Richard Dalby (1949–2017)

It took me 5 years to finish this book - not, I hasten to add, because I didn't enjoy it but, rather, because I savoured its stories, dipping into the anthology between longer reads. Indeed, I consider it one of my favourite supernatural anthologies in my not-negligible bookshelf of weird fiction.

The collection is itself a sort of "best of" compilation, bringing together over thirty of the finest stories in The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories , The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The show more Twentieth Century Volume I and The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century Volume II . Virago publishes exclusively fiction by women and this book is a corrective to supernatural anthologies which inexplicably sideline female authors . The collection ranges from the early 19th Century to contemporary fiction, and features authors who are considered to be specialists in the field (Edith Nesbit, Margaret Oliphant, Charlotte Riddell, Amelia Edwards to name but a few) alongside writers who occasionally delved into the genre (Charlotte Bronte, Antonia Fraser). Styles vary too - some stories set out to shock but most keep their terrors understated. The more contemporary offerings tend to be more experimental - ranging from comic stories, to reworkings of fairy tales, to poetic stories which verge on magical realism. The hauntings themselves are also varied in nature - haunted houses and castles abound, but there's also a possessed car, ghostly animals and - in "The Vacant Lot" - well, a haunted vacant lot.

This is an anthology which holds plenty of delights to the ghost story lover and proves that women writers were and still at the forefront of the development of supernatural fiction. show less

It took me 5 years to finish this book - not, I hasten to add, because I didn't enjoy it but, rather, because I savoured its stories, dipping into the anthology between longer reads. Indeed, I consider it one of my favourite supernatural anthologies in my not-negligible bookshelf of weird fiction.

The collection is itself a sort of "best of" compilation, bringing together over thirty of the finest stories in The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories , The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The show more Twentieth Century Volume I and The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century Volume II . Virago publishes exclusively fiction by women and this book is a corrective to supernatural anthologies which inexplicably sideline female authors . The collection ranges from the early 19th Century to contemporary fiction, and features authors who are considered to be specialists in the field (Edith Nesbit, Margaret Oliphant, Charlotte Riddell, Amelia Edwards to name but a few) alongside writers who occasionally delved into the genre (Charlotte Bronte, Antonia Fraser). Styles vary too - some stories set out to shock but most keep their terrors understated. The more contemporary offerings tend to be more experimental - ranging from comic stories, to reworkings of fairy tales, to poetic stories which verge on magical realism. The hauntings themselves are also varied in nature - haunted houses and castles abound, but there's also a possessed car, ghostly animals and - in "The Vacant Lot" - well, a haunted vacant lot.

This is an anthology which holds plenty of delights to the ghost story lover and proves that women writers were and still at the forefront of the development of supernatural fiction. show less

I began re-reading this for "Three miles up" (I had been kayaking and a bend in the river brought this story to mind). I then continued to reread this breathtaking collection of brilliant writing - like all the best genre fiction the form becomes a vessel for great writing that tells us more about ourselves. Read it (in daylight) and shiver.

Mmm, vampires.

This is a collection of 24 vampire stories published shortly before or after the publication of the infamous Dracula in 1897. Some of them influenced Dracula; others were influenced by it.

I was amazed by how much I enjoyed this anthology. There were no stories I disliked, and only a few that didn't impress me. I tend to think of that time period as a little bit one-note with all the stories being the same, but there's an astonishing variety here. The disembodied finger gave me show more doubts and the man-eating trees destroyed my conception altogether.

I will emphasize that this variety is all about ideas. The stories in this anthology could've all been written by the same person stylistically, and I found that I liked that... There's no getting caught up in verbal acrobatics and a writer frantically trying to "find their own unique voice." It makes it a lot easier to get lost in the story for the story itself.

Fingers and trees aside, there's a lot of classic vampire stuff here. Back then "vampire" still meant "horror story," and these stories are actually scary, while still containing that essential vampireness that we still love today. A special effort has been made to include stories that aren't reprinted often, so there's new material here even for the most hardcore fan. (Some of these haven't been reprinted since they were first published, over a hundred years ago!) There's even a tasty poem translated from the original Romanian. show less