Some Things Strange and Sinister

Editor Joan Kahn has some choice supernatural nuggets in "Some Things Strange and Sinister." Strange and sinister indeed is the boy who collects Lepidoptera and who is finally himself collected. Then there is another strange little boy who has an invisible companion named Beelzy. If you think you know who Beelzy is, you are probably right. None of these stories are particularly well-known, except for an excerpt from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" entitled "Dracula's Guest." "The Lamp" by Agatha Christie--A little boy is the only one who can set free the soul of another child who starved to death in his mother's new house. "Nerves" by Guy de Maupassant--Atmospheric tale of a man with an unusual tic, and his daughter who always wears a glove on her left hand. "Thus I Refute Beelzy" by John Collier--This is absolutely one of the best stories in the ghostly subgenre of 'child with an invisible companion.' It is an economically told tale of a sadistic dentist 'Big Simon' and his son 'Little Simon' who happens to have an invisible companion named 'Beelzy.' "Keeping His Promise" by Algernon Blackwood--One of my favorite stories by this well-known author. A medical student is visited by one of his former friends, who appears to be starving. "The House" by André Maurois--A woman finds her dream house, and discovers that she appears to be responsible for vacating the former tenants. "The Call of the Hand" by Louis Golding--A wildly romantic tale of two brothers who are joined at the wrist from birth, and who both fall in love with the same woman. As is usual in tales like this, it is the poor bride who suffers the most. "The Dream Woman" by W. Wilkie Collins--A man saves a woman who is about to commit suicide, then marries her. He doesn't immediately recognize her as the woman who came to him in a nightmare and tried to stab him, but his mother does. "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham" by H. G. Wells--An old man tricks a young medical student into exchanging bodies with him. "The Strange Occurrences Connected with Captain John Russell" by Neil Bell--This tale is told as if a true narrative about a man who seems to be in very close touch with the supernatural, whether it manifests itself as a poltergeist in his youth or alien cities in the sky as he matures. "The Book" by Margaret Irwin--A happily-married, upright lawyer is slowly seduced by an evil book that appears in his library. Very creepy. One of my top fifty tales of the supernatural. "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker--On his way to Dracula's castle, a young Englishman has some very strange adventures on Walpurgisnacht. "The Cocoon" by John B. L. Goodwin--"Although his father had maneuvered expeditions, experienced privation, waded through jungles, climbed upon crags for his specimens, Denny had blithely gathered his within the fields and gardens close to home." While trying to compete with his father, young Denny collects a very strange cocoon. "The Empty Schoolroom"--A lonely En