[EEZ]≡ Libro Free The Bell in the Fog Other Stories Tales of Mystery the Supernatural Gertrude Atherton 9781840225402 Books

The Bell in the Fog Other Stories Tales of Mystery the Supernatural Gertrude Atherton 9781840225402 Books

Download As PDF : The Bell in the Fog Other Stories Tales of Mystery the Supernatural Gertrude Atherton 9781840225402 Books

The Bell in the Fog Other Stories Tales of Mystery the Supernatural Gertrude Atherton 9781840225402 Books

I really hope Atherton can make some kind of comeback, because her stories are among the absolute best the genre has to offer. Just so you're prepared, she's in happiest company with the likes of Robert Aickman, who has enjoyed a bit more popularity so far and will hopefully continue to do so. She writes in more of a Romantic Modern mode - startlingly modern given the publication date on these stories. Some of the stories, like Aickman's, require a little digestion before you really get the implications, but like Aickman this allows her to pull off something far more moving, intense, meaningful, than just rattling off some cute little ghost story that yells boo at the end. These stories are NOT gothic, nor are they written in ponderous, flowery prose, so people who come to dark fiction for that are going to be annoyed. Instead of exposing the undying evil of the past, like most horror, Atherton writes about the things we left in the past that we shouldn't have, which gives them a warmer, more optimistic feeling, with sadness and terror replacing the more common glowering awfulness.
The running theme through these stories is a warm sadness for the older modes of human living and experience that modern society has no place for and is generally oblivious to - prominent examples being deep sexual/romantic relationships between what modern society would call "heterosexual" men, psychic abilities like astral projection, an innate awareness that we've incarnated for a reason and have a purpose to fulfill, and communion with the dead. In other words, things the ancestors of Europeans had a place for in their ancient societies that give the individual a sense of direction and meaning, but which the modern world just ignores or throws away because it doesn't have time for individual living experiences anymore.

The highlights of this collection are The Bell in the Fog, The Striding Place, and Death and the Countess. Hopefully someone will bring Atherton's other supernaturally-tinged collection The Foghorn back into print.


Tags : The Bell in the Fog & Other Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) [Gertrude Atherton] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Gertrude Atherton was born in San Francisco in 1857, and died in 1948. She eloped at the age of nineteen,Gertrude Atherton,The Bell in the Fog & Other Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural),Wordsworth Editions Ltd,1840225408,Literature & Fiction,Classics,Fiction Classics,Horror & ghost stories,Literature - Classics Criticism

The Bell in the Fog Other Stories Tales of Mystery the Supernatural Gertrude Atherton 9781840225402 Books Reviews

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...
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.
Great book and very informative.
Book is written well with ability to keep the reader interested in the many topics.
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.
very good stories, the bell in the fog is really good. the other stories are worth reading. it has just the right amount of stories so you don't get bored with the book. price is great also
This is a little short story collection that kept my interest, namely for the psychological aspect, a la Henry James. My favorite is "The Dead and the Countess." The characters in these stories are believable and well-developed, and the writing style is a pleasure to read.
I really hope Atherton can make some kind of comeback, because her stories are among the absolute best the genre has to offer. Just so you're prepared, she's in happiest company with the likes of Robert Aickman, who has enjoyed a bit more popularity so far and will hopefully continue to do so. She writes in more of a Romantic Modern mode - startlingly modern given the publication date on these stories. Some of the stories, like Aickman's, require a little digestion before you really get the implications, but like Aickman this allows her to pull off something far more moving, intense, meaningful, than just rattling off some cute little ghost story that yells boo at the end. These stories are NOT gothic, nor are they written in ponderous, flowery prose, so people who come to dark fiction for that are going to be annoyed. Instead of exposing the undying evil of the past, like most horror, Atherton writes about the things we left in the past that we shouldn't have, which gives them a warmer, more optimistic feeling, with sadness and terror replacing the more common glowering awfulness.
The running theme through these stories is a warm sadness for the older modes of human living and experience that modern society has no place for and is generally oblivious to - prominent examples being deep sexual/romantic relationships between what modern society would call "heterosexual" men, psychic abilities like astral projection, an innate awareness that we've incarnated for a reason and have a purpose to fulfill, and communion with the dead. In other words, things the ancestors of Europeans had a place for in their ancient societies that give the individual a sense of direction and meaning, but which the modern world just ignores or throws away because it doesn't have time for individual living experiences anymore.

The highlights of this collection are The Bell in the Fog, The Striding Place, and Death and the Countess. Hopefully someone will bring Atherton's other supernaturally-tinged collection The Foghorn back into print.