The Fourth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories
by Robert Aickman (Editor)
Fontana Great Ghost Stories (4)
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The Accident, by Ann Bridge, in this anthology.
“She seemed to forget all her fears, and her spirits to mount within her as her body, triumphing over gravitation, mounted towards that sky of intensest blue overhead.”
A chilling story, set in the Alps, drawing on the author’s own experience as a skilled young climber in the region, and her interest in the paranormal.
““The sun by now had risen, and they were already high enough to look out southward over the peaks beyond the Zermatt valley; they glowed a furious rose, beautiful to see but threatening for the future””
An early mention of a graveyard where a pair of climbers were recently buried foreshadows what can happen in bright sunlight.
Image: Footprints in the snow (show more target="_top">Source)
“She sat in a trance of rapture, right on the edge of the overhanging drop, her feet dangling gaily into several hundred feet of blue air, eating her lunch and gazing at the view.”
There is a lot of landscape description and a slow start before it cuts to the chase - literally. It held the fascination of realising a car crash is about to happen, but being powerless to prevent it.
Sinister
When I first read Kafka’s The Castle (see my review HERE), I mused ‘Who else can make snow sinister (scary perhaps, but surely not sinister)? Here, Ann Bridge achieves the same with postcards.
Spirits - and an alienist
Early on, Dr Allard is described as an ‘alienist’. It’s an archaic American word for those who studied and treated those alienated from society by mental disorders.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can read this story in the group.
You can join the group here. show less
“She seemed to forget all her fears, and her spirits to mount within her as her body, triumphing over gravitation, mounted towards that sky of intensest blue overhead.”
A chilling story, set in the Alps, drawing on the author’s own experience as a skilled young climber in the region, and her interest in the paranormal.
““The sun by now had risen, and they were already high enough to look out southward over the peaks beyond the Zermatt valley; they glowed a furious rose, beautiful to see but threatening for the future””
An early mention of a graveyard where a pair of climbers were recently buried foreshadows what can happen in bright sunlight.
Image: Footprints in the snow (show more target="_top">Source)
“She sat in a trance of rapture, right on the edge of the overhanging drop, her feet dangling gaily into several hundred feet of blue air, eating her lunch and gazing at the view.”
There is a lot of landscape description and a slow start before it cuts to the chase - literally. It held the fascination of realising a car crash is about to happen, but being powerless to prevent it.
Sinister
When I first read Kafka’s The Castle (see my review HERE), I mused ‘Who else can make snow sinister (scary perhaps, but surely not sinister)? Here, Ann Bridge achieves the same with postcards.
Spirits - and an alienist
Early on, Dr Allard is described as an ‘alienist’. It’s an archaic American word for those who studied and treated those alienated from society by mental disorders.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can read this story in the group.
You can join the group here. show less
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- Canonical title
- The Fourth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories
- Alternate titles
- The Accident (by Ann Bridge) (by Ann Bridge); Not on the Passenger-List (by Barry Pain) (by Barry Pain); The Sphinx Without a Secret (by Oscar Wilde) (by Oscar Wilde); When I Was Dead (by Vincent O'Sullivan) (by Vincent O'Sullivan); The Queen of Spades [translation of Пиковая дама] (by Alexander Pushkin) (by Alexander Pushkin); Pargiton and Harby (by Desmond MacCarthy) (by Desmond MacCarthy) (show all 11); The Snow (by Hugh Walpole) (by Hugh Walpole); Carlton's Father (by Eric Ambrose) (by Eric Ambrose); A School Story (by M. R. James) (by M. R. James); The Wolves of Cernogratz (by Saki) (by Saki); Mad Monkton (by William Wilkie Collins) (by William Wilkie Collins)
- Original publication date
- 1967-12
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- Members
- 57
- Popularity
- 536,746
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.78)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 6
