- Joined
- Jan 22, 2008
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- 7,996
This isn't going to be a full read-though or particularly detailed: I'll just read a few of them and post my vague, random thoughts. I've not read most of these for at least 10 years.
Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
The gold standard, definitely one of the best.
The story isn't neatly explained at the end, as so many ghost stories are. We can piece together an explanation before Denistoun returns to his room and sees the monster. The explaining of the occult can really take the wind out of its sails (or animated bed-sheet).
The evil/forbidden book motif is well-used. The description of the picture of Solomon is great. ("It was drawn from life" reminds me strongly of Lovecraft.)
The story doesn't feel like a straight "villain gets punished" story like, say, "Lost Hearts". We don't know who Alberic asked his questions to, or what that involved, but his persecution by the creature - and the ruining of the sacristan's life - seem very harsh indeed. Maybe Alberic somehow allowed it to escape into our world, although it seems to have been after him ever since. The reassurance that the good will be spared isn't there, which makes it much more horrifying.
The Mezzotint
A pretty good story that never quite realises its very strong potential. The idea of a picture that bears witness to a supernatural murder story is very powerful, especially since the murder is carried out by (probably) some kind of undead monster. The characters are somewhat passive and slightly interchangeable (the recent BBC adaptation deals with this problem well). The ending, which gives an explanation, somehow weakens the horror for me. I like the fact that it's never explained why the picture activates when it does.
The Haunted Dolls' House
A weaker variant on "The Mezzotint", more-or-less admitted by James in a footnote. It suffers from the magical element being too obvious (the hero sees the dolls moving as if watching a TV), although the sudden appearance of a sort-of frog in the dolls' house is quite unnerving. Not one of the best.
There Was a Man Dwelt By a Churchyard
An odd story, apparently of the sort that would have been told by Mamillius, a child in The Winter's Tale, if he'd had the chance. It's simpler and sillier than a lot of James' stories and feels like an older version of a campfire story like "The Hook". There is a ghost, but it hardly feels as if James is trying to scare the reader. Strange, and rather peripheral.
Lost Hearts
This story has a slightly different feel, as the "hero" character is a small boy, and the only scholarly character is a villain. It's surprisingly grisly when you think about it, and there is actually (for James) a reasonable amount of gore depicted. There's a fair bit of exposition at the end. James has a habit of writing the dialogue of working-class characters phonetically (both Dickens and Orwell also did this, so I doubt it demonstrates contempt), which makes them slightly awkward to read. I wonder whether he put on voices when he read the stories out. It's not bad, but not top-tier.
Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
The gold standard, definitely one of the best.
The story isn't neatly explained at the end, as so many ghost stories are. We can piece together an explanation before Denistoun returns to his room and sees the monster. The explaining of the occult can really take the wind out of its sails (or animated bed-sheet).
The evil/forbidden book motif is well-used. The description of the picture of Solomon is great. ("It was drawn from life" reminds me strongly of Lovecraft.)
The story doesn't feel like a straight "villain gets punished" story like, say, "Lost Hearts". We don't know who Alberic asked his questions to, or what that involved, but his persecution by the creature - and the ruining of the sacristan's life - seem very harsh indeed. Maybe Alberic somehow allowed it to escape into our world, although it seems to have been after him ever since. The reassurance that the good will be spared isn't there, which makes it much more horrifying.
The Mezzotint
A pretty good story that never quite realises its very strong potential. The idea of a picture that bears witness to a supernatural murder story is very powerful, especially since the murder is carried out by (probably) some kind of undead monster. The characters are somewhat passive and slightly interchangeable (the recent BBC adaptation deals with this problem well). The ending, which gives an explanation, somehow weakens the horror for me. I like the fact that it's never explained why the picture activates when it does.
The Haunted Dolls' House
A weaker variant on "The Mezzotint", more-or-less admitted by James in a footnote. It suffers from the magical element being too obvious (the hero sees the dolls moving as if watching a TV), although the sudden appearance of a sort-of frog in the dolls' house is quite unnerving. Not one of the best.
There Was a Man Dwelt By a Churchyard
An odd story, apparently of the sort that would have been told by Mamillius, a child in The Winter's Tale, if he'd had the chance. It's simpler and sillier than a lot of James' stories and feels like an older version of a campfire story like "The Hook". There is a ghost, but it hardly feels as if James is trying to scare the reader. Strange, and rather peripheral.
Lost Hearts
This story has a slightly different feel, as the "hero" character is a small boy, and the only scholarly character is a villain. It's surprisingly grisly when you think about it, and there is actually (for James) a reasonable amount of gore depicted. There's a fair bit of exposition at the end. James has a habit of writing the dialogue of working-class characters phonetically (both Dickens and Orwell also did this, so I doubt it demonstrates contempt), which makes them slightly awkward to read. I wonder whether he put on voices when he read the stories out. It's not bad, but not top-tier.