Short Story Wednesday: Tales of Terror

My husband is reading Three Men in the Dark: Tales of Terror by Jerome K. Jerome, Barry Pain & Robert Barr. I love the cover. I decided this would be a good time to try some more horror stories or ghost stories, an area I am not experienced in. 

The title and the emphasis on Jerome K. Jerome's name on the cover led me to assume the books was only stories by that author. In fact, the editor, Hugh Lamb, has created a collection of tales of terror by Jerome and two of his contemporaries and friends, Barry Pain and Robert Barr. 

I read four stories and I had mixed reactions. Of the four I read, I preferred Barry Pain's stories. Unfortunately I did not try any stories by Robert Barr.

"The Skeleton" by Jerome K. Jerome

The story starts with a discussion of spiritualism. One of the men tells a story about a man who purchases a skeleton and then thinks that the skeleton is coming alive. The story was more complicated than that, but that was the part that made an impression on me. 7 pages.

I enjoyed this exchange in the discussion of spiritualism:

"For my part," remarked MacShaughnassy, "I can believe in the ability of our spirit friends to give the quaint entertainments credited to them much easier than I can in their desire to do so."

"You mean," added Jephson, "that you cannot understand why a spirit, not compelled as we are by the exigencies of society, should care to spend its evenings carrying on a laboured and childish conversation with a room full of abnormally uninteresting people."

"Silhouettes" by Jerome K. Jerome 

I read this twice, and in truth I did not understand it. It was very atmospheric, and there were a couple of paragraphs that were very nice, that I kept going back to. 8 pages.

"The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit" by Barry Pain

This one seemed like a ghost story to me. 

Very short, only 4 pages. The story is told by Vincent Pyrwhit's oldest friend. Vincent Pyrwhit died in strange circumstances after his wife died from a long illness. Before his death, Pyrwhit invites the narrator to visit, and they get a strange telephone call. The story did not scare me but I found it very effective.

I found this story online at Wikisource.

"Linda" by Barry Pain

This one was also told in first person and was my favorite. I liked the writing and the narrative. The narrator's brother marries a woman named Linda. After Linda's death, the brother invites the narrator to visit him; he now has Linda's younger sister living with him. The situation is very tense. It was also not very scary but I liked it. 14 pages.

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Ray Bradbury

Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are young boys, aged thirteen years old, and ready for some new experiences. Will is more cautious, Jim is willing to take chances. When a carnival arrives in town after midnight, they escape from their bedrooms and watch it being set up. They gradually see the evil in the carnival that can change people and transform them into unrecognizable versions of themselves. 

The carnival that threatens the town is Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show, and the main antagonist is Mr. Dark, or the Illustrated Man, who can control the freaks in the carnival via his tattoos. He works in league with the Dust Witch, and their goal is to gather more souls to power the carnival. And the carnival has an especially scary merry-go-round that can add or take away years from a person's life.

Will's dad, Mr. Charles Halloway, is a quiet and melancholic man. On this occasion he steps up and helps the boys and the town out of a very scary situation. 

My Thoughts...

The set up of the situation in the first half of this book did not hold my interest. It was too poetic and too drawn out. At the middle point as the situation turns from bad to worse and Mr. Halloway is alerted to the problem, I got more interested and the story finally pulled me in. However, I never did get fully immersed and sense the horror of the situation.

I liked the themes of childhood, aging, parenthood. Although books are not a big part of the story, scenes set at the library where Will's dad works are prominent in the story.

This is my husband's book and he loves it. The gorgeous, poetic descriptions work very well for him. He especially likes the small town setting in autumn.

What I learned from reading this: I should have started with another novel or a book of short stories from Bradbury's works. In a Reading Pathways article for Bradbury works, Something Wicked this Way Comes was the last book on the list due to its difficulty and complexity. The first book on the list was The Halloween Tree, a children's book by Bradbury, which I read and reviewed three years ago. It was also more on the poetic side but a lovely children's story. Many years ago I read Fahrenheit 451, but I have forgotten much about it and plan to reread it. 

Next year maybe I will try some of Bradbury's short stories, such as The October Country (suggested by Rick Robinson at Tip the Wink) or The Martian Chronicles.

Another good read for R.I.P. XVI (Readers Imbibing Peril).

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Publisher:  William Morrow, 2001. Orig. pub. 1962.
Length:     289 pages
Format:     Hardcover
Setting:     Illinois
Genre:      Fantasy / Horror
Source:     Borrowed from my husband.

Benighted: J.B. Priestley

I read this book because it was the source for the film The Old Dark House. My husband bought the book and read it, and we wanted to re-watch the film. Because this is in the horror genre, I was not too sure I would enjoy it. But I did like it, although it wasn't scary at all to me. Atmospheric, yes, very much so.

From the book cover:

A torrential downpour forces Philip and Margaret Waverton and their friend Roger Penderel to seek shelter in an ancient, crumbling mansion inhabited by the strange and sinister Femm family. Determined to make the best of the circumstances, the benighted travellers drink and talk to pass the time while the storm rages outside. But as the night progresses and tensions rise, dangerous and unexpected secrets emerge. On the house’s top floor are two locked doors: behind one of them is the mysterious, unseen Sir Roderick Femm, while the other conceals something terrifying and deadly ... 

Benighted (1927), a classic ‘old dark house’ story of psychological terror, was the second novel by one of the most prolific and beloved British authors of the 20th century, J.B. Priestley (1894-1984). This edition includes an introduction by Orrin Grey, who discusses the connections between the novel and its film adaptation, James Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932).

The first three chapters are told from the point of view of each of the three main characters (although not in first person). The first chapter focuses on Philip Waverton's thoughts as he drives his wife and his friend Penderel in a horrendous storm, on mountainous  roads, in "wildest Wales." Soon they are forced to turn into the drive of an old house off the road. The second chapter is devoted to Penderel,  who gains entry to the house. In that chapter, the Femm family members who reside in the house are introduced, and their servant, Morgan. Miss Femm and her brother live in the house with their brother Roderick, who is confined to bed upstairs. In the third chapter, we see things from Margaret's point of view as she changes out of her soaked clothes and experiences Miss Femm's strange ways. At this point, the reader is aware that there is some problem between Margaret and Philip Waverton, and it is clear that they both want it to be resolved.

Although the house has no extra beds, the visitors must stay because the road is entirely blocked in both directions. The Femms share their dinner with the unwelcome guests. And then two more victims of the storm seek shelter and the group gets livelier. For such a brief book, the character development is very impressive. Due to the unusual and tense circumstances, the group tends to share more than one might usually do in a social situation. Those looking for more thrills might find the conversations and introspection less interesting, but this was perfect for me. There are unpleasant surprises towards the end, but overall, an excellent read.

Very soon after I read the book, we watched the film; I remembered nothing from the first viewing. Up to a point, the film is very faithful to the book. The actors seem like good choices for the roles, although I wasn't picturing someone like Charles Laughton in the Sir William Porterhouse role. Penderel, played by Melvyn Douglas, was my favorite character in the book and the film. The film also stars Gloria Stuart as Margaret, Raymond Massey as Philip, and Boris Karloff as Morgan.

The film was more effective at being menacing and scary, but the book gets across the characters and their relationships better. I enjoyed both. The introduction by Orrin Grey, which discusses both the film and the book, was interesting and informative.

See the reviews by NancyO at Oddly Weird Fiction and J.F. Norris at Pretty Sinister Books.


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Publisher:  Valancourt Books, 2018. Orig. pub. 1927.
Length:     172 pages
Format:     Trade paperback
Setting:     Wales
Genre:      Horror, Psychological Terror
Source:     Borrowed from my husband.