Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson

E.F. Benson, perhaps best known for his amusing 'Mapp & Lucia' comedy-of-manners stories also wrote a respectable body of ghost stories which are gathered together in this excellent omnibus anthology. All make for quality reading as examples of the English supernatural genre but a few stand out as darkly-luminous masterpieces, unforgettable in their haunting hold upon the reader and written with real verve. 'The Room In The Tower' is an undeniably chilling narrative of vampirism featuring a truly terrifying female revenant - the words spoken recurrently by Mrs Stone to the protaganist: "Jack will show you to your room: i have given you the room in the tower" are enough to instil a frisson of pervasive dread every time one reads this story. 'The Sanctuary' is a delectably macabre tale of damned souls and secret diabolism at an English country house complete with a hidden Satanic chapel for nocturnal celebrations of Le Messe Noir. 'The Man Who Went Too Far' unfolds by awful degrees the seductive but injudicious immersion of an artist in the deeps of nature mysticism which can only culminate in the most hideous revelation of truth and the sign of the cloven hoof - it is marvellously written, exquisite prose and descriptive passages and has a most beguiling undercurrent. 'The Cat' likewise is utterly engrossing and 'Mrs Amworth' stands as a unusual classsic of the vampire tale. But these are just a few of the delights this packed volume offers to the curious reader, there are many other marvellous tales to cause one to look over one's shoulder as the clock strikes twelve and a sighing midnight wind scrapes the twigs of an overhanging bough against the window. Quintessentially English, wrought with a delicious lightness of touch and a hint of a stylish insouciance but nevertheless conveying a genuinely disturbing charge of the uncanny these tales will be read again and again. E.F.Benson's contribution to the field of supernatural terror is of a very high standard. This anthology is well-worth obtaining.

E.F. Besnson, the son of an Archibishop of Canterbury, is a master of the ghost story. This collection contains stories of troubled spirits, both good and evil; séances; vampires; the occult; curses; ancient gods; etc. All of them show off his remarkable talent for creating an eerie atmosphere and realistic characters, as well as his knowledge of the spirit world, especially with the last entry "The Recent 'Witch-Burning' at Clonmel," an article he wrote for a magazine which describes primitive exorcism practices.One thing I most enjoyed about his stories is that even though the subject matter can become tiresome, Benson interjects enough new twists and types of spirits and other creature to make them feel new and unique. With "Caterpillars," for example, involving an empty bedroom in which someone passed away from cancer, Besnon creates a materialization of the disease in such a creepingly disgusting way that you are repulsed and entranced at the same time. Fortunately, all the stories are classics that are sure to enthrall any ready and to keep them up until the early hours, wanting to read just one more story.

e.f.benson could twist and turn the ghost story as nobody else. his stories are the most original and inventive you can find. as montague rhodes james he had great descriptions and wrote very well. however, efb was more macabre in the way he let the story build, not to mention: end. investing in the plot, creating unease by keeping the treath's strength and how it would work unclear, his stories are truly horrible. in some stories you must realize there may not really be a "point"(mysterious strangers or treaths not being revealed) or a straight-forward climax (like "and the dead spake"). efb had his reasons, and the reason is this: if you are treathened by the supernatural: do you think it will explain to you why it may harm you. efb's starting point is somewhere in someone's LIFE, and how the treath enters this. would that really always be that straightforward. but don't misunderstand, it is easy to get into the stories and get your own ideas about what's going on. itæs not obscure, just some uneasy unclearity at times (which is enjoyable). there are some horror stories here too, more along the pulpish line. great collection. some are too traditional for my taste (though not to people who like lefanu, nesbit and that crowd) but there are some truly morbid tales carried out extremely well, like The face. this is a great collection for us who like the morbid, AND for people liking the old victorian ghost story, having enough stories and excellence to satisfy both parties

I had read E.F. Benson's "The Horror Horn" to start with (a collection of 13 of his best ghost stories), after seeing that it was considered one of the Top 100 Horror Books of all time in Newman & Jones' excellent overview volume. Each of those 13 stories was so good that I just had to have more, and so picked up this collection of every single one of Benson's spooky tales, 54 in all. This collection certainly did not disappoint; I loved every single one of these ghost stories, and was riveted for the full 640-page length of this generous book. The tales in this volume are extremely varied. Most deal with ghosts of the conventional kind: the spirits of the deceased with grudges against the living or unfinished business here on the material plane. Unlike the ghosts of Oliver Onions--another great English supernatural writer of the early 20th century, whose ghosts can often be seen more as the mental aberrations of the protagonist--the ghosts of E.F. Benson are decidedly and objectively REAL. There's no question that these occult manifestations are really happening, and not just in the mind of the main character. This--for me, anyway--makes for a more chilling experience. Other tales in this volume deal with vampires, cancer-inducing caterpillars, devil worship, elementals, ghostly slugs, witches and seances. The fact that a character is sympathetic is no guarantee of his or her survival in these Benson stories; anyone is capable of being offed! Indeed, in "The Face," one of the scarier stories of the bunch, a kindly woman, a mother of two and a good wife, meets a pretty horrible end for no particular reason. Benson never married, and may have been something of a misogynist; the women in his stories, anyway, are usually given a rough time, or are presented as rather repellent creatures. Take the levitating lead character in "Mrs. Amworth," a nice English biddy who just happens to be a blood-sucking vampire; or the bloated and horrible husband killer of "The Corner House"; or the female, yetilike creature of "The Horror Horn"; or the sadistic Sybil Rorke of "Inscrutable Decrees"; or Bertha Acres of "The Outcast," a woman so vile that the very earth spits out her coffin. Then there are the dueling witches of "The Wishing-Well" and the vampire witch of "The Room in the Tower." Yes, Mr. Benson surely didn't have too much use for the ladies. However, in the bulk of these stories, the main characters are single, unattached, scholarly, middle-aged men--like Benson himself--who go on long summer holidays to Cornwall, Norfolk or Sussex, rent homes and get involved with all sorts of ghostly mishegas. (Modern-day readers will no doubt feel twinges of envy at the extended summer vacations that all these characters seem able to take!) Of course, space doesn't permit me to rave about each of the wonderful 54 tales in this volume, but I would like to single out for special mention a few of my favorites. "Pirates," for example, is an incredibly beautifully wr

A reader serious about his/her love of the ghost story may have already encountered such greats as M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, or the wonderful Oliver Onions. You should immediately add E. F. Benson to your list of "absolute musts" to read and collect. His ghost stories, collected in a handsome volume published by Carroll & Graf, are wonderfully readable. In fact, there are more frights per page then in most modern horror stories. I will not single any story out, because one and all is worth your time and energy. I am confident that you will find many, many hours of entertainment and chills here. This is book that I was proud to buy and proud to share with my friends. You will not go wrong here! Happy reading!