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'His body was pressed against the wall at the head of the bed, and
the face was a mask of agonised horror and fruitless entreaty. But
the eyes were already glazed in death, and before Francis could
reach the bed the body had toppled over and lay inert and lifeless.
Even as he looked, he heard a limping step go down the passage
outside.' E. F. Benson was a master of the ghost story and now all
his rich, imaginative, spine-tingling and beautifully written tales
are presented together in this bumper collection. The range and
variety of these spooky narratives is far broader and more
adventurous than those of any other writer of supernatural fiction.
Within the covers of this volume you will encounter revengeful
spectres, vampires, homicidal spirits, monstrous spectral worms and
slugs and other entities of nameless dread. This is a classic
collection that cannot fail to charm and chill.
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Keith Carabine, University of
Kent at Canterbury. Lucia is one of the great comic characters in
English literature. Outrageously pretentious, hypocritical and
snobbish, Queen Lucia, 'as by right divine' rules over the toy
kingdom of 'Riseholme' based on the Cotswold village of Broadway.
Her long-suffering husband Pepino is 'her prince-consort', the
outrageously camp Georgie is her 'gentleman-in-waiting', the
village green is her 'parliament', and her subjects, such as Daisy
Quantock, are hapless would-be 'Bolsheviks'. In Lucia in London,
the prudish, manically ambitious Lucia launches herself into the
louche world of London society. Her earnest determination to learn
all about 'modern movements' makes her the perfect comic vehicle
for Benson's free-wheeling satire of salon society, and of the
dominant fads and movements of the 1920s, including vegetarianism,
yoga, palmistry, Freudianism, seances, Post-Impressionist art and
Christian Science. Meanwhile in Tilling, clearly modelled on
Benson's home town of Rye, Miss Mapp consumed by 'chronic rage and
curiosity' sits at her window, armed with her light-opera glasses
keeping baleful watch on her neighbours. 'Anger and the gravest
suspicions about everybody had kept her young and on the boil': and
Benson transmutes her boiling into a series of small humiliations
in his witty, malicious comedy. In his insightful Introduction
Keith Carabine shows that these books are excruciatingly funny
because Benson, like Jane Austen, invites the reader to view the
world through the self-deluded fabrications and day-dreams of Lucia
and the self-deluded chronic anger and jaundiced suspicions of
Elisabeth. Carabine also concentrates on the novels' disturbing,
bitchy, 'camp' humour whenever 'that horrid thing which Freud calls
sex' is raised.
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Keith Carabine, University of
Kent at Canterbury. These three wonderful comic novels drolly
record the battle between Lucia and Elisabeth Mapp for social and
cultural supremacy in the village of Tilling (based on Rye). Their
constant skirmishes ensure that every game of bridge, tea or
dinner-party, church service, council meeting or art-exhibition are
thrilling encounters that ensure Tilling is always on 'a very
agreeable rack of suspense'. Both Elisabeth and Lucia are gross
hypocrites, snobs and bullies, the huge differences in temperament
and style ensure the battle is usually unequal. Elisabeth is
incurably mean-spirited and Lucia suffers from splendid delusions
of grandeur and personal prestige. Driven by demons of revenge,
Elisabeth always acts impulsively, and therefore every revelation
of her meanness allows Lucia, the consummate actress, to kill her
ally with a sickening kindness. In his insightful Introduction
Keith Carabine shows that these books are excruciatingly funny
because Benson, like Jane Austen, invites the reader to view the
world through the self-deluded chronic anger and jaundiced
suspicions of Elisabeth and through the self-deluded fabrications
and day-dreams of Lucia. Carabine also concentrates on the novels'
disturbing, bitchy, 'camp' humour whenever 'that horrid thing which
Freud calls sex is raised'
Attractively designed and illustrated by well-known cartoonist Seth
(creator of several New Yorker covers, graphic novels, etc.) Small
trim size and inexpensive price = perfect for register display
Attractive Seth-designed display for books ideal for register
placement Similar series of Xmas Ghost Stories by Galley Beggar
Press have sold 30,000+ in UK Canadian "trial run" of books showed
approx. 1,000 copies sold of each book, even as a drop-in title
sold into stores in late November w/o register placement VERY
STRONG response from media looking for "feel good" holiday news
stories. Multiple angles: 1) reviving old tradition, 2) novel and
appealingly counter-intuitive take on Christmas as a spooky time of
year, 3) Seth well-known and respected, and does great interviews
4) perfect for quirky gift guides = THIS SERIES WILL CONTINUE TO
GET HUGE ATTENTION FROM THE MEDIA AS AWARENESS SPREADS!!! Potential
marketing to specialty shops, incl. comic book stores, Christmas
gift stores Striking design and classic stories make the books
appealing as collectibles Last December opened with an endorsement
from actor Patton Oswalt on Twitter and closed with a capsule
review by John Williams in the New York Times. Great start for a
first year, and we expect the second to be even better!
As the smoky dark sweeps across the capital, strange stories emerge
from the night. A seance reveals a ghastly secret in the murk of
Regent's Canal. From south of the Thames come chilling reports of a
spring-heeled spectre, and in Stoke Newington rumours abound of an
opening to another world among the quiet alleys. Join Elizabeth
Dearnley on this atmospheric tour through a shadowy London, a city
which has long inspired writers of the weird and uncanny. Waiting
in the hazy streets are eerie tales from Charlotte Riddell, Lettice
Galbraith and Violet Hunt, along with haunting pieces by Virginia
Woolf, Arthur Machen, Sam Selvon and many more.
A collection of rare horror stories that will thrill fans of
classic writers such as M. R. James, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe
and E. F. Benson. Jerome K. Jerome's reputation as a humorist,
renowned for his comic novel Three Men in a Boat, has thrown into
undeserved obscurity his fine efforts in the ghost story genre.
Three Men in the Dark collects Jerome's major horror stories,
together with a selection from two of his friends with whom he
founded the magazines The Idler and Today - the journalist Robert
Barr and the humorist Barry Pain. Like Jerome, their stories of
terror and the supernatural have been overlooked for many years.
Edited and introduced by veteran anthologist Hugh Lamb, this new
edition includes as an extra bonus the long-lost novelette, 'The
Mystery of Black Rock Creek'. Written in five parts by Jerome K.
Jerome, Barry Pain, Eden Phillpotts, E. F. Benson and Bram Stoker's
brother-in-law Frank Frankfort Moore, it rounds off one of the most
unusual and entertaining anthologies of the macabre of recent
years.
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Limitations
E. F. Benson
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R538
Discovery Miles 5 380
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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