The Ghost Book

[demonik]

Lady Cynthia Asquith (ed) - The Ghost Book (Hutchinson, 1926)

May Sinclair - The Villa Desiree
Algernon Blackwood - Chemical
Mrs. Belloc Lowndes - The Duenna
L. P. Hartley - A Visitor From Down Under
Denis Mackail - The Lost Tragedy
Clemence Dane - Spinsters' Rest
Hugh Walpole - Mrs. Lunt
Arthur Machen - Munitions Of War
D. H. Lawrence - The Rocking-Horse Winner
Walter De La Mare - "A Recluse"
C. L. Ray (Cynthia Asquith) - The Corner Shop
Oliver Onions - Two Trifles: The Ether Hogs: The Mortal
Charles Whibley - Twelve O'Clock
Enid Bagnold - The Amorous Ghost
Mary Webb - Mr. Tallent's Ghost
Desmond MacCarthy - Pargiton And Harby

[Calenture]

I didn't know that Cynthia Asquith wrote as C L Ray. Welcome information, of course.

I think I have a synopsis of May Sinclair's The Villa Desiree in the Dolls House, part of Michele Slung's brilliant I Shudder at Your Touch anthology.

Yes, here it is (I wish I could update the Dolls House this easily!):

Mildred Eve is to marry Louis Carson, and prior to the marriage they will stay in Cannes, he at the hotel, she at his house, the Villa Desiree. It was at this villa, and in this room, upon this bed, that Carson's previous young wife had died on their honeymoon. The idea that male sexuallity (or simply, sex) is an evil and uncontrollable force, makes a neat idea for a story. Sinclair is also the author of Where Their Fire is Not Quenched, similar to this piece, but passed over by Slung as it's been too frequently anthologized elsewhere.

[demonik]

Both Aickman and Roald Dahl were fairly scathing about the quality of ghost stories (Dahl seems to be suggesting that the majority are garbage and nothing written post-1958 is worth the paper it's printed on), but both were huge admirers of Asquith's books (and her own stories: Dahl included The Corner Shop in the anthology he edited).

I've a soft spot for Edith Bagnold's The Amorous Ghost: While his wife is away, two of the maids hand in their notice after discovering a woman's underclothing in the master's room. That night, he watches transfixed as a figure half-materialises in a chair with her back to him, slowly slipping out of her clothes. It's with great relief he hears his wife return, undress and slip into bed beside him. It must be freezing outside because she's cold enough to chill the entire room ....