger who buys drinks round the pub actually human? One of the regulars screws up his courage and pops the question. "The Case of Mr. Lucraft" by Sir Walter Besant and James Rice--A rich old man offers to buy the appetite of an out-of-work and thoroughly hungry actor. "The Seventh Man" by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch--Shipwrecked sailors are forced to spend the winter high above the Arctic Circle. They build themselves a one-roomed hut and try to last out the long Northern night. Then Something starts to rattle the latch on their door and leaves bloody, human footprints outside the hut. "No Ships Pass" by Lady Eleanor Smith--Yet another shipwrecked sailor manages to pull himself onto the beach of a beautiful tropical island. There he finds survivors from previous maritime disasters, some of them hundreds of years old. "The Man Who Came Back" by William Gerhardt--An old man hopes that heaven "contains...an infinity of libraries, so that [he] may read, read, read into eternity..." Does his wish come true? "The Visiting Star" by Robert Aickman--A young man who is temporarily staying in a bleak mining town discovers that his hotel is inhabited by some very strange guests when the local theatre's manager decides to resurrect an old play.
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