Last week, at her Short Story Wednesday post, Patricia Abbott featured a short story collection by Muriel Spark, The Stories of Muriel Spark. Later my husband found this ghost story by Muriel Spark in one of his ghost story anthologies, The Literary Ghost: Great Contemporary Ghost Stories, edited by Larry Dark. Last night I read the first three stories in The Literary Ghost, including "The Portobello Road" by Muriel Spark.
Of the three stories, "The Portobello Road" was easily my favorite. In this story, the ghost is the narrator. For some reason, not described in detail, this ghost had more business to finish and had not left the earth. She often strolled down Portobello Road, checking out the marketers and their stalls on the pavement. On one of her strolls she sees two people she knows, Kathleen and George. She speaks to the man and he can see her, although the woman cannot. From this point the ghost tells the story of herself (nicknamed "Needle"), and three of her childhood friends, Kathleen, George and a boy named "Skinny." They are very close friends while in school, but after they graduate, they go off to other areas, even other continents. George goes to manage his uncle's farm in Africa, and Skinny and Needle end up visiting him there. Kathleen stays in London with her rich connections. George eventually ends up returning to Great Britain because he wants to marry Kathleen, which leads to Needle's eventual death. This is my kind of ghost story.
Per EBSCO Knowledge Advantage this story was first published in 1958.
The first story in the book, "The Lost, Strayed, Stolen," by M.F.K. Fisher did not appeal to me at all. I think that the ghost story may be a fine one, and it is spooky, but for my tastes there was not enough background to flesh it out.
The third story was "The Ghost Who Vanished by Degrees" by Robertson Davies. I thought it was pretty good. It was about a professor at a college who ends up trapped in a room with a ghost who wants to defend his Ph.D. thesis because he never got the chance to do that while alive. It was shorter than the others and on the humorous side. A light read but not silly.
I will be revisiting this anthology more this month, and in another post I will list all the stories and authors in the book.
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