Ungentle Sleep [Kindle Edition]

B Lloyd (Author)

Book Description

"1930

When Aubrey Marchant's engagement to Eleanor Maydew was announced to his friends, he received mixed blessings.
'The Maydews are a bohemian lot - not many servants, even before the War.'
'Keen on brown bread and vegetables - don't expect too much in the way of creature comforts.'
'Brave chap, I am sure you'll find the country air bracing.'
'And Eleanor comes of good stock, too. Never mind the burst water pipes.'
Aubrey managed to shrug off most of these under a jocular guise. One of his closest friends however, let slip something that would come back to him later.
'I wouldn't mind the rest of it - only I believe it may be a House of Spirits. Hope you can sleep all right at nights.'
Aubrey laughed at the time. "

A crowded house party - with more guests on the way. Despite instructions to the contrary, the older part of the house is opened up . . .and something is inadvertently let out, to wreak mild havoc and insanity on the Maydews and their guests. That nasty incident involving Eleanor, followed by unpleasantness over Penny's dress, and what is it Aubrey can hear, on the outer edge of his dreams?
Hysteria, missed cocktails, and something nasty in the attic.
Snrrip, snrrip. Snip, snap.

Even the rats run away.


A tongue-in-cheek ghost tale, almost not quite long enough to qualify as a novelette, created in celebration of M.R.James's 150th anniversary.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

About the author :
 
A Bustle attached to a keyboard, occasionally to be seen floating on a canal ...
After studying Early Music followed by a brief career in concert performance, the Bustle exchanged vocal parts for less vocal arts i.e. a Diploma from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.
Her inky mess, both graphic and verbal, can be found in various regions of the Web, and appendaged to good people's works (for no visible reason that she can understand).
 
More here :
about.me/B.Lloyd
 
& here :
lloydanon.wordpress.com
 
For those who enjoy Twittery:
Do drop by @AuthorsAnon
as she enjoys a chat
(Warning: Please expect occasional bouts of nonsense).
 
 
 
 

Product Details

• File Size: 189 KB
• Print Length: 69 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Captive Press (August 8, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008VIJFLI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,631 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb August 20, 2012

By Lynn

Format:Kindle Edition

Ungentle Sleep by B. Lloyd is a classic ghost story reminiscent of M.R.James. If you thought such supernatural tales weren't written anymore then you'd be wrong. And written in such elegant language, complete with a play which might have been penned by the Bard himself. But it's all B. Lloyd. Atmospheric, deliciously drawn, and highly recommended.

2.0 out of 5 stars Left Me Wanting More, But Not in a Good Way--Unsatisfying February 4, 2013

By Drennan

Format:Kindle Edition

B. Lloyd's short novella, Ungentle Sleep is really a hybrid of the short story and the Renaissance revenge tragedy. Alternating between a 1930s ghost story, one that hearkens back to the gothic tradition, and a recreation of the Renaissance revenge tragedy, the structure of this novella is a bit tedious, although I can appreciate what Lloyd is trying to do. I really, really wanted to like this story, and yet, somehow my desire to like it outpaced my actual liking of the story. On the whole, it felt somehow unfinished to me, like the outline of what could be quite a fabulous novel if only it were filled in with more detail.

I want to start by saying that I am always a fan of a well-wrought period piece. And Lloyd provides the bones of what promises to be a nicely done period piece, although the work doesn't quite deliver on that promise. I want to be with the young people in the 1930s at their country home, bad plumbing and all. I want to be with the actors as they work through the Renaissance drama. I want to experience the terror of the haunting, of the ghost story. But every aspect of the story is sketched out, rather than fully developed, such that I never have the sense that I'm quite there. As I was reading, I felt as though I was reading the outline for a story, rather than an actual story. I was left wanting more, wanting to read the real story that I know to be lurking in Lloyd's imagination. I want to say to Lloyd, "I want more. I know you have it in you. Give it to me!"

Next, I do appreciate the ways in which Lloyd acknowledges the genres to which he is indebted. (Or is Lloyd a "she?" I rather like that I don't know Lloyd's gender.) Lloyd skillfully constructs the marginally bad Renaissance revenge tragedy, and somehow these sections of the work are more successful than the sections set in the 1930s, with the notable exception of the final section. But the characters in the 1930s even refer to Otranto, the setting of Walpole's famous Gothic novel. And there's something appealing about the ways in which Lloyd and Lloyd's characters so consciously refer back to their own literary roots.

By far, the most fascinating thing thematically about this novel lies in the ways that "hysteria" is referenced, again in keeping with the gothic tradition that Lloyd so self-consciously invokes. When Eleanor is originally frightened, nearly out of her wits, it's dismissed by the doctor as "hysteria." When her sister May experiences a similar disturbance, he offers a similar diagnosis. And somehow because their disturbance can be labeled as "hysteria," the other characters are able to cope with the situations. Most interesting to me is that Eleanor's disturbance, her hysteria is markedly more severe than May's, and it is Eleanor who is recently engaged to be married. Eleanor's intended husband, Aubrey, is certainly more affected by the haunting than any of the other males at the house. This seems like more than mere coincidence when we come to understand that the parents of these girls themselves experienced a similar haunting in the country home when they "were waiting to be wed." The haunting / hysteria, then is connected specifically to the time just before an anticipated marriage. Once the ghost is laid to a peaceful rest, Eleanor seems to be released from her influence, from her supposed hysteria, but also from Aubrey. The implication seems to be that marriage is quite possibly, at least for the female, akin to a kind of hysteria created by the presence of a ghost, one bent on revenge. This all fascinates me. Here is the foundation of something that could be so rich thematically, had Lloyd only given more.

On the whole, this is a work that suggests that Lloyd has promise as a writer. But this novella, I am sorry to say, just doesn't keep that promise. It breaks my heart a little to have to say that kind of thing. I really wanted to settle in on a bleak evening with a Gothic novel. What I got was an hour's worth reading that left me unsatisfied, only because I know that somewhere inside this author there is so much more.

NOTE: A review copy was provided by Tourz de Codex. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

More About the Author

About the author :

A Bustle attached to a keyboard, occasionally to be seen floating on a canal ...
After studying Early Music followed by a brief career in concert performance, the Bustle exchanged vocal parts for less vocal arts i.e. a Diploma from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.
Her inky mess, both graphic and verbal, can be found in various regions of the Web, and appendaged to good people's works (for no visible reason that she can understand).

More here :
http://about.me/B.Lloyd

& here :
http://lloydanon.wordpress.com

For those who enjoy Twittery:
Do drop by @AuthorsAnon as she enjoys a chat
(Warning: Please expect occasional bouts of nonsense).