The Haunted Looking Glass

Great, easy read for a Sunday evening. Scary Stories with Edward Gorey illustrations, what more could you need?

How could Edward Gorey's favorite ghost stories *not* be fantastic? With his own illustrations, to boot. I'm thrilled I happened across it, because it's the best collection I've read. Every story is a little masterpiece (and every story required me to sleep with the lights on after I finished it). There isn't weak story in the collection, and if you like creepy stories, every one is a must-read.

C'mon. Handpicked by Edward Gorey. Served up on a silver spoon. What are you waiting for?

I bought my copy of, The Haunted Looking Glass, when it was first published in 1959. I still read out of it but the pages are brittle and yellowed. As a teacher I recommended it to my kids for halloween reading and they managed to find hardbound copies for 5 bucks each and they devoured it just as I did. Edward Gorey published several books under the "Looking Glass Library" label and I regret not buying them up. It is a collection of pretty strong ghost stories that provide a good start for a young ghost story reader. It is also a set of ghost story classics that belongs on the shelf of any genre collector. Many of the stories such as W.F. Harvey's, "August Heat," are frequently anthologized but some like E. Nesbit's, "Man Sized in Marble," are rare and truely eerie. I am sorry that the new edition of The Haunted Looking Glass was not was not printed in hardback. My copy crumbles a little every time I touch it and with Halloween coming it has stories that beg to be read. Savor M. R. James' "Casting the Runes" and experience the three-wish-curse formula in W.W. Jacob's, "The Monkey's Paw."

Edward Gorey's quirky and often macabre drawings have been delighting his fans for two generations. In "The Haunted Looking Glass," we find another set of apposite illustrations to accompany his collection of his favourite ghost stories. Recently re-released in the excellent New York Review of Books Classics series, readers will find it to be an agreeably discomforting guided tour through some of the high spots of the golden age of ghost story writing, the Victorian and Edwardian period. There are worthy old chesnuts such as "Casting the Runes" and "The Monkey's Paw" and "August Heat," as well as unexpected gems from E. Nesbit ("Man-size in Marble") and Bram Stoker ("The Judge's House"). A contribution from Charles Dickens ("The Signalman") is especially memorable. This is a wonderful collection of stories, and readers are urged to find out for themselves what lurks within the haunted looking glass!