Elizabeth Gaskell
Spooky Halloween stories 2009
by Robert Daeley, Thu, 2009-10-29
Last year's selection of Spooky stories for Halloween was great fun, so we're back this year with more.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one of the creepiest short stories I've read, with parts that remind me of those disturbing modern Japanese horror flicks. Absolutely one of my favorite short stories ever, much less favorite scary stories.
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.
John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.
John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.
You see he does not believe I am sick!
That it is from 1892 makes it even more remarkable, but it is also semi-autobiographical. After reading the story, check out this article by the author from 1913, "Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper".
You can't go wrong with Edgar Allan Poe on Halloween, and how about a quick triptych of terror, courtesy of Project Gutenberg?
Head over to the "First Project Gutenberg Collection of Edgar Allan Poe". It includes the sublime stories "The Cast of Amontillado" and "The Masque of the Red Death", as well as the classic poem "The Raven." Guaranteed to put you in the mood for All Hallows' Eve.
The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.
A Stable for Nightmares is a collection of stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Sir Charles Young, et al. The following is from the first story in the book, "Dickon the Devil":
The peat and furze were pretty soon left behind; we were again in the wooded scenery that I enjoyed so much, so entirely natural and pretty, and so little disturbed by traffic of any kind. I was looking from the chaise-window, and soon detected the object of which, for some time, my eye had been in search. Barwyke Hall was a large, quaint house, of that cage-work fashion known as “black-and-white,” in which the bars and angles of an oak framework contrast, black as ebony, with the white plaster that overspreads the masonry built into its interstices. This steep-roofed Elizabethan house stood in the midst of park-like grounds of no great extent, but rendered imposing by the noble stature of the old trees that now cast their lengthening shadows eastward over the sward, from the declining sun.
The park-wall was gray with age, and in many places laden with ivy. In deep gray shadow, that contrasted with the dim fires of evening reflected on the foliage above it, in a gentle hollow, stretched a lake that looked cold and black, and seemed, as it were, to skulk from observation with a guilty knowledge.
Games for Hallow-e'en by Mary E. Blain is a 1912 treatise on how to throw an awesome Halloween party.
Hallow-e'en or Hallow-Even is the last night of October, being the eve or vigil of All-Hallow's or All Saint's Day, and no holiday in all the year is so informal or so marked by fun both for grown-ups as well as children as this one. On this night there should be nothing but laughter, fun and mystery. It is the night when Fairies dance, Ghosts, Witches, Devils and mischief-making Elves wander around. It is the night when all sorts of charms and spells are invoked for prying into the future by all young folks and sometimes by folks who are not young.
In getting up a Hallow-e'en Party everything should be made as secret as possible, and each guest bound to secrecy concerning the invitations.
Any of the following forms of invitations might be used.
Witches and Choice Spirits of Darkness
will hold High Carnival at my house,
..............Wednesday, October 31st,
at eight o'clock. Come prepared to test
your fate.
Costume, Witches, Ghosts, etc.
Last year's stories, still as good as ever:
- Edith Wharton’s “The Eyes” can be found in Tales of Men and Ghosts.
- Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story” is available in Curious, if True: Strange Tales.
- “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” from Washington Irving.
- "The Raven" with illustrations by Gustave Doré.
Related Wikipedia articles:
Spooky stories for Halloween
by Robert Daeley, Fri, 2008-10-31
In a Telegraph UK Books post yesterday, Justine Picardy had a couple of suggestions for spooky stories to read for Halloween.
'Nobody knows better than a ghost how hard it is to put him or her into words shadowy, yet transparent enough,' wrote Edith Wharton. 'If a ghost story sends a cold shiver down one's spine, it has done its job and done it well.' But that cold shiver is often mingled with a warm glow - for a ghost story is traditionally told by firelight, and its chilling effect accompanied by a pleasurable companionship between the teller of the tale and those to whom it is told.
Luckily for us of the Internet age, both of the 19th Century tales mentioned are available for free via Project Gutenberg. However, I would recommend sticking with reading them by firelight or candlelight rather than the far less dramatic glow of your LCD screen. :)
Edith Wharton's "The Eyes" can be found in Tales of Men and Ghosts.
I was waked suddenly by the feeling we all know--the feeling that there was something near me that hadn't been there when I fell asleep. I sat up and strained my eyes into the darkness. The room was pitch black, and at first I saw nothing; but gradually a vague glimmer at the foot of the bed turned into two eyes staring back at me. I couldn't see the face attached to them--on account of the darkness, I imagined--but as I looked the eyes grew more and more distinct: they gave out a light of their own.
Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story" is available in Curious, if True: Strange Tales.
The road went up about two miles, and then we saw a great and stately house, with many trees close around it, so close that in some places their branches dragged against the walls when the wind blew; and some hung broken down; for no one seemed to take much charge of the place;--to lop the wood, or to keep the moss-covered carriage-way in order. Only in front of the house all was clear. The great oval drive was without a weed; and neither tree nor creeper was allowed to grow over the long, many-windowed front; at both sides of which a wing protected, which were each the ends of other side fronts; for the house, although it was so desolate, was even grander than I expected. Behind it rose the Fells; which seemed unenclosed and bare enough; and on the left hand of the house, as you stood facing it, was a little, old-fashioned flower-garden, as I found out afterwards. A door opened out upon it from the west front; it had been scooped out of the thick, dark wood for some old Lady Furnivall; but the branches of the great forest-trees had grown and overshadowed it again, and there were very few flowers that would live there at that time.
While you're at it, another classic story with an appropriate theme for Halloween is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from Washington Irving.
A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.
Of course, Halloween all-star Edgar Allan Poe has quite a presence on Gutenberg, so there's lots to choose from, but for an especially awesome selection, check out The Raven with accompanying illustrations from Gustave Doré.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."
Do yourself a favor and read at least this one aloud. :)
See these Wikipedia articles for more on each:
Happy Halloween!
