Joan Passey

No bad stories here, but most were forgettable and only a couple of real stand outs (The Screaming Skull, The Mask, a Sherlock Holmes story). It just didn't have enough gothic or weird tales, although I respect the addition of many I'd never have read otherwise. There is also an Edgar Allen Poe tale which is fine, but has no place in this anthology given it's connection to Cornwall is so tenuous to the point fo never actually being mentioned.

The introductions also felt a bit strange too show more compared to other Tales of the Weird. They didn't give much author detail or story history and the links to Cornwall felt forced and barely in keeping with what actually happens in the story (the intro to the Bram Stoker tale spends time associating it's importance to the rise of railways, yet that has no connection to the story).

There are certainly better Tales of the Weird books, but there is enough in here to make it worth its entry as a whole show less

''One night when the breeze, tired of whispering its weird messages to the bare branches, and chasing the withered leaves along the lanes, had begun to moan a hushed prelude to the music of a storm, through the mist that had crept over the bay, and which obscured even the white-crested wavelets at the foot of the hill on which stood the sacred old church, there came at measured intervals the melancholy monotone of the Bardsea passing bell for the dead.''

Water nymphs, shadowy figures, show more spectres, strange creatures, myths and legends from the coasts of the British Isles, in an atmospheric, haunting volume. show less

This entry in the British Library's Tales of the Weird proved to be one of the most enjoyable forays in the series thus far. The book contains an impressive selection of stories drawn from the works of some of the greatest authors of the genre, including Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, E. F. Benson, Charlotte Riddell, Lord Dunsany, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells. I highly recommend giving this one a try.

As an aside, please note that while the Good Reads entry lists this book as 288 pages, show more it actually contains (both in my copy and in the British Library's website listing for the book) 318 pages.

CONTENTS:
The Haunted Beach by Mary Robinson
Two Sonnets by Charlotte Smith
Narrative of a Fatal Event by Anon.
The Strange Student by Anon.
What Was It? by Anon.
One Day at Arle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Two Folk Tales by James Bowker
The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell
Legends by H. D. Lowry
A Ghost of the Sea by Francis Prevost
Crooken Sands by Bram Stoker
The Sea Raiders by H. G. Wells
The Sea Fit by Algernon Blackwood
Where the Tides Ebb and Flow by Lord Dunsany
Four Folk Tales by Sophia Morrison
Out of the Earth by Arthur Machen
A Tale of an Empty House by E. F. Benson
On the Isle of Blue Men by Robert W. Sneddon
Seashore Macabre: A Moment's Experience by Hugh Walpole
A Coast-Nightmare by Christina Rosseti show less