Tag Archives: ghost stories

12 DoCGS Day 7: “The Death Mask” by Henrietta D. Everett

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This is another chiller. It’s not set at Christmas, but it is the kind of story that might be related around a fire. It’s author wrote at a time when genre conventions weren’t as well established (rigid) as they are today. Supernatural elements mixed with mundane settings. the thing that mattered wasn’t so much the genre, but the quality fo the story.

Henrietta D;. Everett

Heniretta D. Everett (1851-1923), sometimes bylined as H. D. Everett, wrote twenty-two novels. According to what little I coudl discover about her, about half of them had fantasy or proto-science fictional elements.

“Wth Death Mask” is her best known ghost story and was the title of her collection of stories published in 1920. This story was praised by H. P. Lovecraft. I didn’t read it. I listened to it on audio in The Literature of Lovecraft Vol. 1 produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It is the usual high quality production the HPLHS does. M. R. James also  had a high opinion of this story. Continue reading →

12 D0CGS Day 6: “The Third Shadow” by H. Russell Wakefield

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Brief Update: I’m still going to review 12 ghost stories, but I don’t think I’ll finish within the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas. I may include storeis that aren’t Christmas specific. I’m not sure if the tradition if telling ghost stories at Christmas means that the stories themselves must be set at christmas.

Today’s story is by one of the master of the traditional ghost story, H. Russell Wakefield.

I read it in Sunless Solstice, another of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series.

I can’t recommend this series enough. I’ve got a handful of volumes in print and more in electronic format. They’re chock full of all kinds of good stuff.

But I digress.

Wakefield’s stories, at least the ones I’ve read, don’t deal with freindly ghosts. Wakefield’s ghost are not nice, and you hope you never meet one. In the case of “The Third Shadow”, we have a vengeful ghost. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day 5: “Thw Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance” by M. R. James

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Merry Christmas!

It’s almost over as I write this, but I hope the day has been and continues to be a merry one for all of you. And that you’re enjoying some winter weather to set the tone. We’re running t he air conditioner here in Texas.

Today I’ve chosen to look at a ghost story by one of the practitioners whose work is associated with Christmas and keeping the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas alive into the Twentieth Century.

That would be Montague Rhodes James.

M. R. James routinely wrote a ghost story for his friends at Christmas, but there was only one that was acdtuallyt set at Christmas.

That story is “The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance”, which was first published in 1913.

It’s available in a number of volumes. I read it in Supernatural Horror Vol. VII edited by Will Oliver.There will be spoilers in this post. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day 4: “The Spectre Horseman; or, Haunted Wye-Coller Hall” by James Skip Borlase

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James Skip Borlae is perobablay not a name familiar to many of you. I recall under what circumstances I bought The Shrieking Skull and Other Victorian Chritmas Ghost Stories. I bought a year ago, or maybe two. I didn’t get a chance to read any of the stories before Christmas in whatevder year I bought it.

So I decided to read on this year for Twelve Days of Christmas Ghost Stories. I read two stories that didn’t have a ghost in them, although they were set on Christams Eve and were horror stories without supernatural elements.

Then I read “The Specter Horseman”. (I haven’t read the title story yet. Maybe I should  ahve started with that one.)

I enjoyed the story, but I was disappointed int he ghost element.

Set during the English Civil War, it’st he story of an elderly minor nobler who is a Royalist. He falls for a beautiful young girl and convinces her poverty-stricken father to let him marry her. Or as the story puts it, sell her to him. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day 3: “A Strange Christmas Game” by Mrs. J. H. (Charlotte) Riddell

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Followoing the theme of the previous post, this story concerns a game on Christmas Eve. Unlike the game  in “Smee”, the ghost isn’t a participant. Rather the ghost is the result of the game.

In this story, a young artist and his sister, through a legal issue, inherit a manor that had been owned by a relative of theirs. This relative had disappeared on Christmas Eve after playing cards with a friend.

They are told by the caretaker that the place is haunted. They scoff, but not for long. Noises disturb them every night.

They decide to spend a month in Europe to get away from teh noise. they have never had the means to travel before, and now they do. This is in August.

While in Europe, they make firends with an English family and discover the family lives near their manor. They decide to extend their tripa nd travel with this family. The plan is to spend Christmas in Rome  together. The artist is starting to pursue the daughter of the family. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day1: “Someone in the Lift” by L. P. Hartley

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L. P. Hartley was a British writer of ghost stories as well as mainstream novels during the middle of the previous century. “Someone in the Lift” isn’t jsut a ghost story, it’s a very effective horror story.

It takes place at Christmas in a hotel. The Maldons, father, mother, and son Peter are staying at the hotel due to an unexplaiined domestic crisis. Young Peter sees someone in the lift when it comes down to the ground floor. The lift in this case is an old-fashioned elevator with two glass paneled doors, it should be noted.

The strange thing about this figure is that only Peter can see it, and only when he is with his morther, never when he is with his father. Continue reading →

The Twelve Days of Christmas Ghost Stories: Introduction

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I’m going to try something this year.  One of the Christmas traditions in England is telling ghost stories. The best known example of this is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. That’s not the only example. The practice was most popular during the Victorian era. It declined after World War II. I first heard of ghost stories at Christmas in the song The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. 

I’m gong to combine this tradition with the Twelve Days of Chritmas.

Sort of.

The Twelve Days of Christmas start on December 25 and run until Jnauary 5. The ghost story tradition (as leas4t as I understand it) leads up to December 25.

What I’m going to do is look at twelve ghost stories set at Christmas, but I’m going to start now and run through the end of the year. They won’t be every day, of course. I’ll try to stay away from the ones that are the msot well-known and choose some that readers might not be as familiar with. I night even throw in one of my own. If the spirit moves, of course.

(I have not forgottten The Starmen of Llyrdis by Leigh Brackett. I finished grading exams today. I’ll tabulated and upload them tomorrow, then get back to the book.)

F. Marion Crawford and “The Upper Berth”

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August 2, today as I’m writing this, is the birthday of F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909).

Crawford wrote a number of stories about the supernatural, but he his brest remembered for two that have become classics, “For the Blood is the Life” and “The Upper Berth”.

Although an American, Crawford lived most of his life in Italy. He began his career as a novelist. Of his novels, the only one I’m aware of that has fantasatic elements is Khalid, which was reprinted in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.

I took a look at “For the Blood is the Life” a few years ago. Today, I’ll look at “The Upper Berth”. M. R. James considered it one of the best ghost stories and defnitely Crawford’s best tale.  Continue reading →

“Christmas Eve at the Dancing Leprechaun” by Keith West and G. Addison Blaine

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This is the final piece of fiction I’m going to post, at least for a while, and the last collaboration with Gayle Blaine, also at least for a while. Depending on how these stories are received, there may be more. We had a lot of fun collaborating. Of course Gayle assures me that she is going to be writing and publishing some work that is solely her own.

Right, Gayle?

This one is a bit shorter than the previous story, and not as spooky.

As usual, here’s the link to purchase.

This post is no longer available for free.