Once again, my ambition outreaches realistic limits. The second installment of Christmas, A Ghostly Time of Year will not make its appearance until after Christmas. All three kids have been released from school for the holidays, and Lois is home due to her company’s recently adopted policy of mandatory holiday vacation. Thus I forgot to factor in having to battle for computer usage time, having to fend off the constant barrage of interruptions and questions from the little ones (three kids badgering you with holiday related requests are not conducive to serious scholarly research – I love you boys!) as well as my required (and enthusiastic!) participation in Lois’ extensive reconstruction of the living room to enable maximum holiday socializing - I love you, honey! Let the sound of the miniature violins swell as we come to the end of pathetic excuse making. Besides there are twelve days of Christmas, right?
To keep my readers from rioting in the streets over this revoltin’ development, I’m offering ten ghostly pleasures to enjoy if you're overcome with the urge to participate in this most august of Christmas Eve traditions. The first list is geared towards the novice reader, or towards those who maintain a staunch love for the classic tale. The second list has been provided for those more well-read in the genre, offering several delightful examples of the ghost story’s adaptability beyond the confines of gaslights, decrepit mansions and antiquarian interests. Due to my own self-imposed limits, I had to leave out renowned and worthy authors such as E. F. Benson, Oliver Onions, Edith Wharton, Henry James and a host of others from the classic era, and Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Glen Hirshberg and many others from the post-WWII era. In addition I left out a few of my favorite classic stories, including The Upper Birth by F. Marion Crawford and How Love Came to Professor Gildea by Robert Hitchins. The work of J. S. Le Fanu and M. R. James deserves lists of their own. It grieved me to limit myself to one tale from each.
Feel free to e-mail me with your own suggestions or post them on the comments page. We here at the Journal are always on the lookout for a good ghost story.
5 classic ghost stories to curl up with on a cold winter’s night:
1. Green Tea by J. S. Le Fanu
2. The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs
3. The Ash Tree by M. R. James
4. The Damned by Algernon Blackwood
5. The Red Lodge by H. R. Wakefield
5 Twentieth Century Ghosts:
1. Smoke Ghost by Fritz Leiber
2. House Taken Over by Julio Cortázar
3. The Inner Room by Robert Aickman
4. Out of Copyright by Ramsey Campbell
5. The Specialist’s Hat by Kelly Link
Monday, December 24, 2007
Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve
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2 comments:
Good to see the modern list containing two of my favorite stories both by not-so-usual suspects Cortazar and Link. I can never pick one Campbell; might as well throw a bunch of titles in a hat and grab one out for me. Aickman's "The Hospice" has always haunted me because it is so damn enigmatic. "The Monkey's Paw" is one of the stories that, along with Frank Belknap Long's "Second Night Out," traumatized me as a child (I mean that in the best way possible). I recently reread the Long and it was every bit as horrifying as I remembered it being.
thanks for the list, I am always up for new stories....some of these I believe I have in anthologies, and may have even read, but others I will have to look for. The last online recommendation I followed turned out to be pretty gruesome (H. Kuttner's "The Graveyard Rats")though I really enjoyed it...BUT I warn anyone who is claustrophobic to read at their own risk...)
I really enjoyed "How Love came to Prof Guildea", by the way. I think you are the only person I have ever come across who has even mentioned it up there with the top stories.
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