Classic Ghost Stories

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A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest by Amelia B Edwards Jul 01, 2022

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Amelia B EdwardsBorn in 1831 in London and died in 1892 aged 60 in Weston Supermare at the seaside near Bristol. She was a novelist, traveller and enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist. Her mother was Irish and her father had been an officer in the British Army and then became a banker. She was married, but her emotional attachments were with women and she lived with and was apparently in love with Ellen Braysher, widow, and Ellen Byrne a school inspector’s wife.A Night on The Borders of the Black Forest was recommended by Nadia Astorga in May 2022This is the third story by Amelia B we’ve done, the other’s being The Phantom Coach and Salome. This is the first of hers that is less a ghost story (if fact not a ghost story at all) and more an adventure. The collection of stories is also entitled A Night On The Borders of the Black Forests and was published in 1890.For comparison Le Fanu’s Carmilla set in Styria in Austria was published in 1872 and Stoker’s Dracula was published in 1897. Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Grey Woman was published in 1861. It reminded me most of The Grey Woman because it is set in the border area of France and Germany at about the same period and there are brigands in the woods in both.It’s a definite nod to the Gothic but also a right rollicking adventure story and so reminds of The Grey Woman but also the Scottish set A Journey of Little Profit by John Buchan from 1896, because it is also a tale of wanderings on foot and George Borrow’s Wild Wales was published in 1862, which deals with supposedly true wanderings in the Wild.Mary Braddon’s The Cold Embrace and Hoffman’s The Sandman also have people tramping all over Germany and venturing into France and the Netherlands. It must have been busy on the roads. Wordsworth had an edition of the Prelude out in 1850. This thrilling love for mountainous wild places titillated the middle class urban readers on a trivial level while Wordsworth was aiming for the spiritual, but each to their own indeed.The story structure: Neat. Enjoying the milieu as much as anything. The tramping over the countryside. On his own, meets up with Gustav, on to the village, the coach trip, wandering at night, the inn, suspicions mount. The innkeeper won’t drink the wine. It tastes bad. It smells funny as does the coffee.Burned! Why not set the dogs on them? Why not just poison them dead rather than drug them with a soporific? I think that’s a plot hole. And if they don’t sell the stuff they steal (it’s in the granary) what’s the point of murdering strangers? But a good read and nicely written, easy to narrate. A sprinkling of German terms for colour. Gustav shows too much interest in the slow-witted peasant girl Annchen for my liking. After all, he’s got a madchen at home. She won’t drink the wine either. The beer seems fine though. The landlord checks how much Gustav as drunk. If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou could buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)Support the show

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The Catacomb by Peter Shilston Jun 24, 2022

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The Catacomb by Peter Shilston was recommended by one of my Patreons but it was hard to get hold of. It was published in the early 1980s in a fanzine for lovers of M R James's stories who wrote stories in a similar vein. This home-produced magazine was called More Ghosts and Scholars and is very hard to get hold of. Then it was reprinted in Best of Ghosts and Scholars and Best Horror Volume 9 edited by Karl Wagner. These are collectors items and expensive so I despaired of getting hold of the story but wanted to because it was so highly recommended. Eventually I bit the bullet and shelled out (see what I did there?) for More Ghosts & Scholars on Ebay. It arrived. I read it. I hope you like it. It is followed by my thoughts about the story which in now typical fashion degenerates into random related thoughts.I hope you enjoy my rendition. You could consider supporting my efforts by buying me a coffee one off or signing up as a Patreon. This latter includes members only readings and early access to regular podcast episodes.If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou can become a Patreon of the show for exclusive members’ only stories:https://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And if you want to thank me (think of a busker’s hat) then you can get me a coffee via http://www.ko-fi.com/tonywalker (www.ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Join my mailing list and get a download: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback (https://bit.ly/somecomeback)————————Support the show

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The Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce Jun 17, 2022

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The Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce is a ghost story set in the late 19th Century in the American south-west. A tightly crafted tale with at least three twists, even though it's short.Thanks to 23Split23 for recommending it, and Dewayne Hayes for recommending Bierce in general. Amazed it's only the second Bierce story I've done. Well worth it though.If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou could buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)Support the show

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Mean Mr Mullins by Cathu Sahu Jun 10, 2022

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Mean Mr Mullins by Cathu Sahu is an original story by a living author: Cathy Sahu. A tale of a nasty man set in small-town America (at least I think it's small town, maybe suburban). For the post-story discussion, I read out notes sent in by Cathu and ramble a bit on the general themes.Cathy Sahu's book Ghosts & Other Unpleasantries can be found https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghosts-Other-Unpleasantries-C-S-Sahu/dp/0997578505/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?crid=1AVFQU3Z2PLKC&keywords=cathy+sahu+ghosts&qid=1653129438&sprefix=cathy+sahu+ghosts%2Caps%2C81&sr=8-2-fkmr0 (here)This is Amazon UK link, but you should be able to hop to Amazon USA and all the other Amazons from it.If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou could buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)Support the show

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The Secret of the Vault by J Wesley Rosenquest Jun 03, 2022

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The Secret Of The Vault by J Wesley RosenquestRecommended by Mary Ware in August 2021. Published in Weird Tales, May 1938J WESLEY ROSENQUEST or Rosenquest was an American Sci-fi writer. That's all we know about him. Unless you have a lead?If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou could buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)Support the show

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The Call of Cthulhu by H P Lovecraft May 27, 2022

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The Call of Cthulhu by H P Lovecraft was commissioned by Gavin Critchley for me to read for all of you. Thanks to Gavin!The foundation story of Cosmic Horror and the Cthulhu Mythos. Get a cup of tea, sit comfortably and be prepared to go insane at the revelation of monstrous fate that awaits us all. ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou can become a Patreon of the show for exclusive members’ only stories:https://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And if you want to thank me (think of a busker’s hat) then you can get me a coffee via http://www.ko-fi.com/tonywalker (www.ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Join my mailing list and get a download: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback (https://bit.ly/somecomeback)Support the show

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They Bite by Anthony Boucher May 20, 2022

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Anthony BoucherAnthony Boucher known as was the pen name of William Anthony Parker White and he was known at Tony. He was born in 1911 in Oakland California and died aged only 56 in Oakland of lung cancer. I guess he liked it there. He graduated from Pasadena High in 1928 and went to the University of Southern California and did his masters at University of California, Berkely. Boucher is to rhyme with Voucher rather than the French bouche. Boucher was close to his grandfather who had been a steel worker in Glasgow and got free passage to America after signing up to fight in the Civil War. He couldn’t have afforded the passage otherwise. It’s said that the grandfather who made a big impression on Boucher was a rake and a rogue. He was a sickly child with asthma and other illnesses and this made him a voracious reader and later writer. Boucher was a professional writer of fiction who wrote mystery novels, short stories, science fiction and radio dramas. His story Nine Times Nine was voted the best locked room master of all time. He edited anthologies of science fiction and was a translator from Spanish, being the first to translate Jorge Luis Borges (I must do one of his stories). Boucher founded the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and edited it from 1949 to 1958. He was a friend and mentor of Philip K. Dick. In addition to other things he was a keen poker player, a sports fan and a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. He collected records of early operatic singers. Apparently he was a friend of the occultist Jack Parsons who also lived in PasadenaHis first story was published in 1927 in Weird Tales when he was 15. It was entitled “Ye Good Olde Ghost Storie”. They BiteThis story was suggested by many many people. I watched a couple of videos on how to do Western accents, but I think I have not succeeded very well and hope that doesn’t detract from the story.This is a classic folk horror story albeit set in the American West, though it references Sweeny Bean a Gaelic cannibal from Galloway. Boucher’s grandfather was from Scotland. The story is similar to Samantha Hick’s story: Back Along The Old Track, though I don’t think Sam’s story was consciously modelled on this. The similarity is in the trope. Also similar is Lovecraft’s Dreams In The Witch House. It isn’t clear to me why Tallant is climbing the rocks all day or has come here at all. He makes notes of what he sees of the glider training school. Perhaps he is going to sell what he sees to the highest bidder – some sort of freelance spy.Some of the characters I don’t get. The old man who warns Tallant and whose dog is killed by the Carker. The young man with the beard who is a stranger, the Flight Sergeant on the pinball machine and the construction worker being fleeced at poker. I don’t get those, apart from Boucher’s real life love of poker. He only needs one Warner and the bartender really. He is planning blackmail but I don’t get how the Carker story will help that. I wasn’t surprised when he killed Morgan. I think the dream of him being a superman king narcissist type let me know he was not a bloody good bloke. But it is Morgan’s murder that leads to Tallant’s doom. It is his fiendish plan to attribute Morgan’s death the the Carkers that leads him inside their tumble down adobe. It has an unreliable narrator. Remember Boucher was a mystery writer and the unreliable narrator became a staple after Agatha Christie. There is no hint that Tallant is a blackmailer. In a sense he is like the Crakers who have come to Oasis opportunistically in search of prey — as has Morgan, a fellow blackmailer. There is a hint to Tallant’s shady pastSupport the show

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The Crown Derby Plate by Marjorie Bowen May 13, 2022

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The Crown Derby Plate by Marjorie Bowen is a classic ghost story and much requested. It has a ghost, a remote haunted house, windswept Essex marshes, a set of china and a naive and rather pushy heroine. A fun story that I enjoyed reading out.If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereA good was is to to spread the word about the podcast!You could buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)Support the show

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How Fear Departed The Long Gallery by E F Benson May 06, 2022

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E F BensonEdward Frederic Benson was born in 1867 at Wellington College, where his father was headmaster, in Berkshire just outside London and died at University College London at the age of 72. His father went on to be Bishop of Truro, and Cornwall features in both his and his brothers’ stories, and then Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest ranking of the Anglican Church. He was the fifth child. His illustrious brother A C Benson wrote the words to Land of Hope and Glory, a patriotic English song and some fine ghost stories, although probably not as good as EF’s. His other brother also wrote ghost stories but he was a committed Catholic and RH Benson’s stories often contain religious lessons rather than being merely fun.His sister Margaret was an amateur Egyptologist and author. Two other siblings died young.E F Benson was educated at Marlborough College and then went to King’s College Cambridge. His first book was Sketches from Marlborough and he was most famous in his lifetime for the Mapp and Lucia comic novel series. Arguably however his ghost stories are his greatest legacy. Some of these including this one How Fear Departed The Long Gallery have comic elements, particularly the kind of humour that observes and gently satirises the social class he moved in — otherwise known as the idle rich. A status I aspire to myself, and with your help will one day reach.How Fear Departed The Long GalleryThe story starts with a rather comic picture of a genteel English county family who live in a long occupied ancestral house full of quirky ghosts. Then after the comedy we are told about the scary ghosts: the murdered children, murdered quite horribly by Dirty Dick. It was one of those murders like Richard III, motivated by a desire to wipe out the line and inheritI think the scariness of children is if I may say like that of a doll. It’s the uncanny valley. They are both like and unlike adults. They look like us, but we cannot be sure they think like us or what they will do. Who is hiding behind the eyes of the child. Anne Rice does this with her child vampire Claudia and there was a child vampire in Skyrim too. Just saying.The servant who first sees the toddlers dies. Then Miss Canning, the great beauty and friend of Voltaire mocks th twins and gets a horrible lichen disease. E F wrote a few horror stories that feature diseases, notably Caterpillars. Colonel Blantyre shot at the poor ghosts. Miss Canning told them to get back into the fire. When Madge wakes in the Long gallery after dark and gets lost in the furniture and disorientated that’s like the Blind. Man’s Buff story we did. Lighten Our Darkness indeed, and figuratively by mercy. So it’s a story about redemptionIf You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereIf You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In HereYou could buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)Support the show

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The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long Apr 29, 2022

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The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap LongFrank Belknap Long was born in 1901 in Harlem, New York (not the Netherlands) and died in 1992 aged 92 in Manhattan.He was a horror and science fiction writer and is most famous for his contribution to the stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.The Cthulhu Mythos begins with H P Lovecraft, but many other authors have contributed towards the corpus of stories that the faithful call ‘The Canon’. It was his 1921 story The Eye Above The Mantel that caught Lovecraft’s eye. That story was a pastiche of Edgar Allan Poe and I have elsewhere commented on that histrionic overblown prose that contains many screaming crazy dudes and occult blasphemous horrors which is found first and best in Poe, then Lovecraft and here in this lovely story.Frank and Howard maintained a long correspondence. Lovecraft was famous for his lengthy and multiple pen friendships as he sat shut up and nervous in his room. He became a mentor to Frank. Frank contributed to the pulp magazinesThe Hounds of TindalosChalmers. Prefers illuminated manuscripts to adding machines and leering stone gargoyles to automobiles. Who doesn’t? He has a long nose and slightly receding chin. His bookcase has medieval pamphlets about sorcery, witchcraft and black magic (surely triple tautology) but again, what’s not normal in any of this? Although I think that Frank is setting it up for the norms so they get the idea that Chalmers is a bit weird. He has the same name as the Australian Philosopher David Chalmers who famously came up with the term ‘the hard problem’ to describe how in a materialist way of thinking, matter can give rise to subjective experience. It’s as hard a problem as how cows make lollipops. We simply can’t figure either of them out.So, Frank is using ‘modern science’ in the guise of Einstein to undermine the self-confident materialists, particularly regarding time. He throws this is in like spice. He lets us know that Einstein is relative: we each have our own versions. Our interlocutor is our avatar. Think how hard it would be to write a story with one character? You need two to bring out the exposition. Anyway, on we go, getting more and more theatrical with each sentence. But this idea about curves and angles seems original and it is quite weird. Like Lovecraft’s Colour Out of Space, an abstract idea like a colour or an angle can be jarringly weird. Weird is all about juxtapositions that should not be, and taking things out of context because they are juxtaposed with other, odd contents.It sort of reminded me of H G Wells’ The Time Machine particularly the 1950s film version. The Hounds of Tindalos was the first Cthulhu story written by anyone else than Lovecraft and we have references to Dholes and the Elder Races. Other than that, there is no clear connection, unless a Mythos buff can correct me. The Hounds of Tindalos are not actual dogs in this story. Other Mythos writers like Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Brian Lumley and Peter Cannon reference the Hounds. The the name Tindalos sounds Greek and there are references ‘The Greeks had a name for them, ‘ I don’t think Tindalos means anything.The name Halpin is one I have only come across before in the work of Ambrose Bierce The Death of Halpin Frayser . Perhaps it is a common name in America, but I’ve heard in speech here. 20lb of plaster of Paris seems a lot. Despite the plaster of Paris smoothing out the corners of the room (I should have liked to have seen that), the Hounds find a way in by causing an earthquake which causes the plaster to fall and thus angles are created…A hopeless maniac. I could tell you about those. With the lSupport the show

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