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100 Books in One Year. #1: The Haunted Looking Glass, a Ghost Story Anthology Edited by Edward Gorey
Cannonball Read / Alabama Pink

Book Reviews | September 11, 2008 | Comments (25)

14968372.JPGWhile it may appear to the casual viewer that Prisco (Mr. Five books. Shah.) is owning my ass in this race, it simply isn’t true. I’ve just been a febrile mess lately and couldn’t be bothered to write anything about my reads. If anyone is currently keeping count, I am tearing through book four.

So there.

Prisco chose a sci-fi writer’s self-help tome to be his first read. I picked a collection of old-fashioned ghost stories edited by Edward Gorey. I’m sure this has deeper meaning.

Edward Gorey was one of those artists/famous people that I dreamed of one day meeting. I love his ability to take the macabre and twisted (The Curious Sofa, anyone?) and make them elegant and just a wee bit quaint. However, I am glad I never got the chance to share a drink with the man, as I am sure he would have thought me a ninny, and I would have learned some horrible truth about him, like his bad dental hygiene or that he was a raging misogynist (Neither of which I know to be true. I’m just speculating here, people.).

The Haunted Looking Glass does much to maintain his place of adoration my heart. Gorey selected twelve (Oh, why not thirteen!) old-fashioned ghost stories such masters of the craft as Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, and the godfather of the Gothic novel, Wilkie Collins. All of the stories are traditional chillers with haunted houses, premonitory visions, and vengeful spirits. There’s no blood or gore. No vampires or evil clowns. Just a tidy collection of things that go bump in the night and leave you with a chill up your spine. And not only did Gorey have a hand in selecting the stories, but he also provides illustrations for the title page of each.

While some of the stories play out as slightly dated, there were definitely a few standouts with a strong creep factor. “The Empty House” by Algernon Blackwood is a tightly wound telling of a man and his elderly aunt’s visit to a supposed haunted house. Their journey through the vacant house and what they encounter was far more effective at eliciting the eebie-jeebies from me than any of those “supernatural” television shows where people wander around old buildings using night vision cameras and exclaiming, “What was that?”

The most effectively creepy story came from none other than Bram Stoker. “The Judge’s House” has to be the first time I’ve read a story and wanted to shout at the main character, like people do in bad horror films. A student rents an old house as a retreat to complete his studies, and very quickly encounters the infestation of rats in the wainscoting. Yeah, my ass would have been at the Days Inn five seconds after the first pair of beady little eyes peered out of the woodwork, but the unfortunately stubborn student continues to stay in the house. Stoker makes the skin crawl with this tale of haunting by rodents.

Gorey wisely chose to include the ever-frightening “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs. If you’ve never read this classic, you absolutely need to. Right now. All I can say is that it’s the best illustration of how readers’ imaginations sometimes can do all necessary work; a writer just has to give them the right tasty little morsel to set that machine in motion.

M.R. James’ “Casting The Runes” rounds out the lot as the one story that felt the most “modern.” It is a well-paced tale of a man attempting to crawl out from underneath a hex from a bitter, self-described alchemist whose badly written paper the hexed man made the mistake of giving a negative review. Be careful what you write in those Amazon customer reviews.

The Haunted Looking Glass certainly didn’t terrify me to the point of needing to sleep with the light on. There’s only been one book with that kind of power over me, Ghost Story by Peter Straub. But it was darn good for a little shiver before bedtime.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. You can read more about it, here.


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Comments

Between the book of Addams cartoons I read endlessly and the titles to PBS Mystery (one of two television shows allowed at my house) Edward Gorey is a significant part of my childhood. I used to worry endlessly that the idiot policemen never looked up.

Posted by: Megan at September 11, 2008 9:12 AM

FYI - the link on the title to this post is screwed up. It is to some Chris Farley post that comes up blank. The Permalink link works.

Posted by: Brian at September 11, 2008 9:23 AM

First off, good luck with the Cannonball Read, Alabama. I gave Prisco props so I'm trying to be non partisan here. Have you read any of the Gris Grimly books? They won't work for the contest but his illustrations remind me a lot of Gorey, both cute and gothic at the same time. I'll definitely check this one out, sounds like some great classics all in one place. And I agree, "The Monkey's Paw" is a hell of a scary little story.

The book that scared me the most is "The Shining". I've read it 3 times and it never ceases to creep me the hell out. May want to check out "Julian's House" by Judith Hawkes. It's a haunted house story that has still stuck with me years after reading it. A very slow burn novel but worth the time.

Posted by: TylerDFC at September 11, 2008 9:30 AM

Alabama Pink: Those stories sounded familiar to me, and I checked my library and they are in The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. That book has many more ghost stories than your book, but does overlap, as you have some of the absolute classics in the one you just read.

There's also a Peguin Book of Ghost Stories, with different stories from the Oxford one.

But my favorite is The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories, which is a great anthology of vampire tales. It starts with the earliest known stories include Varney The Vampire, a Victorian serial with lots of sexual imagery. And the complete text of Camilla, which predates Dracula as a vampire novel. Plus some funny ones, such as The Werewolf and The Vampire, where the monsters are the good guys, ("What did you think we were drinking? Raspberry juice?). The book was published in the 1980's, so a lot of the modern stuff isn't in it.

Posted by: BWeaves at September 11, 2008 9:49 AM

Somebody gave me the collections Amphigorey and Amphigorey Too for the office secret Santa a few years ago. I love "The Listing Attic" and "The Fatal Lozenge". Actually, I just love Gorey in general, I suppose. I used to have a whole bunch of these kind of collections of short horror/ghost stories, which I loved loved loved. Although it might be why I always had so many nightmares as a child...

For the record, I knew you could keep up with Prisco. In fact, I'm betting you'll outstrip him rather quickly...

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at September 11, 2008 10:04 AM

I will immediately buy this book for the cover alone: absolutely beautiful.

Megan: I also adore Gorey's PBS Mystery opening credits. I will never forgive PBS for abandoning them this season. For Halloween one year, I found a 1920s dress and a long chiffon scarf and walked around the party sighing like the lady in the garden (OOOOOOOh!). About three people got it. And yes, why do those bobbies never look up?

Posted by: PaddyDog at September 11, 2008 10:08 AM

"and the godfather of the Gothic novel, Wilkie Collins."

Collins wasn't known for Gothic fiction. He's the father of the Sensation Novel. Gothic fiction, which gets soundly lampooned in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, is the precursor to Sensation Novels and Detective Novels.

Gothic novels usually involved a young woman in danger of losing her maidenhood to some dreadful prince/count/viscount/earl. There are supernatural elements in Gothic novels; however, they usually end up having a Scooby-Dooish rational explanation.

Sensation novels -- Which Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Bulwer-Lytton (he of the "dark and stormy night"), and Mrs Henry Wood made particularly throughout the 1860s -- were more domestic in nature: families with skeletons, sometimes literal, mostly figurative, were in danger of losing their good name or some kind of fortune.

/too-long pedantic discussion of Regency/Victorian literature.

Posted by: Mike B. at September 11, 2008 10:31 AM

There are supernatural elements in Gothic novels; however, they usually end up having a Scooby-Dooish rational explanation.

As a Gothic scholar/instructor, I have to ride in on my own pedantic horse. "Usually"? The canon disagrees. Ann Radcliffe in the 1790s preferred the "scooby-doo" mode (and so did Austen, of course, and a few Victorians), and she was influential to _one_ stream of gothic fiction, but 18C Gothic fiction, including many High Gothic novels (e.g The Necromancer, The Witch of Ravensworth, Barozzi, The Monk) typically had unexplained supernatural phenomena. So did the earlier "grandfather" novels like Castle of Otranto, The Recess, and Vathek, and early 19C novels like Melmoth the Wanderer and (arguably) Frankenstein.

I'd say even 50/50 is generous.

I love the fact that Mike brought up a discussion of sensation novels on Pajiba. Lady Audley's Secret razzle-dazzles.

Posted by: Ranylt at September 11, 2008 11:22 AM

Ha! When I read Mike B's comment, I started counting in my head to how soon before Ranylt weighed in.
Earlier this year Kate Summerscale published her account of the Saville Kent case which actually was the real life case that actually inspired Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle and others to pretty much create the modern murder mystery genre. It's called "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Or The Murder at Road Hill House".
Really excellent and should be a must read if you like your murder accompanied by bustles, butlers and be-whiskered men.

Posted by: PaddyDog at September 11, 2008 11:33 AM

Apologies for the duplication of "actually" and the split infinitive. I realize I am not worthy to comment further.

Posted by: PaddyDog at September 11, 2008 11:35 AM

This place is hot.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at September 11, 2008 11:46 AM

I keep waiting for someone (Masterpiece Classics?) to do Wilkie Collins "The Moonstone" as a movie. It is considered to be the first detective novel, but even if it really isn't, the movie could be done all Rashomon style, only with bustles instead of kimonos.

Posted by: BWeaves at September 11, 2008 12:05 PM

BWeaves:

PBS Masterpiece did it back in 1996.

Posted by: PaddyDog at September 11, 2008 12:13 PM

Pink, great review (if a little early for Halloween, but then again, why not have Halloween all year?) and amazing use and economy of words. I hope you're this eloquent after book 100. I shall be looking this up post-haste for my post-LSAT celebration.

Posted by: lordhelmet at September 11, 2008 12:30 PM

@ Ranylt: "As a Gothic scholar/instructor, I have to ride in on my own pedantic horse. 'Usually'? The canon disagrees."

I tend to over-hedge my bet. I didn't want to say "they end up having a Scooby-Dooish rational explanation" and then have someone chime in with Well, what about Matthew "The Monk" Lewis?

"Lady Audley's Secret razzle-dazzles."

It's such an odd book, that one. The way Lady Audley directs the fluidity of her identity, and her very primal sense of self-preservation. (SPOILER ALERT: I have to say, I think Lady Audley, before she was Lady Audley, when she was married to George Talboys, and George steps out for a figurative smoke, leaving her behind, was totally justified in gathering up her pretty gods and getting the heck away from there. Her grasping need for respectability reminds me a lot of Mrs Catherick in The Woman in White. "The Minister takes off his hat to me" is her refrain to prove that she has created a respectable life.)

@ BWeaves: "I keep waiting for someone (Masterpiece Classics?) to do Wilkie Collins 'The Moonstone' as a movie."

They tend to ruin Collins. The movie version of The Woman in White that's out basically rewrites the story entirely.

Posted by: Mike B. at September 11, 2008 2:39 PM

Paddydog: Thanks, I must have missed it (i.e. Masterpiece's "The Moonstone"). Must go Netflix now.

Posted by: BWeaves at September 11, 2008 2:42 PM

Netflix over. OK, the 1972 Masterpiece version of "The Moonstone" got horrid reviews, and the 1934 Hollywood version "Moonstone" doesn't resemble the Wilkie Collin's version at all. So I repeat, I'm still waiting for a good movie version of "The Moonstone."

Posted by: BWeaves at September 11, 2008 2:48 PM

Can't find the 1996 version.

Posted by: BWeaves at September 11, 2008 2:50 PM

PaddyDog you are forgiven for split infinitives simply because of the alliteration of bustles, butler and be-whiskered.

Posted by: Megan at September 11, 2008 2:50 PM

@ PaddyDog, re: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher:

I had not heard of that book -- and I have a birthday coming up. So, double hooray!

Posted by: Mike B. at September 11, 2008 2:54 PM

"PaddyDog you are forgiven for split infinitives simply because of the alliteration of bustles, butler and be-whiskered."

Also, isnt't the rule about splitting infinitives an irritating hold-over from Latin? It's impossible to split an infinitive, since they're one-worders. And since it can't be done in Latin, that rule was sort of grandfathered over for English when there's no reason to eschew it.

This is also why one should end sentences with prepositions often, and with glee.

Posted by: Mike B. at September 11, 2008 2:57 PM

I love this Canonball Read! I'll be adding titles to my list of books to check out o' the library faster than you can say "Bob's Your Uncle!" (And yes, I do actually have an Uncle Bob.)

Now, if only I could get more reading in. Really, I need to stop watching TV just about all together. Of course, the Main Squeeze and I just started watching BSG, so that will probably take up a bunch of time... Sigh. Maybe I should just quit my job?

Ms. Pink do you have a list of your 100 books (or the books on on the list so far) posted somewhere? I'd love to see what you're currently planning to read.

Posted by: tamatha at September 11, 2008 3:21 PM

Great book, great illustrator! Should do more short story comp reviews (for me and the other short-attention spazzes around here...I can't seriously be the only...hey, wanna go ride bikes?

Posted by: frumpiefox at September 11, 2008 3:41 PM

My first exposure to written ghost stories, as opposed to spooky stories told out loud, was Katheryn Tucker Windham's "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey." Jeffrey was the ghost haunting her house. She went on to write stories about Mississippi ghosts, etc. They were definitely elementary/middle school level reading, but they could raise the hairs on the back of my neck, and make me reluctant to turn off the light at bedtime. Ms. Windham is in her 80's now, and still active in the storytelling festivals around the South. All in all, a pretty cool lady. I don't know what ever happened to Jeffrey.

Posted by: rlr260 at September 11, 2008 4:38 PM

That's a book I sent you, so I'm very glad you liked it. :)

Posted by: Loob at September 12, 2008 6:50 AM