The Virago Book of Ghost Stories

[demonik]

Richard Dalby (ed.) - The Virago Book of Ghost Stories (Virago, 1987)

Richard Dalby - Preface
Jennifer Uglow - Introduction

Edith Wharton -The Eyes
E. Nesbit - The Violet Car
Henrietta D. Everett - The Crimson Blind
May Sinclair - The Token
Ellen Glasgow - The Shadowy Third
Marjory E. Lambe - The Return
Margery H. Lawrence - The Haunted Saucepan
Mary Webb - Mr. Tallent’s Ghost
Enid Bagnold - The Amorous Ghost
Marjorie Bowen - The Accident
Marjorie Bowen - A Persistent Woman
Phyllis Bottome - The Waiting-Room
Catherine Wells - The Ghost
Eleanor Scott - ‘Will Ye No’ Come Back Again?’
E. M. Delafield - Sophy Mason Comes Back
Hester Gorst - The Doll’s House
Edith Olivier - The Night Nurse’s Story
Winifred Holtby - The Voice of God
Cynthia Asquith - The Follower
F. M. Mayor - Miss De Mannering Of Asham
Stella Gibbons - Roaring Tower
D. K. Broster - Juggernaut
Elizabeth Bowen - The Happy Autumn Fields
Pamela Hansford Johnson - The Empty Schoolroom
Elizabeth Jane Howard - Three Miles Up
Rose Macaulay - Whitewash
Elizabeth Taylor - Poor Girl
Elizabeth Jenkins - On No Account, My Love
Rosemary Timperley - The Mistress in Black
Norah Lofts - A Curious Experience
Fay Weldon - Breakages
Elizabeth Walter - Dual Control
Sara Maitland - Lady With Unicorn
Lisa St. Aubin De Teran - Diamond Jim
Angela Carter - Ashputtle

Notes on the Authors

A real change of pace - I've been on a diet of Not At Night's and Charles Birkin for a fortnight - but this is a truly special collection. No surprise to see Lady Cynthia Asquith's groundbreaking Ghost Book's so well represented, but I certainly wasn't expecting three (admittedly, non-sadistic: Asquith's own The Follower would have suited the series admirably) from Birkin's Creeps to make the cut. I was a little disappointed to see that Marjory Bowen was represented by two 150 word vignettes ... until I read them: The Accident, in particular, is terrific, an E.C. strip in microcosm.
It's very difficult to pick a 'best' from such a strong, varied selection, but if pushed, I'd probably opt for Elizabeth Jane Howard's Three Miles Up which has one of the most jaw-dropping finales in this -or any other - form of literature.

Mind you, I could've done without Whitewash and A Curious Experience, and I'm still trying to figure out how Lady With Unicorn sneaked in ...

[artlongjr]

I absolutely agree with you on this being a great anthology, and also wanted to comment on "Three Miles Up" which is one of my absolute all time favorite stories. You are right about the ending...one of the best of all time, and this story is a masterpiece of subtle creepiness. I've read it at least five times and it never fails to give me some magnificently delightful shivers! You're probably aware that it originally came from the collection "We Are For the Dark" which contained three stories by Ms. Howard and three by Robert Aickman (who is one of my faves in the horror field).

"Three Miles Up" is the only story I've read by Elizabeth Jane Howard, unfortunately. Others have been hard to come by, here in the U.S. at any rate. I've also only managed to find and read about half of Aickman's published short fiction....everything I've read by him has been intriguing, although the meanings of a lot of them were obscure...but then, that is his trademark!