Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey (Click here to go to the Survey)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 <a href="https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman</a> (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!<a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://<a href="http://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey</a> (Click here to go to the Survey)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Classic Ghost Stories Podcast Trailer

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

https://tonywalker.substack.com/about (Subscribe For All Episodes!)Charlotte Perkins Gilman, nee Charlotte Perkins, was born in 1860 in Hartford, Conneticut. Sadly, she committed suicide in 1935 in Pasadena California. Her father’s family was relatively well connected, but her father left the family when she was young, leaving her mother to bring up the two children. Her mother was forced to move around a lot to find work and Charlotte’s education suffered because of that. Perhaps because of her challenging childhood, Charlotte became a social reformer and feminist and was interested in furthering the political interests of women. She founded a feminist journal The Forerunner from 1909.The Yellow Wallpaper is her best known story and was published in 1892. She also wrote non-fiction most notably, Women and Economics which was published in 1898. The Yellow Wallpaper was actually Episode 1 of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.Her first marriage was to an artist called Charles Stetson in 1884 at the age of 24. The marriage was not happy and she suffered from depression. It is said that this illness provided much of the material for The Yellow Wallpaper, and if she was suffering from depression with psychotic features, this would tie in very well with the bizzarre delusions about the wallpaper and the things in it. This is reminiscent of The Horla by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, which is Episode 35 of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast. The Horla was published in 1887, but there is no evidence that Charlotte was familiar with The Horla, and the earliest translation into English that I can find is 1903.She married her cousin George Gilman in 1900 and stayed with him until 1934. In that year she discovered she had terminal breast cancer. She committed suicide after that.The story is a double play: is it the story of a woman going mad, or a woman possessed by something evil? We begin to suspect that the narrator’s apparently caring husband John, may not be as caring as she thinks. Is he trying to control her? We know that Charlotte was much concerned with the emancipation of women and them achieving financial independence, so is the character of John an echo of this?The horror in the story revolves around the Yellow Wallpaper and like many of us, she sees to have seen patterns in the abstract wallpaper that eventually evolve into characters. She ultimately can enter the wallpaper and more disturbingly, the woman from the wallpaper can come out into her room. The bizarreness of the crouching, creeping figures serves to unnerve the reader.MusicMusic is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey (Click here to go to the Survey)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

<a href="https://tonywalker.substack.com/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tonywalker.substack.com/about</a> (Subscribe For All Episodes!)Charlotte Perkins Gilman, nee Charlotte Perkins, was born in 1860 in Hartford, Conneticut. Sadly, she committed suicide in 1935 in Pasadena California. Her father’s family was relatively well connected, but her father left the family when she was young, leaving her mother to bring up the two children. Her mother was forced to move around a lot to find work and Charlotte’s education suffered because of that. Perhaps because of her challenging childhood, Charlotte became a social reformer and feminist and was interested in furthering the political interests of women. She founded a feminist journal The Forerunner from 1909.The Yellow Wallpaper is her best known story and was published in 1892. She also wrote non-fiction most notably, Women and Economics which was published in 1898. The Yellow Wallpaper was actually Episode 1 of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.Her first marriage was to an artist called Charles Stetson in 1884 at the age of 24. The marriage was not happy and she suffered from depression. It is said that this illness provided much of the material for The Yellow Wallpaper, and if she was suffering from depression with psychotic features, this would tie in very well with the bizzarre delusions about the wallpaper and the things in it. This is reminiscent of The Horla by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, which is Episode 35 of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast. The Horla was published in 1887, but there is no evidence that Charlotte was familiar with The Horla, and the earliest translation into English that I can find is 1903.She married her cousin George Gilman in 1900 and stayed with him until 1934. In that year she discovered she had terminal breast cancer. She committed suicide after that.The story is a double play: is it the story of a woman going mad, or a woman possessed by something evil? We begin to suspect that the narrator’s apparently caring husband John, may not be as caring as she thinks. Is he trying to control her? We know that Charlotte was much concerned with the emancipation of women and them achieving financial independence, so is the character of John an echo of this?The horror in the story revolves around the Yellow Wallpaper and like many of us, she sees to have seen patterns in the abstract wallpaper that eventually evolve into characters. She ultimately can enter the wallpaper and more disturbingly, the woman from the wallpaper can come out into her room. The bizarreness of the crouching, creeping figures serves to unnerve the reader.MusicMusic is by the marvellous <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute)Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 <a href="https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman</a> (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!<a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://<a href="http://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey</a> (Click here to go to the Survey)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 1: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Edward Frederic Benson was born in 1867 at Wellington College in Berkshire, England and died in 1940 in London of throat cancer aged 73. Benson’s father was E W Benson who was Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest office in the Anglican Church and the Anglican version of the Pope! His father had been bishop of Truro in Cornwall and Benson sets some of his horror stories in Cornwall.Benson’s elder brother wrote the words for that famous English patriotic song: Land of Hope and Glory. He went to the private Marlborough School and then studied at King’s College in Cambridge. After he graduated in 1892, he went to Athens where he worked for the British School of Archaeology and then in Egypt also engaged in the promotion of archaeology. His elder sister Maggie was an Egyptologist.He was also a good figure skater, and represented England.In 1883, he published his first novel which was very successful. He was most famous for his Mapp and Lucia satirical novels. As well as his Mapp and Lucia novels and his ghost stories, Benson wrote biographies, including of Charlotte Bronte.Benson was upper class and wealthy and also a confirmed bachelor, meaning he was gay, though not publicly in those days. In his diary he noted he fell in love with Vincent Yorke, a famous cricketer, who apparently did not return his affections. He shared a villa in Capri, Italy for while with another John Ellingham Brooks a pianist who moved to Capri apparently fearing prosecution for being gay.His lifestyle of leisure; of country house parties and taking shooting lodges in the Scottish Highlands forms the background for many of his stories.Benson is a good writer of ghost stories and this one, The Room in the Tower, is particularly unnerving. The scene is set by the story of a recurring nightmare, followed by an apparently innocuous invitation to a weekend at a country house, where element after element matches his nightmare, down to repeated phrases. The tower, where he is set to sleep, is apparently haunted by a vampire; Mrs Stone.The story has an air of real experience about it and I wonder whether Benson himself had a recurring nightmare, or poached the idea from the real experience of a friend. I was told a similar story by a young woman I met and this dream, and Benson’s story The Room in The Tower were the inspiration for my own story: He WaitsMusic is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute) Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey (Click here to go to the Survey)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Edward Frederic Benson was born in 1867 at Wellington College in Berkshire, England and died in 1940 in London of throat cancer aged 73. Benson’s father was E W Benson who was Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest office in the Anglican Church and the Anglican version of the Pope! His father had been bishop of Truro in Cornwall and Benson sets some of his horror stories in Cornwall.Benson’s elder brother wrote the words for that famous English patriotic song: Land of Hope and Glory. He went to the private Marlborough School and then studied at King’s College in Cambridge. After he graduated in 1892, he went to Athens where he worked for the British School of Archaeology and then in Egypt also engaged in the promotion of archaeology. His elder sister Maggie was an Egyptologist.He was also a good figure skater, and represented <a href="http://England.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">England.In</a> 1883, he published his first novel which was very successful. He was most famous for his Mapp and Lucia satirical novels. As well as his Mapp and Lucia novels and his ghost stories, Benson wrote biographies, including of Charlotte Bronte.Benson was upper class and wealthy and also a confirmed bachelor, meaning he was gay, though not publicly in those days. In his diary he noted he fell in love with Vincent Yorke, a famous cricketer, who apparently did not return his affections. He shared a villa in Capri, Italy for while with another John Ellingham Brooks a pianist who moved to Capri apparently fearing prosecution for being gay.His lifestyle of leisure; of country house parties and taking shooting lodges in the Scottish Highlands forms the background for many of his stories.Benson is a good writer of ghost stories and this one, The Room in the Tower, is particularly unnerving. The scene is set by the story of a recurring nightmare, followed by an apparently innocuous invitation to a weekend at a country house, where element after element matches his nightmare, down to repeated phrases. The tower, where he is set to sleep, is apparently haunted by a vampire; Mrs Stone.The story has an air of real experience about it and I wonder whether Benson himself had a recurring nightmare, or poached the idea from the real experience of a friend. I was told a similar story by a young woman I met and this dream, and Benson’s story The Room in The Tower were the inspiration for my own story: He WaitsMusic is by the marvellous <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute) Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 <a href="https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman</a> (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!<a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://<a href="http://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey</a> (Click here to go to the Survey)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 2: The Room in The Tower by E F Benson

M R James is known as the father of the English ghost story. He wasn’t the first to write ghost stories, but he was the finest of his generation whose work continues to be published and re-presented as TV shows and radio plays.He was born in 1862 at Goodnestone in Kent. His father was a clergyman and was rector of Livermere in Suffolk. East Anglia features as the setting of many of M R James’s stories. James’s ‘proper job’ was as an academic and he had a distinguished academic career at King’s College in Cambridge where he became dead in 1889 and finally provost in 1905. He was awarded a doctorate in literature by Cambridge in 1895 and honorary doctorates by Trinity College Dublin and St. Andrews University in Scotland.He moved to become provost of the famous Eton College, supplier of many prime ministers of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in 1918. He was a trustee of the British Museum from 1925.In 1893, James began his tradition of reading ghost stories at Christmas by candlelight to a hushed circle of his colleagues and friends. His geographical background in East Anglia is evident in many of his stories, as well as his bicycling trips to Europe. Many of his heroes are fumbling academics and Latin and old manuscripts and church architecture also features strongly.He clearly had a knowledge of the occult and demonology, though he was not known to be a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as were other writers of ghost stories such as Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen. Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad! Is the title of a poem by the Scottish poet Robbie Burns, and James borrowed this title though Burn’s story concerns a jilted lover. Perhaps he borrowed it because the central item in the story is the ancient whistle found in the sand covered ruins of the old abbey, which when blown, seems to summon the spirit that haunts the narrator.The Latin inscription: Quis est qui venit? Means ‘Who is this who comes?’ The other inscription around the plus sign, or cross, is a puzzle of a Latin proverb: Fur Flabis Flebis which means, ‘Thief, if you blow; you will weep.” And in one sense, though a finder, our man is a thief, and when he blows, he certainly does weep.It is the sheer weirdness of the ghost that is unnerving, and James is the master of this disturbing oddness which is not quite the same as Lovecraft’s Cosmic Horror in his weird tales or later Robert Aickman’s unnerving unnaturalness in his ghost stories.The closest parallel I find to James’s inexplicable and disturbing weirdness is in David Lynch’s movies, particularly Inland Empire and the Third Season of Twin Peaks.Support Us!https://tonywalker.substack.com/about (Subscribe For All Episodes!)MusicMusic is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute) Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

M R James is known as the father of the English ghost story. He wasn’t the first to write ghost stories, but he was the finest of his generation whose work continues to be published and re-presented as TV shows and radio plays.He was born in 1862 at Goodnestone in Kent. His father was a clergyman and was rector of Livermere in Suffolk. East Anglia features as the setting of many of M R James’s stories. James’s ‘proper job’ was as an academic and he had a distinguished academic career at King’s College in Cambridge where he became dead in 1889 and finally provost in 1905. He was awarded a doctorate in literature by Cambridge in 1895 and honorary doctorates by Trinity College Dublin and St. Andrews University in Scotland.He moved to become provost of the famous Eton College, supplier of many prime ministers of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in 1918. He was a trustee of the British Museum from <a href="http://1925.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">1925.In</a> 1893, James began his tradition of reading ghost stories at Christmas by candlelight to a hushed circle of his colleagues and friends. His geographical background in East Anglia is evident in many of his stories, as well as his bicycling trips to Europe. Many of his heroes are fumbling academics and Latin and old manuscripts and church architecture also features strongly.He clearly had a knowledge of the occult and demonology, though he was not known to be a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as were other writers of ghost stories such as Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen. Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad! Is the title of a poem by the Scottish poet Robbie Burns, and James borrowed this title though Burn’s story concerns a jilted lover. Perhaps he borrowed it because the central item in the story is the ancient whistle found in the sand covered ruins of the old abbey, which when blown, seems to summon the spirit that haunts the narrator.The Latin inscription: Quis est qui venit? Means ‘Who is this who comes?’ The other inscription around the plus sign, or cross, is a puzzle of a Latin proverb: Fur Flabis Flebis which means, ‘Thief, if you blow; you will weep.” And in one sense, though a finder, our man is a thief, and when he blows, he certainly does <a href="http://weep.It" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">weep.It</a> is the sheer weirdness of the ghost that is unnerving, and James is the master of this disturbing oddness which is not quite the same as Lovecraft’s Cosmic Horror in his weird tales or later Robert Aickman’s unnerving unnaturalness in his ghost stories.The closest parallel I find to James’s inexplicable and disturbing weirdness is in David Lynch’s movies, particularly Inland Empire and the Third Season of Twin Peaks.Support Us!<a href="https://tonywalker.substack.com/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tonywalker.substack.com/about</a> (Subscribe For All Episodes!)MusicMusic is by the marvellous <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute) <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 3: Whistle and I'll Come to You by M R James

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton, nee Jones, (born New York 1862, died aged 75 in France) was a famous American novelist. Her nickname interestingly was Pussy Jones. She was very high society and was a debutante and socialite. She was also a very good writer.Wharton wrote best-sellers such as The Age of Innocence, which won the 1921 Pulitzer prize, and Ethan Frome. She also wrote short stories, and among those short stories were several ghost stories.I think the first scene shows Wharton's mastery of her art. She introduces the three ordinary, taciturn men who are summoned without knowing why to the house of stern mrs Rutledge. She sets the scene: it's an isolated, rural area with primitive customs. Even more isolated at this time of the year because of the snow. Then she introduces the issue of her husband dilly-dallying with a revenant to much consternation and anger. The first scene ends with the dramatic entry of Mr Rutledge, who has precious little to say for himself. The characters are so well drawn and we end with a promise.The themes of rural isolation and old customs held by primitive folk is echoed throughout the later weird literature with Lovecraft making judicious use of it in the same New England, and then the Folk Horror films of the 1970s do the same in rural Old England (and Scotland for The Wicker Man). We see the same theme of rurality and superstitious ancient customs in this year's folk horror movie Midsommar, set in Sweden.And then the party breaks up. By chance they go to the scene of the haunting earlier than planned. There, Brand shoots someone in the ruined house (another trope). They've seen footprints on the snow both too light to be human and the snow too cold to be borne by a living person, so that seems to set up the ghost as real. But who does Brand shoot?Then the ghost's sister dies. Did Brand shoot his own daughter? If he did, then this is no ghost story, but presumably the Rutledge's knew the difference between the dead and living daughter? Unless old Saul Rutledge is just an old dog and knows fine well that the flesh he's enjoying is warm and alive but it suits him to portray it as a haunting...I don't know. After the funeral, Mrs Rutledge's plain ordinary words seal the community as a coming back to their plan old ordinary ways, the "forbidden things" as the Deacon repeats, put away (but not forgotten)Next week, I think I'm going to do Lovecraft's Dagon, though I am being pulled towards Le Fanu's Carmilla, which is quite long and would need a couple of episodes.We shall see.https://tonywalker.substack.com/about (Subscribe For All Episodes!)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Edith Wharton, nee Jones, (born New York 1862, died aged 75 in France) was a famous American novelist. Her nickname interestingly was Pussy Jones. She was very high society and was a debutante and socialite. She was also a very good writer.Wharton wrote best-sellers such as The Age of Innocence, which won the 1921 Pulitzer prize, and Ethan Frome. She also wrote short stories, and among those short stories were several ghost stories.I think the first scene shows Wharton's mastery of her art. She introduces the three ordinary, taciturn men who are summoned without knowing why to the house of stern mrs Rutledge. She sets the scene: it's an isolated, rural area with primitive customs. Even more isolated at this time of the year because of the snow. Then she introduces the issue of her husband dilly-dallying with a revenant to much consternation and anger. The first scene ends with the dramatic entry of Mr Rutledge, who has precious little to say for himself. The characters are so well drawn and we end with a promise.The themes of rural isolation and old customs held by primitive folk is echoed throughout the later weird literature with Lovecraft making judicious use of it in the same New England, and then the Folk Horror films of the 1970s do the same in rural Old England (and Scotland for The Wicker Man). We see the same theme of rurality and superstitious ancient customs in this year's folk horror movie Midsommar, set in Sweden.And then the party breaks up. By chance they go to the scene of the haunting earlier than planned. There, Brand shoots someone in the ruined house (another trope). They've seen footprints on the snow both too light to be human and the snow too cold to be borne by a living person, so that seems to set up the ghost as real. But who does Brand shoot?Then the ghost's sister dies. Did Brand shoot his own daughter? If he did, then this is no ghost story, but presumably the Rutledge's knew the difference between the dead and living daughter? Unless old Saul Rutledge is just an old dog and knows fine well that the flesh he's enjoying is warm and alive but it suits him to portray it as a haunting...I don't know. After the funeral, Mrs Rutledge's plain ordinary words seal the community as a coming back to their plan old ordinary ways, the "forbidden things" as the Deacon repeats, put away (but not forgotten)Next week, I think I'm going to do Lovecraft's Dagon, though I am being pulled towards Le Fanu's Carmilla, which is quite long and would need a couple of episodes.We shall see.https://<a href="http://tonywalker.substack.com/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tonywalker.substack.com/about</a> (Subscribe For All Episodes!)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 4: Bewitched by Edith Wharton

August HeatW F Harvey was a Yorkshireman, born in 1885 and died in 1937. He was a Quaker and suffered from ill health all his life. He joined an ambulance unit in the First World War but then went to work as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He actually won a medal for saving lives but suffered from lung trouble the rest of his life from that rescue, though that didn’t stop him smoking a pipe.He published his first collection of short stories called The Midnight House in 1910 and his second in 1928 called The Beast with Five Fingers.The Beast With Five Fingers is a splendid story was was made into a film in 1946 starring Peter Lorre. I remember watching it at home with my parents and being really creeped out. The next time I watched it as an adult, I realised it was a comedy.This is a short piece of fiction. We’d almost call it Flash Fiction these days. August Heat is strong in its depiction of atmosphere of the hot August weather. The weird coincidence of the two men encapsulating each other in their own particular forms of art is strange. These days, it isn’t really unnerving. And the long established trope of leaving the reader to wonder whether he will actually die that night before midnight - and he’s got less than an hour left, is fun, but wouldn’t satisfy the modern reader.I’ve tried it and you get one starred into oblivion if you try that kind of trick on Amazon.I would be most grateful for any shares, ratings or reviews on the Podcast Channels and if you would like to, there are links to support the show through a small donationhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

August HeatW F Harvey was a Yorkshireman, born in 1885 and died in 1937. He was a Quaker and suffered from ill health all his life. He joined an ambulance unit in the First World War but then went to work as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He actually won a medal for saving lives but suffered from lung trouble the rest of his life from that rescue, though that didn’t stop him smoking a pipe.He published his first collection of short stories called The Midnight House in 1910 and his second in 1928 called The Beast with Five Fingers.The Beast With Five Fingers is a splendid story was was made into a film in 1946 starring Peter Lorre. I remember watching it at home with my parents and being really creeped out. The next time I watched it as an adult, I realised it was a comedy.This is a short piece of fiction. We’d almost call it Flash Fiction these days. August Heat is strong in its depiction of atmosphere of the hot August weather. The weird coincidence of the two men encapsulating each other in their own particular forms of art is strange. These days, it isn’t really unnerving. And the long established trope of leaving the reader to wonder whether he will actually die that night before midnight - and he’s got less than an hour left, is fun, but wouldn’t satisfy the modern reader.I’ve tried it and you get one starred into oblivion if you try that kind of trick on Amazon.I would be most grateful for any shares, ratings or reviews on the Podcast Channels and if you would like to, there are links to support the show through a small donationhttps://<a href="http://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 5: August Heat by W F Harvey

Charlotte Riddell

Charlotte Riddell was born in 1832 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. After she married she moved to London where she lived most of her life and died in Ashford in Kent in 1906. Riddell was a very prolific novelist and well known in the Victorian period. She actually owned and ran a Literary Magazine in the second half of the 19th Century. The Open Door is considered a classic Victorian ghost story and it reminds me of some of Wilkie Collin’s stories which are more or less contemporary. The Open Door is both a ghost story and not a ghost story. It has elements in it reminiscent of Scooby Doo and if hadn’t been for the pesky sacked insurance clerk, maybe you know who would have got away with itBut for all that the opening of the door does appear to be supernatural. It simply won’t stay shut and breaks of the handle of the gimlet. We don’t use gimlets much these days, but once I looked up what a gimlet was the phrase ‘gimlet eyed’ became more understandable.And then there is the monstrous figure that appears at the end. This seems to truly be a ghost and the apparition reminds us that the function of ghosts in stories is often a warning and a demand that murder or other outrages be put right and justice be done.Banquo’s Ghost in MacBeth and Hamlet’s father in Hamlet do much the same. It’s all about revenge.The story is a pretty straightforward adventure but there are a couple of nice touches. Phil Edlyd’s uncle seems a nice chap. He uses dialect thee and thou, which is a nice homely touch. Another endearing feature is that Phil longs to be a country boy. He loves horses such as old Toddy and he luxuriates over the descriptions of the beautiful summer countryside outside Ladlow Hall. In the end he gets to be a farmer with his beloved Patty.The Victorian ghost story was an outgrowth of the Gothic novel, a specialist sub-branch if you like. Ladlow Hall functions as the ruined castle/abbey etc of the Gothic novel.All in all a nice piece. Unpretentious but sweet. Not scary.But then ghost stories are really scary. They’re not horror stories you know. And besides after the Human Caterpillar there’s not much can scare we moderns anyway.Support Us!https://tonywalker.substack.com/about (Subscribe For All Episodes!)﻿MusicMusic is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute) Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Charlotte Riddell was born in 1832 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. After she married she moved to London where she lived most of her life and died in Ashford in Kent in 1906. Riddell was a very prolific novelist and well known in the Victorian period. She actually owned and ran a Literary Magazine in the second half of the 19th Century. The Open Door is considered a classic Victorian ghost story and it reminds me of some of Wilkie Collin’s stories which are more or less contemporary. The Open Door is both a ghost story and not a ghost story. It has elements in it reminiscent of Scooby Doo and if hadn’t been for the pesky sacked insurance clerk, maybe you know who would have got away with itBut for all that the opening of the door does appear to be supernatural. It simply won’t stay shut and breaks of the handle of the gimlet. We don’t use gimlets much these days, but once I looked up what a gimlet was the phrase ‘gimlet eyed’ became more understandable.And then there is the monstrous figure that appears at the end. This seems to truly be a ghost and the apparition reminds us that the function of ghosts in stories is often a warning and a demand that murder or other outrages be put right and justice be done.Banquo’s Ghost in MacBeth and Hamlet’s father in Hamlet do much the same. It’s all about revenge.The story is a pretty straightforward adventure but there are a couple of nice touches. Phil Edlyd’s uncle seems a nice chap. He uses dialect thee and thou, which is a nice homely touch. Another endearing feature is that Phil longs to be a country boy. He loves horses such as old Toddy and he luxuriates over the descriptions of the beautiful summer countryside outside Ladlow Hall. In the end he gets to be a farmer with his beloved Patty.The Victorian ghost story was an outgrowth of the Gothic novel, a specialist sub-branch if you like. Ladlow Hall functions as the ruined castle/abbey etc of the Gothic novel.All in all a nice piece. Unpretentious but sweet. Not scary.But then ghost stories are really scary. They’re not horror stories you know. And besides after the Human Caterpillar there’s not much can scare we moderns anyway.Support Us!<a href="https://tonywalker.substack.com/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tonywalker.substack.com/about</a> (Subscribe For All Episodes!)﻿MusicMusic is by the marvellous <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute) <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 6: The Open Door by Charlotte Riddell

Edith Nesbit

Edith NesbitEdith Nesbit was an English novelist born in 1858 in Kennington, which was then Surrey and is now part of London. She died in 1924 in the next county from where she was born.Nesbit is most famous for her children’s books and her most famous work The Railway Children is well beloved. I loved her Five Children and It stories which I read in a Victorian house all decked out for Christmas one year. That was splendid as the owner of the house had a great sense of interior decoration (though she was also rather too fond of a drink as I found out when I grew up)Like most Victorian novelists she had a dabble in ghost stories. They sold well at the time. This one, Man Sized in Marble appears in a lot of anthologies.It’s a story that is more impressive on the second reading (or hearing). The first time through you don’t pick up on all the little hints and foreshadowings that something dreadful is going to happen. In fact, Laura’s death wasn’t foreseen by me, which is the sign of a good story.There is a lot of nice Gothic description of the woods and the moon and the church as well as the house lit by candles and tallow tapers. I was going to do The Nurse’s Tale this week, but this took precedence. I am going to do The Phantom Coach next week, but I’m itching to do something American again to perfect my accent. I appreciate it may take more than one story to do that.So, I’m thinking Ambrose Bierce. Any suggestions welcome.My new book is out. Hard copies arrived today. Very exciting. I’m still doing voiceover and narration work if you need any of that done. I find most people don’t.As ever, still spending more on the podcast than I earn, so if you fancy helping me out, check outTo show your appreciation, why not subscribe to Substack. Free gets all the free stuff and $5 a month gets you all the exclusive stories and episodes.https://tonywalker.substack.com/ (Subscribe)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Edith NesbitEdith Nesbit was an English novelist born in 1858 in Kennington, which was then Surrey and is now part of London. She died in 1924 in the next county from where she was born.Nesbit is most famous for her children’s books and her most famous work The Railway Children is well beloved. I loved her Five Children and It stories which I read in a Victorian house all decked out for Christmas one year. That was splendid as the owner of the house had a great sense of interior decoration (though she was also rather too fond of a drink as I found out when I grew up)Like most Victorian novelists she had a dabble in ghost stories. They sold well at the time. This one, Man Sized in Marble appears in a lot of <a href="http://anthologies.It" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">anthologies.It</a>’s a story that is more impressive on the second reading (or hearing). The first time through you don’t pick up on all the little hints and foreshadowings that something dreadful is going to happen. In fact, Laura’s death wasn’t foreseen by me, which is the sign of a good story.There is a lot of nice Gothic description of the woods and the moon and the church as well as the house lit by candles and tallow tapers. I was going to do The Nurse’s Tale this week, but this took precedence. I am going to do The Phantom Coach next week, but I’m itching to do something American again to perfect my accent. I appreciate it may take more than one story to do <a href="http://that.So" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">that.So</a>, I’m thinking Ambrose Bierce. Any suggestions <a href="http://welcome.My" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">welcome.My</a> new book is out. Hard copies arrived today. Very exciting. I’m still doing voiceover and narration work if you need any of that done. I find most people don’<a href="http://t.As" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">t.As</a> ever, still spending more on the podcast than I earn, so if you fancy helping me out, check outTo show your appreciation, why not subscribe to Substack. Free gets all the free stuff and $5 a month gets you all the exclusive stories and episodes.https://<a href="http://tonywalker.substack.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tonywalker.substack.com/</a> (Subscribe)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 7: Man Sized in Marble by Edith Nesbit

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce was a prominent American author in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He is most famous for his Devil’s Dictionary. He served in the Union Army in the American Civil War and his military experience forms the background of many of his stories.He was born in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek, Ohio. His ancestors were English puritans. By trade he began as a printer and he was later a journalist. He was a controversial figure often mired in argument and litigation. At the age of 71, heading for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields, Bierce disappeared. He wrote a letter from Chihuahua, then he disappeared. He was never found.Bierce published the Moonlit Road in 1907.  This was just about the start of the literary and artistic movement known as Modernism, though its roots can be traced a little further back. While other classic ghost story authors are distinctly Victorian, the heyday of the ghost story, arguably, Bierce appears far more Modern, or even Modernist.In the Moonlit Road, for example, Bierce uses multiple narrators giving overlapping, but distinct viewpoints of the same event. He uses this technique in other stories. It’s only through the composite that we see what has (may have) really happened, and even then, there are things missing.There are three narrators to this story, the son, the father (gone mad and forgetful of his true identity) and the mother (now dead as a mournful ghost). The three together give us a fairly clear view of what has happened, but the fourth narrator is missing. Who is the mysterious figure leaving the house by the back door? It’s this figure that drives the husband into a jealous rage, leading him to kill his wife. And his wife is unaware that it is her husband that killed her. He thinks the figure is her lover. She thinks the figure is some monster. Why does the figure hesitate to come in and leave without encountering the wife?Is the figure a real man? A thief? Or the personification of Death himself — soon to visit Mrs Hetman. The leaving out of the fourth witness to the tragedy is masterful, but then so much of Bierce is masterful.https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Ambrose Bierce was a prominent American author in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He is most famous for his Devil’s Dictionary. He served in the Union Army in the American Civil War and his military experience forms the background of many of his stories.He was born in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek, Ohio. His ancestors were English puritans. By trade he began as a printer and he was later a journalist. He was a controversial figure often mired in argument and litigation. At the age of 71, heading for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields, Bierce disappeared. He wrote a letter from Chihuahua, then he disappeared. He was never found.Bierce published the Moonlit Road in 1907.  This was just about the start of the literary and artistic movement known as Modernism, though its roots can be traced a little further back. While other classic ghost story authors are distinctly Victorian, the heyday of the ghost story, arguably, Bierce appears far more Modern, or even <a href="http://Modernist.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Modernist.In</a> the Moonlit Road, for example, Bierce uses multiple narrators giving overlapping, but distinct viewpoints of the same event. He uses this technique in other stories. It’s only through the composite that we see what has (may have) really happened, and even then, there are things missing.There are three narrators to this story, the son, the father (gone mad and forgetful of his true identity) and the mother (now dead as a mournful ghost). The three together give us a fairly clear view of what has happened, but the fourth narrator is missing. Who is the mysterious figure leaving the house by the back door? It’s this figure that drives the husband into a jealous rage, leading him to kill his wife. And his wife is unaware that it is her husband that killed her. He thinks the figure is her lover. She thinks the figure is some monster. Why does the figure hesitate to come in and leave without encountering the wife?Is the figure a real man? A thief? Or the personification of Death himself — soon to visit Mrs Hetman. The leaving out of the fourth witness to the tragedy is masterful, but then so much of Bierce is masterful.https://<a href="http://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 9: The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce

Amelia Edwards was born in 1831 in London, England. As such she is one of the oldest writers we’ve read so far in this podcast. She died aged only 60 in Weston Supermare, a seaside resort in the west of England.She came from a wealthy background and didn’t have to work, but she was a very successful writer based on her own talents.She was in fact a very talented woman and had the potential to be a professional artist though her father, a banker, frowned on that as a career. She also made home with a woman, long before such things were accepted by polite British society.She was also an Egyptologist and after a cruise down the Nile and a long stay among the monuments, she devoted all of her efforts to saving the Egyptian monuments and took a lecture tour over several years in the United States to promote the cause.The Phantom Coach is a much anthologised story and it has some wonderful description. I think the story falls into three parts: lost on the Moors and despite what most commentators think, I suspect this is Northumberland rather than Yorkshire given what she says about the ‘far’ north of England. Despite that I have given Jacob a fudged Northern English accent which isn’t very Northumberland but draws on my native Cumbrian accent.The first part is well-done: lost. Then our man is found. He goes to a Victor Frankenstein type natural philosopher who has withdrawn from the world and lives with his alchemical and other vaguely occult thoughts, bitter that science has turned its back on spirits. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly was published in 1818, so predating Amelia by a way. Madame Blavatsky who founded the Theosophical Society was born the same year as Amelia so maybe the occult was in the air. The third part, which is a standard haunting story is very well described. The only connection I think it has with the Magus bloke in his remote house is that he has spoken about the reality of spirits: and here they are proved. No real moral point in this week’s story. Unlike the later bleak works of the early 20th Century, there is a happy ending!Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show:https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395 (Share and rate it!) http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (Buy Tony a coffee) to help with the long nights editing!Become a http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon (Patreon) to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Website http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast) MusicMusic is by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute) Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Amelia Edwards was born in 1831 in London, England. As such she is one of the oldest writers we’ve read so far in this podcast. She died aged only 60 in Weston Supermare, a seaside resort in the west of England.She came from a wealthy background and didn’t have to work, but she was a very successful writer based on her own talents.She was in fact a very talented woman and had the potential to be a professional artist though her father, a banker, frowned on that as a career. She also made home with a woman, long before such things were accepted by polite British society.She was also an Egyptologist and after a cruise down the Nile and a long stay among the monuments, she devoted all of her efforts to saving the Egyptian monuments and took a lecture tour over several years in the United States to promote the cause.The Phantom Coach is a much anthologised story and it has some wonderful description. I think the story falls into three parts: lost on the Moors and despite what most commentators think, I suspect this is Northumberland rather than Yorkshire given what she says about the ‘far’ north of England. Despite that I have given Jacob a fudged Northern English accent which isn’t very Northumberland but draws on my native Cumbrian accent.The first part is well-done: lost. Then our man is found. He goes to a Victor Frankenstein type natural philosopher who has withdrawn from the world and lives with his alchemical and other vaguely occult thoughts, bitter that science has turned its back on spirits. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly was published in 1818, so predating Amelia by a way. Madame Blavatsky who founded the Theosophical Society was born the same year as Amelia so maybe the occult was in the air. The third part, which is a standard haunting story is very well described. The only connection I think it has with the Magus bloke in his remote house is that he has spoken about the reality of spirits: and here they are proved. No real moral point in this week’s story. Unlike the later bleak works of the early 20th Century, there is a happy ending!Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show:<a href="https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395</a> (Share and rate it!) <a href="http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY</a> (Buy Tony a coffee) to help with the long nights editing!Become a <a href="http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon</a> (Patreon) to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Website <a href="http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast</a> (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast) MusicMusic is by the marvellous <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute) <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 8: The Phantom Coach by Amelia Edwards

A weekly podcast which reads out ghost stories, horror stories and weird tales every week. Classic stories from the pens of the masters. Occasionally we feature living authors, but the majority, are dead. Some perhaps are undead.  Get exclusive episodes on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcud

And very informative, regarding the author and themes. Great stories and writers!  Thank you.

Well-performed

Very well read and presented.  I look forward to each new episode.

Nice Classic Rendering

A weekly podcast which reads out ghost stories, horror stories and weird tales every week. Classic stories from the pens of the masters. Occasionally we feature living authors, but the majority, are dead. Some perhaps are undead. Get exclusive episodes on Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>

Classic Ghost Stories

Frank Cowper

Christmas Eve on a haunted hulk by Frank CowperFrank Cowper  was born in 1849 and died in 1930. He was an English yachtsman primarily famous for his pioneering work in developing the whole business of modern cruising. He was primarily a sailor but gained fame with his book /Sailing Tours/ which described his voyages in his yachts.He clearly also was an accomplished writer  as we see it in this story /Christmas Eve on A Haunted Hulk/ has a very realistic style. The vividness of the description of his foray  through the marshes shows he was very familiar with this kind of terrain. One incidental gem of this story is the picture he gives of the provincial life of educated gentlefolk amongst the Victorian peasantry. I have no doubt that this was drawn from Frank Cowper’s actual experience. I suspect that the being stuck under his bed after falling out in the night is also an actual incident from his life.I read this particular story as part of my series of Christmas themed ghost stories leading up to Christmas this year. I have done /The Snow/ by Hugh Walpole and I anticipate doing a couple more Christmas stories before tackling Charles Dickens is /A Christmas Carol/. However there is many a slip twixt cup and lip and it may be that I do not get round to reading a Christmas Carol as I have rather a busy schedule between now and the winter festival itself.I am sitting alone here editing this audio file and trying to get it done before bed. I hope then you will forgive that I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about this story.In some ways it has elements similar to last week’s story /The Kitbag/ by Algernon Blackwood. In both tales, we have the sensory description of something going on that frightens yet does not actually touch the protagonist. Frank Cowper’s description of the cold and damp of the abandoned hulk was very convincing. The only other point I want to make is that it is not particularly Christmassy in tone. For one thing there is no snow! However this dreary cold rainy weather is far more characteristic of an English Christmas than the picture postcard snowman and Santa Claus we would like to believe in.Many things have happened since I last spoke to you however we now have a website. Please check it out. http://www.classicghoststories.com (Www.classicghoststories.com)As always, I beg you to share, rate and love the podcast. Let us grow strong!https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Christmas Eve on a haunted hulk by Frank CowperFrank Cowper  was born in 1849 and died in 1930. He was an English yachtsman primarily famous for his pioneering work in developing the whole business of modern cruising. He was primarily a sailor but gained fame with his book /Sailing Tours/ which described his voyages in his yachts.He clearly also was an accomplished writer  as we see it in this story /Christmas Eve on A Haunted Hulk/ has a very realistic style. The vividness of the description of his foray  through the marshes shows he was very familiar with this kind of terrain. One incidental gem of this story is the picture he gives of the provincial life of educated gentlefolk amongst the Victorian peasantry. I have no doubt that this was drawn from Frank Cowper’s actual experience. I suspect that the being stuck under his bed after falling out in the night is also an actual incident from his life.I read this particular story as part of my series of Christmas themed ghost stories leading up to Christmas this year. I have done /The Snow/ by Hugh Walpole and I anticipate doing a couple more Christmas stories before tackling Charles Dickens is /A Christmas Carol/. However there is many a slip twixt cup and lip and it may be that I do not get round to reading a Christmas Carol as I have rather a busy schedule between now and the winter festival itself.I am sitting alone here editing this audio file and trying to get it done before bed. I hope then you will forgive that I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about this <a href="http://story.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">story.In</a> some ways it has elements similar to last week’s story /The Kitbag/ by Algernon Blackwood. In both tales, we have the sensory description of something going on that frightens yet does not actually touch the protagonist. Frank Cowper’s description of the cold and damp of the abandoned hulk was very convincing. The only other point I want to make is that it is not particularly Christmassy in tone. For one thing there is no snow! However this dreary cold rainy weather is far more characteristic of an English Christmas than the picture postcard snowman and Santa Claus we would like to believe in.Many things have happened since I last spoke to you however we now have a website. Please check it out. <a href="http://www.classicghoststories.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.classicghoststories.com</a> (<a href="http://Www.classicghoststories.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Www.classicghoststories.com</a>)As always, I beg you to share, rate and love the podcast. Let us grow strong!<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 21 Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk by Frank Cowper

The Horla by Guy de MaupassantWelcome to Episode 35 of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast!What would really help me would be if you could think of one friend or acquaintance who would enjoy the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast and share it with them! If every listener is helpful enough to do this for me, then we would double the podcast every week!Imagine that!The StoryToday’s story is a famous French short-story by a prolific and highly regarded author: Guy de Maupassant. In fact, he was known as the father of the short story!Guy de MaupassantDe Maupassant was a famous French short-story writer born in France in 1850, who died aged only 42 in 1893 in Paris. He is buried in Montparnasse cemetery.De Maupassant was considered a master of the short story form and his first story, set in the Franco-Prussian War Boule de Suif (A Ball of Suiet) was published in 1880 and is a great story. You may not know that the use of ‘de’ in front of the name (like von in German) indicates noble birth and De Maupassant’s mother urged his father to secure the right, from an ancestor, to so style himself.De Maupassant’s father was violent to his mother and the young lad was witness to this. His mother had the courage and support to separate from his father because of the violence and De Maupassant and his brother went with her. As this was the 1850s or so, this was very rare and very brave of his mother.At school, De Maupassant became friends with Gustave Flaubert. And he saved the life of the English poet Algenon Swinborne from drowning.As a profession, he was a newspaper editor and wrote fiction in his spare time. The HorlaThe Horla was first published in 1887, and is set in 1867 near Rouen in Normandy, France. The narrator is obviously a gentleman — a man of leisure who comes to believe that he is haunted by a monster, which later reveals its name as ‘The Horla.’ This is a nonsense word pronounced in French without the H- (so why then include it, monsieur de Maupassant?) but which I have chosen to pronounce in English with an h.De Maupassant was said to suffer from a mental illness and I recognise the symptoms of anxiety he describes at the beginning but which has become so advanced so that it develops psychotic features — in this case the delusion of the invisible being. There are clear paranoid elements, in that he believes the Horla is a superior being come to replace mankind. There is an example of the secondary rationality that you see in psychosis, where after the clearly irrational primary psychotic insight, in this case that he is possessed by the Horla, then rationality kicks in to explain how this could be so. In his case, he links it to a weird psychic vampire epidemic in Brazil and deduces he was infected when he saluted the Brazilian ship that went by on the Thames, before which he was fine. The power of the the Horla is the same domination of will shown by Dr Parent who hyptonises his cousin Madam de Sable.It all makes perfect sense, but of course is delusional.He shows relatively little remorse for burning his servants alive, I must say, though it wouldn’t be out of the way in many cases of paranoid psychosis that he believed them in on it. Though in this story they clearly aren’t.So, the Horla probably draws on De Maupassant’s real experiences of being mentally ill, but fictionalised. It is possibly this reality that makes the story quite unnerving. I remember being very disturbed by it when I read it first in my teens.MesmerismMesmerism or Animal Magnetism was brought to public attention in the 18th Century by the German doctor Franz Mesmer. It was a fairly weird theory of magnetic fluid, but I’mSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

The Horla by Guy de MaupassantWelcome to Episode 35 of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast!What would really help me would be if you could think of one friend or acquaintance who would enjoy the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast and share it with them! If every listener is helpful enough to do this for me, then we would double the podcast every week!Imagine that!The StoryToday’s story is a famous French short-story by a prolific and highly regarded author: Guy de Maupassant. In fact, he was known as the father of the short story!Guy de MaupassantDe Maupassant was a famous French short-story writer born in France in 1850, who died aged only 42 in 1893 in Paris. He is buried in Montparnasse <a href="http://cemetery.De" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cemetery.De</a> Maupassant was considered a master of the short story form and his first story, set in the Franco-Prussian War Boule de Suif (A Ball of Suiet) was published in 1880 and is a great story. You may not know that the use of ‘de’ in front of the name (like von in German) indicates noble birth and De Maupassant’s mother urged his father to secure the right, from an ancestor, to so style <a href="http://himself.De" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">himself.De</a> Maupassant’s father was violent to his mother and the young lad was witness to this. His mother had the courage and support to separate from his father because of the violence and De Maupassant and his brother went with her. As this was the 1850s or so, this was very rare and very brave of his <a href="http://mother.At" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mother.At</a> school, De Maupassant became friends with Gustave Flaubert. And he saved the life of the English poet Algenon Swinborne from <a href="http://drowning.As" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">drowning.As</a> a profession, he was a newspaper editor and wrote fiction in his spare time. The HorlaThe Horla was first published in 1887, and is set in 1867 near Rouen in Normandy, France. The narrator is obviously a gentleman — a man of leisure who comes to believe that he is haunted by a monster, which later reveals its name as ‘The Horla.’ This is a nonsense word pronounced in French without the H- (so why then include it, monsieur de Maupassant?) but which I have chosen to pronounce in English with an <a href="http://h.De" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">h.De</a> Maupassant was said to suffer from a mental illness and I recognise the symptoms of anxiety he describes at the beginning but which has become so advanced so that it develops psychotic features — in this case the delusion of the invisible being. There are clear paranoid elements, in that he believes the Horla is a superior being come to replace mankind. There is an example of the secondary rationality that you see in psychosis, where after the clearly irrational primary psychotic insight, in this case that he is possessed by the Horla, then rationality kicks in to explain how this could be so. In his case, he links it to a weird psychic vampire epidemic in Brazil and deduces he was infected when he saluted the Brazilian ship that went by on the Thames, before which he was fine. The power of the the Horla is the same domination of will shown by Dr Parent who hyptonises his cousin Madam de <a href="http://Sable.It" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sable.It</a> all makes perfect sense, but of course is delusional.He shows relatively little remorse for burning his servants alive, I must say, though it wouldn’t be out of the way in many cases of paranoid psychosis that he believed them in on it. Though in this story they clearly aren’<a href="http://t.So" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">t.So</a>, the Horla probably draws on De Maupassant’s real experiences of being mentally ill, but fictionalised. It is possibly this reality that makes the story quite unnerving. I remember being very disturbed by it when I read it first in my teens.MesmerismMesmerism or Animal Magnetism was brought to public attention in the 18th Century by the German doctor Franz Mesmer. It was a fairly weird theory of magnetic fluid, but I’m<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 35: The Horla by Guy de Maupassant

Howard Phillips LovecraftHP Lovecraft was perhaps the most influential writer of horror and weird tales of his generation. That may not have been evident during his life or even for a while after his death, but his work continues to be made into movies The Colour Out of Space was recently released, starring Nicholas Cage which is a based on Lovecraft’s weird tale of the same name.Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island and died in the same city in 1937 aged only 46 of untreated stomach cancer.His family was originally wealthy but the fortune was tied to his grandfather and after his death, the money dried up. He was almost a pauper at the time of his death.Lovecraft’s father was a travelling salesman but it appears that his mother’s family had the money , In 1913 he began to get involved in pulp fiction and most of his stories were published in pulp magazines. He was a mentor to younger writers and perhaps the thing which ensured his later fame was his encouraging of other writers to develop his Mythos. It appears that Lovecraft suffered from mental illness during most of his life, most probably depression. Lovecraft was very conservative and an Anglophile in his writing. He did not like Americanisms and he uses some deliberately British stylings in his writing.The HoundThe Hound is Lovecraft’s most clearly Gothic tale, and that’s saying something. When he talks of his hero’s taste for the macabre, we can’t help but feel that Lovecraft is speaking through him. The Hound is like a story by Edgar Allen Poe channeled through Lovecraft’s pen. He never uses a normal word when he can use an outlandish one, and where one adjective would do, he piles on three or four and makes sure they are outlandish and obscure. This makes his style relatively easy to parody with its unspeakable cults and squamous monstrosities not to mention countless eldritch blasphemies on every page.The story is pretty simple. It concerns two post Baudelaire decadents going grave robbing for kicks. As often happens in Lovecraft’s stories they find an ancient arcane item (a McGuffin in screenwriting terms) and as is often the case it is made of jade. Somehow them moving the token gets the hound to haunt them all the way back to their horrible house in England and when our man ventures back to Holland to put it back (though it is robbed from him before he can do so), there he finds the monstrous hound waiting for him. Or at least that is the sense I made of it, with the addition of a good number of oversized vampire bats for good measure.In any case, a fun gothic romp, overdone and vulgar no doubt, but great fun to read out.Darkworlds ParisIf you like Lovecraft, you may like my new story [Darkworlds Paris] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WW6LSK (Amazon.com: Darkworlds Paris: A Cthulhu LitRPG eBook: Tony Walker: Kindle Store)``) The story is the second book in the Darkworlds Series: Lovecraftian Horror set in a virtual reality computer game. The Great Old Ones are stirring, and they’re inside your head!Call to Action!This week, because of the success of the previous Call to Action, we are growing, fast and the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast is getting 12000 downloads a month. This is fantastic, but it trips us into the next cost category for Podcast Hosting. As this is a big leap up, if you would like the Podcast to keep going, and if you are able and willing, I would like to ask you to consider becoming a monthly http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon (Patreon.)Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395 (Share and rate it!)   http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (BSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Howard Phillips LovecraftHP Lovecraft was perhaps the most influential writer of horror and weird tales of his generation. That may not have been evident during his life or even for a while after his death, but his work continues to be made into movies The Colour Out of Space was recently released, starring Nicholas Cage which is a based on Lovecraft’s weird tale of the same name.Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island and died in the same city in 1937 aged only 46 of untreated stomach cancer.His family was originally wealthy but the fortune was tied to his grandfather and after his death, the money dried up. He was almost a pauper at the time of his death.Lovecraft’s father was a travelling salesman but it appears that his mother’s family had the money , In 1913 he began to get involved in pulp fiction and most of his stories were published in pulp magazines. He was a mentor to younger writers and perhaps the thing which ensured his later fame was his encouraging of other writers to develop his Mythos. It appears that Lovecraft suffered from mental illness during most of his life, most probably depression. Lovecraft was very conservative and an Anglophile in his writing. He did not like Americanisms and he uses some deliberately British stylings in his writing.The HoundThe Hound is Lovecraft’s most clearly Gothic tale, and that’s saying something. When he talks of his hero’s taste for the macabre, we can’t help but feel that Lovecraft is speaking through him. The Hound is like a story by Edgar Allen Poe channeled through Lovecraft’s pen. He never uses a normal word when he can use an outlandish one, and where one adjective would do, he piles on three or four and makes sure they are outlandish and obscure. This makes his style relatively easy to parody with its unspeakable cults and squamous monstrosities not to mention countless eldritch blasphemies on every page.The story is pretty simple. It concerns two post Baudelaire decadents going grave robbing for kicks. As often happens in Lovecraft’s stories they find an ancient arcane item (a McGuffin in screenwriting terms) and as is often the case it is made of jade. Somehow them moving the token gets the hound to haunt them all the way back to their horrible house in England and when our man ventures back to Holland to put it back (though it is robbed from him before he can do so), there he finds the monstrous hound waiting for him. Or at least that is the sense I made of it, with the addition of a good number of oversized vampire bats for good <a href="http://measure.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">measure.In</a> any case, a fun gothic romp, overdone and vulgar no doubt, but great fun to read out.Darkworlds ParisIf you like Lovecraft, you may like my new story [Darkworlds Paris] (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WW6LSK" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WW6LSK</a> (<a href="http://Amazon.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a>: Darkworlds Paris: A Cthulhu LitRPG eBook: Tony Walker: Kindle Store)``) The story is the second book in the Darkworlds Series: Lovecraftian Horror set in a virtual reality computer game. The Great Old Ones are stirring, and they’re inside your head!Call to Action!This week, because of the success of the previous Call to Action, we are growing, fast and the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast is getting 12000 downloads a month. This is fantastic, but it trips us into the next cost category for Podcast Hosting. As this is a big leap up, if you would like the Podcast to keep going, and if you are able and willing, I would like to ask you to consider becoming a monthly <a href="http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon</a> (Patreon.)Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show: <a href="https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395</a> (Share and rate it!)   <a href="http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY</a> (B<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 40: The Hound by H P Lovecraft

Joseph Sheridan Le FanuJ S Le Fanu was born in Dublin to a family of mixed descent. His father’s line were French Huguenots hence the French surname. Like many horror and ghost story writers his father was actually a clergyman. He studied law as his career at Trinity College Dublin. He didn't actually live in Dublin at the time but you could do a kind of distance learning. He became editor of a literary magazine at this time.Le Fanu was active in the campaign to try and stir the British government to do something about the Irish famine. It didn’t work.He wrote in many genres he is most famous for his horror stories. But in general his horror stories are understated and emphasise atmosphere rather than pure horror.Carmilla is one of Le Fanu’s most famous stories. It is the prototypical Lesbian vampire novel. Possibly because of that it has become famous. This book of course was written at a time when Queen Victoria famously declared the ladies did not do such things. Not that they do in Carmilla either, they just get close,One of the charms of the story is it setting. It contains many of the romantic elements famous from Gothic fiction. It has the beautiful ancient and partly ruinous schloss in the middle of the Carinthian forest.I imagine that some of the descriptions of the two girls kissing and hugging was quite risque for its time. But it is perhaps because of this that Camilla has been made into films and adapted into different media across the years since its publication in 1872.Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey (Click here to go to the Survey)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Joseph Sheridan Le FanuJ S Le Fanu was born in Dublin to a family of mixed descent. His father’s line were French Huguenots hence the French surname. Like many horror and ghost story writers his father was actually a clergyman. He studied law as his career at Trinity College Dublin. He didn't actually live in Dublin at the time but you could do a kind of distance learning. He became editor of a literary magazine at this time.Le Fanu was active in the campaign to try and stir the British government to do something about the Irish famine. It didn’t work.He wrote in many genres he is most famous for his horror stories. But in general his horror stories are understated and emphasise atmosphere rather than pure horror.Carmilla is one of Le Fanu’s most famous stories. It is the prototypical Lesbian vampire novel. Possibly because of that it has become famous. This book of course was written at a time when Queen Victoria famously declared the ladies did not do such things. Not that they do in Carmilla either, they just get close,One of the charms of the story is it setting. It contains many of the romantic elements famous from Gothic fiction. It has the beautiful ancient and partly ruinous schloss in the middle of the Carinthian forest.I imagine that some of the descriptions of the two girls kissing and hugging was quite risque for its time. But it is perhaps because of this that Camilla has been made into films and adapted into different media across the years since its publication in 1872.Download Charles Dickens The Signalman Free Mp3 <a href="https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/dickenssignalman</a> (Subscribe to our list and keep in touch with the podcast. Learn of new episodes and bonus Content. )Support our work PLUS you get a free story right now!(The Story Link is in the Thank You Email)Show Your Support With A Coffee!<a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Buy the thirsty podcaster a coffee...)Final Request: The SurveyI want to know what you want. If you have three minutes, I'd be grateful to know what you think of The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.https://<a href="http://my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my.captivate.fm/Click%20here%20to%20go%20to%20the%20Survey</a> (Click here to go to the Survey)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 14: Carmilla by J S Sheridan Le Fanu (Part One)

The Experiment by M R JamesThis is the second story we have read on the classic ghost stories podcast by Montague Rhodes James. James is considered the master of the English ghost story. He is credited with modernising the form by abandoning many of its classic Gothic features. So we are unlikely to find ruined castles.  However, we have plenty of old churches, which are arguably the same thing as the Gothic castles.James was an academic and worked at both Kings College Cambridge and later at Eton College. Reading his stories it is obvious that he is an antiquarian with knowledge of looking through old texts. In reading this story I also wonder, as I have done before, whether James dabbled in demonology and necromancy. He has more than a passing acquaintance with this kind of material, even if it is only academically.Why Read The Experiment?When deciding to read The Experiment, I had wanted to find a ghost story specifically for New Year's Eve. However, although the story is titled a ghost story for New Year's Eve and it begins at New Year's Eve that is about all that it has to do with this time of year.Though not considered one of James’s best stories, I think the story is very well structured. It is only at the only at the end of the story is that the details that we've been given as the story proceeded finally make sense. For example, the first news we have is the Squire is dead and we don't suspect there is any foul play until we are specifically told  at the end of the story that a wife and her son were hung for the murder of her husband. Then it is very obvious what has happened.At this point we can the significance of James telling us that the Squire’s son is actually is his stepson. We are also told that the poor dead Squire was a generous man who was very generous and unstinting with his stepson. And this of course makes it all the worse to be repaid with such treachery and murder.The whole business of the rapid burial with no ceremony and no coffin, laid outside the church building also becomes only clearly obvious at the end. And it is only when we get the recipe for speaking to the dead – pure necromancy – that we realise the significance of the face cloth, and all the other carryings on that the mother and her son begin once they get the recipes by post from the dead Squire’s fellow sorcerer. The fate of the murderess and her accomplice is pictured in almost  an almost Don Giovanni fashion from the Mozart Opera.  And here, like there, the monstrous revenant returns accusingly. In The Experiment, the ghost doesn't even have to kill them himself, and instead, he drives them back to where they have come from with pure supernatural terror and they confess everything to the very same Rector that we began the story with, thus creating a neat narrative circle.LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage &amp; Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

The Experiment by M R JamesThis is the second story we have read on the classic ghost stories podcast by Montague Rhodes James. James is considered the master of the English ghost story. He is credited with modernising the form by abandoning many of its classic Gothic features. So we are unlikely to find ruined castles.  However, we have plenty of old churches, which are arguably the same thing as the Gothic castles.James was an academic and worked at both Kings College Cambridge and later at Eton College. Reading his stories it is obvious that he is an antiquarian with knowledge of looking through old texts. In reading this story I also wonder, as I have done before, whether James dabbled in demonology and necromancy. He has more than a passing acquaintance with this kind of material, even if it is only academically.Why Read The Experiment?When deciding to read The Experiment, I had wanted to find a ghost story specifically for New Year's Eve. However, although the story is titled a ghost story for New Year's Eve and it begins at New Year's Eve that is about all that it has to do with this time of year.Though not considered one of James’s best stories, I think the story is very well structured. It is only at the only at the end of the story is that the details that we've been given as the story proceeded finally make sense. For example, the first news we have is the Squire is dead and we don't suspect there is any foul play until we are specifically told  at the end of the story that a wife and her son were hung for the murder of her husband. Then it is very obvious what has <a href="http://happened.At" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">happened.At</a> this point we can the significance of James telling us that the Squire’s son is actually is his stepson. We are also told that the poor dead Squire was a generous man who was very generous and unstinting with his stepson. And this of course makes it all the worse to be repaid with such treachery and murder.The whole business of the rapid burial with no ceremony and no coffin, laid outside the church building also becomes only clearly obvious at the end. And it is only when we get the recipe for speaking to the dead – pure necromancy – that we realise the significance of the face cloth, and all the other carryings on that the mother and her son begin once they get the recipes by post from the dead Squire’s fellow sorcerer. The fate of the murderess and her accomplice is pictured in almost  an almost Don Giovanni fashion from the Mozart Opera.  And here, like there, the monstrous revenant returns accusingly. In The Experiment, the ghost doesn't even have to kill them himself, and instead, he drives them back to where they have come from with pure supernatural terror and they confess everything to the very same Rector that we began the story with, thus creating a neat narrative circle.LinksWebsitehttp://<a href="http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast</a> (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://<a href="http://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute)Patronage &amp; Supporthttps://<a href="http://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Donate a Coffee)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Become a Patreon)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 27: The Experiment by M R James

Hugh Walpole was an English novelist born in New Zealand in 1884 and died in June 1941. His father was a clergyman and he was intended originally for a career as a clergyman but he  preferred writing and wrote his first novel in 1909. He was a prolific writer and wrote a novel a year. In common with many writers of ghost stories he was actually gay. He ended up living in the English Lake District not far from where I am now. And I often drive by his house. I have a particular tradition of driving on that side of the lake on New Year's Eve and looking down at the Christmas lights from the heights. The house certainly has a wonderful view and I would quite like to live there though I could never afford it. He ended up living with a policeman at the time when such things were illegal in England.Reading The Snow particularly after reading a number of Victorian novels, I found the style refreshingly modern and so it was actually quite easy to read. It presents a snapshot of upper-class English life in the provinces. Walpole  settled in Cumberland and though he gives his Cathedral town a made up name I can't help but see the Cathedral precincts of Carlisle Cathedral when he's describing the scene.Alice Ryder seems a vain, selfish, cruel woman, and certainly the first time I read the story, I thought she got her just deserts. But then when editing the audio, I came to the part where she speculates that the ghost of Elinor might in fact be there hovering about, and causing her to lose her temper with Herbert. And then I gained a little sympathy for her.Then again, the ghost warns her not to lose her temper with Herbert because if she does, it will be for the last time.  And what do you know - she goes on and loses her temper. Herbert maintains his quiet dignity and is rather a sympathetic character.  Though Alice Ryder is portrayed as quite the bitch, the first Mrs Ryder was no saint either. Herbert tells Alice that his first wife Elinor would never let go and though she adored him, he hinted that her tenacious fidelity was a bit overbearing.So which of the Mrs Ryders is the real villain here? Is it the young, vain, bitchy Mrs Ryder or the controlling unforgiving elder one?This week’s story was quite short compared with usual and recent ones but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I have been very busy in my life and I know that this week coming up I will be in London for three days so I wanted to get this in the can. One of the things we're going to do when we are there In London is to see the adaptation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(play) (Ghost Stories )which is supposed to be very scary and is the talk of the West End. I'm not sure it has been to Broadway but I'm sure it has. It premiered in Liverpool.So that's it for this week remember the music is by the heart Institute and I'll put a link to that just below. You can buy me a coffee to the coffee app or you could just write and like the podcast on Apple podcast or stitcher or which ever podcast server you use.Go listen to music by http://bit.ly/2OvcmPO (Heartwood Institute)You could by me a http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (Kofi)We also have some merch now!https://ebay.to/2XD0wYh (A mug!)http://bit.ly/2XD11l0 (Two T-shirts)Or you can rate, review and share the Podcast!Ta.Tata for NowTonyhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Hugh Walpole was an English novelist born in New Zealand in 1884 and died in June 1941. His father was a clergyman and he was intended originally for a career as a clergyman but he  preferred writing and wrote his first novel in 1909. He was a prolific writer and wrote a novel a year. In common with many writers of ghost stories he was actually gay. He ended up living in the English Lake District not far from where I am now. And I often drive by his house. I have a particular tradition of driving on that side of the lake on New Year's Eve and looking down at the Christmas lights from the heights. The house certainly has a wonderful view and I would quite like to live there though I could never afford it. He ended up living with a policeman at the time when such things were illegal in England.Reading The Snow particularly after reading a number of Victorian novels, I found the style refreshingly modern and so it was actually quite easy to read. It presents a snapshot of upper-class English life in the provinces. Walpole  settled in Cumberland and though he gives his Cathedral town a made up name I can't help but see the Cathedral precincts of Carlisle Cathedral when he's describing the scene.Alice Ryder seems a vain, selfish, cruel woman, and certainly the first time I read the story, I thought she got her just deserts. But then when editing the audio, I came to the part where she speculates that the ghost of Elinor might in fact be there hovering about, and causing her to lose her temper with Herbert. And then I gained a little sympathy for her.Then again, the ghost warns her not to lose her temper with Herbert because if she does, it will be for the last time.  And what do you know - she goes on and loses her temper. Herbert maintains his quiet dignity and is rather a sympathetic character.  Though Alice Ryder is portrayed as quite the bitch, the first Mrs Ryder was no saint either. Herbert tells Alice that his first wife Elinor would never let go and though she adored him, he hinted that her tenacious fidelity was a bit <a href="http://overbearing.So" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">overbearing.So</a> which of the Mrs Ryders is the real villain here? Is it the young, vain, bitchy Mrs Ryder or the controlling unforgiving elder one?This week’s story was quite short compared with usual and recent ones but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I have been very busy in my life and I know that this week coming up I will be in London for three days so I wanted to get this in the can. One of the things we're going to do when we are there In London is to see the adaptation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(play)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(play)</a> (Ghost Stories )which is supposed to be very scary and is the talk of the West End. I'm not sure it has been to Broadway but I'm sure it has. It premiered in <a href="http://Liverpool.So" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Liverpool.So</a> that's it for this week remember the music is by the heart Institute and I'll put a link to that just below. You can buy me a coffee to the coffee app or you could just write and like the podcast on Apple podcast or stitcher or which ever podcast server you use.Go listen to music by <a href="http://bit.ly/2OvcmPO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2OvcmPO</a> (Heartwood Institute)You could by me a <a href="http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY</a> (Kofi)We also have some merch now!<a href="https://ebay.to/2XD0wYh" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ebay.to/2XD0wYh</a> (A mug!)<a href="http://bit.ly/2XD11l0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2XD11l0</a> (Two T-shirts)Or you can rate, review and share the Podcast!Ta.Tata for NowTonyhttps://<a href="http://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 19: The Snow by Hugh Walpole

William Somerset MaughamW. Somerset Maugham was born in 1873 in Paris and died in Nice in 1965, was despite his brith and death places, English.He was a fantastically successful writer, being the highest paid author of the 1930s. His parents died when Maugham was only 10 and he was brought up by his uncle, a clergyman, and sent to King’s School, Canterbury. Many men in his family were lawyers, including his elder brother who was a viscount, but Maugham didn’t want that. He hated his school in Canterbury and finally his uncle let him to go to study German literature at the University at Heidelberg, after which he went to St Thomas’s hospital in London where he trained as a doctor, and qualified as one in 1897. He specialised in obstetrics and used his work experience to inspire his first novel, Liza of Lambeth. After that he worked as a novelist and playwright and travelled through Spain and Italy.Maugham, like many of the writers we read out, was gay. He was married to a woman but this was unhappy and after it broke down he lived in France with his male partner. His writing made him famous by the outbreak of the First World War.During the First World War he worked for the Red Cross and the Ambulance Corps before being recruited by MI6. He had missions in Switzerland and Russia for British Intelligence but when the war was finished he went back to his globe-trotting lifestyle until 1928 when he bought a villa in the South of France and stayed there until his death. The TaipanA Tai-Pan is a Cantonese word for a leader of a Western Trading Company that operated in China in the 19th Century. The Taipan who is the main character of the story is not a very sympathetic chap and I didn’t feel myself warming to him much.The story is set in the days of the British Empire among a colony of ex-pats who spend their time drinking, playing bridge, having affairs and racing horses. As well as being contemptuous of the people they are among.The Taipan is self-satisfied, sociopathic, adulterous, alcoholic, snobbish and racist and ultimately riddled with anxiety. In a short story, we see the fall of a man from the pinnacle of arrogance to become a trembling wreck. It is a nice moral tale of the mighty being humbled by their own faults. He gets what he deserves.My New BookI’ve got a Cthulhu LitRPG horror novel coming out! If you don’t know that that is go look it up at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WW6LSK (Amazon)That’s book 2 in the series mind you. Darkworlds Paris. Book one is imaginatively named Darkworlds London. Book 3 was going to be Darkworlds Salem but I need to get my hero across the Atlantic on The Queen Mary in 1927, so book 3 will have to be Darkworlds Atlantic!If you like a bit of Lovecraft horror science fiction cyberpunk Call of Cthulhu then it’s for you!Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395 (Share and rate it!)   http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (Buy Tony a coffee)  to help with the long nights editing!Become a  http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon (Patreon)  to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Website http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)  MusicBeginning music ‘_Some Come Back’_ is by the marvellous  https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute) . The end music is by 'MYUU Bad Encounter'Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

William Somerset MaughamW. Somerset Maugham was born in 1873 in Paris and died in Nice in 1965, was despite his brith and death places, English.He was a fantastically successful writer, being the highest paid author of the 1930s. His parents died when Maugham was only 10 and he was brought up by his uncle, a clergyman, and sent to King’s School, Canterbury. Many men in his family were lawyers, including his elder brother who was a viscount, but Maugham didn’t want that. He hated his school in Canterbury and finally his uncle let him to go to study German literature at the University at Heidelberg, after which he went to St Thomas’s hospital in London where he trained as a doctor, and qualified as one in 1897. He specialised in obstetrics and used his work experience to inspire his first novel, Liza of Lambeth. After that he worked as a novelist and playwright and travelled through Spain and Italy.Maugham, like many of the writers we read out, was gay. He was married to a woman but this was unhappy and after it broke down he lived in France with his male partner. His writing made him famous by the outbreak of the First World War.During the First World War he worked for the Red Cross and the Ambulance Corps before being recruited by MI6. He had missions in Switzerland and Russia for British Intelligence but when the war was finished he went back to his globe-trotting lifestyle until 1928 when he bought a villa in the South of France and stayed there until his death. The TaipanA Tai-Pan is a Cantonese word for a leader of a Western Trading Company that operated in China in the 19th Century. The Taipan who is the main character of the story is not a very sympathetic chap and I didn’t feel myself warming to him much.The story is set in the days of the British Empire among a colony of ex-pats who spend their time drinking, playing bridge, having affairs and racing horses. As well as being contemptuous of the people they are among.The Taipan is self-satisfied, sociopathic, adulterous, alcoholic, snobbish and racist and ultimately riddled with anxiety. In a short story, we see the fall of a man from the pinnacle of arrogance to become a trembling wreck. It is a nice moral tale of the mighty being humbled by their own faults. He gets what he <a href="http://deserves.My" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">deserves.My</a> New BookI’ve got a Cthulhu LitRPG horror novel coming out! If you don’t know that that is go look it up at <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WW6LSK" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WW6LSK</a> (Amazon)That’s book 2 in the series mind you. Darkworlds Paris. Book one is imaginatively named Darkworlds London. Book 3 was going to be Darkworlds Salem but I need to get my hero across the Atlantic on The Queen Mary in 1927, so book 3 will have to be Darkworlds Atlantic!If you like a bit of Lovecraft horror science fiction cyberpunk Call of Cthulhu then it’s for you!Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show: <a href="https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395</a> (Share and rate it!)   <a href="http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY</a> (Buy Tony a coffee)  to help with the long nights editing!Become a  <a href="http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon</a> (Patreon)  to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Website <a href="http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast</a> (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)  MusicBeginning music ‘_Some Come Back’_ is by the marvellous  <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute) . The end music is by 'MYUU Bad Encounter'<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 39: The Taipan by W Somerset Maugham

Vernon Lee

Vernon LeeDespite sounding so masculine, Vernon Lee was actually a woman called Violet Paget, born in France in 1856 and died in Italy in 1935. Despite these location she identified as English. Her biographer Vineta Colby says that Lee was English by nationality, French by an accident of birth and Italian by choice.As well as the ghost stories for which she is most famous, Vernon Lee, was an essayist who wrote about travel and art and especially aesthetics. Her parents were globe-trotting, or at least Europe-trotting intellectuals and in 1873, when Vernon or Violet was 17, they settled in Florence Italy. She stayed living in the vicinity of Florence until her death in 1935.Violet published her first collection of essays when she was 24. These dealt with Italian writers and dramatists and she later wrote on William Shakespeare and Renaissance Italy. She made fun of English artists, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites in her 1884 novel Mrs Brown.Politically, she was a convinced pacificst. She published under a masculine name because she feared that as a woman her writing would not be taken seriously. She was a feminist and mostly dressed as a man. Though she didn’t come out, she did have crushes on women and was probably Lesbian. She suffered from health anxiety.She also fell out with other writers by making fun of them in her work; notably Henry James and Edith Wharton.Henry James wrote to his equally talented brother William warning him about Vernon Lee: the most able mind in Florence, ‘as dangerous and uncanny as she is intelligent.’A Wicked VoiceI had wanted an Italian based ghost story to continue the theme of stories set on the continent of Europe. There was not much choice! Of course there is Don’t Look Now, by Daphne Du Maurier, which I read myself but which is in copyright still and so reading it out would count as a breach. As the Podcast goes on from strength to strength, I may look into whether I would be given permission to read out stories that are in copyright still, such as I did with Along the Old Track by Sam Hicks.I read A Wicked Voice three times. By the end, I quite liked it. It’s obvious that Vernon Lee is interested in aesthetics as we have all that moonlight and blue mist and Venice languishing like a lily and the scent of the white flowers that remind the narrator of peaches. Not to mention the threshing at the farms in Mistra and the lights and music in the old cathedral at Padua!Basically the story, with all that cut out, is quite simple. I’m not sure it needs the frame at the beginning and end either; first of the narrator looking back and beginning to tell and then at the end telling of his possibly recovery.Zaffarino, to give him his nickname, has a ring with cabalistic signs. An allusion to Tartini doing a deal with the Devil to make powerful music is mentioned and so we must guess that Zaffarino has been given the power to make women love him in his music, and also the power to kill, by Old Nick himself.Though Zaffarino is described as beautiful, he is often also referred to as effeminate. I am guessing he may be a castrato? What else did he give up for his art? So the story follows the narrator who is haunted by the scent of white flowers and Zaffarino’s ghostly voice. As promised, the voice makes him fall in love with it, and it almost kills him. But not quite. I’m not sure why not? Because he interrupted the final cadenza by bursting into the haunted room perhaps?Ghost Stories in a Haunted CastleCome along to Dalston Hall, Carlisle in March to hear me read ghost stories, get a tour of the ghosts, have dinner, and even stay overnight in a haunted room!https://wwSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Vernon LeeDespite sounding so masculine, Vernon Lee was actually a woman called Violet Paget, born in France in 1856 and died in Italy in 1935. Despite these location she identified as English. Her biographer Vineta Colby says that Lee was English by nationality, French by an accident of birth and Italian by <a href="http://choice.As" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">choice.As</a> well as the ghost stories for which she is most famous, Vernon Lee, was an essayist who wrote about travel and art and especially aesthetics. Her parents were globe-trotting, or at least Europe-trotting intellectuals and in 1873, when Vernon or Violet was 17, they settled in Florence Italy. She stayed living in the vicinity of Florence until her death in 1935.Violet published her first collection of essays when she was 24. These dealt with Italian writers and dramatists and she later wrote on William Shakespeare and Renaissance Italy. She made fun of English artists, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites in her 1884 novel Mrs Brown.Politically, she was a convinced pacificst. She published under a masculine name because she feared that as a woman her writing would not be taken seriously. She was a feminist and mostly dressed as a man. Though she didn’t come out, she did have crushes on women and was probably Lesbian. She suffered from health anxiety.She also fell out with other writers by making fun of them in her work; notably Henry James and Edith Wharton.Henry James wrote to his equally talented brother William warning him about Vernon Lee: the most able mind in Florence, ‘as dangerous and uncanny as she is intelligent.’A Wicked VoiceI had wanted an Italian based ghost story to continue the theme of stories set on the continent of Europe. There was not much choice! Of course there is Don’t Look Now, by Daphne Du Maurier, which I read myself but which is in copyright still and so reading it out would count as a breach. As the Podcast goes on from strength to strength, I may look into whether I would be given permission to read out stories that are in copyright still, such as I did with Along the Old Track by Sam Hicks.I read A Wicked Voice three times. By the end, I quite liked it. It’s obvious that Vernon Lee is interested in aesthetics as we have all that moonlight and blue mist and Venice languishing like a lily and the scent of the white flowers that remind the narrator of peaches. Not to mention the threshing at the farms in Mistra and the lights and music in the old cathedral at Padua!Basically the story, with all that cut out, is quite simple. I’m not sure it needs the frame at the beginning and end either; first of the narrator looking back and beginning to tell and then at the end telling of his possibly recovery.Zaffarino, to give him his nickname, has a ring with cabalistic signs. An allusion to Tartini doing a deal with the Devil to make powerful music is mentioned and so we must guess that Zaffarino has been given the power to make women love him in his music, and also the power to kill, by Old Nick himself.Though Zaffarino is described as beautiful, he is often also referred to as effeminate. I am guessing he may be a castrato? What else did he give up for his art? So the story follows the narrator who is haunted by the scent of white flowers and Zaffarino’s ghostly voice. As promised, the voice makes him fall in love with it, and it almost kills him. But not quite. I’m not sure why not? Because he interrupted the final cadenza by bursting into the haunted room perhaps?Ghost Stories in a Haunted CastleCome along to Dalston Hall, Carlisle in March to hear me read ghost stories, get a tour of the ghosts, have dinner, and even stay overnight in a haunted room!https://ww<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 37: A Wicked Voice by Vernon Lee

Hume Nisbet

Hume NisbetHuman Nisbet was a Scottish born novelist an artist. He was born in sterling in Scotland and was trained as an artist from an early age. Nisbet moved to Australia at the age of 16.He spent a lot of time travelling around Australia and New Zealand and then returned to Great Britain.He first went back to London in 1872 but did not achieve great success with his art so went back to Scotland and became an art master in Edinburgh. Nisbet did achieve some success as a book illustrator.As well as his illustration work, much of his income came from writing rather than painting and he published 40 to 50 novels and volumes of poetry.As was in vogue at the time he wrote a number of ghost and horror stories. Again a lot of these were set in Australia where he spent a lot of time.Nisbet wrote vampire stories as well as ghost stories and this story here read out – the old portrait is a clever short story on a vampire theme. Most vampire stories have a Gothic object in which the vampire dwells. Most famously this is the castle in Dracula, but we also see the family castle and the ruins of Karnstein in Carmilla.I think it is legitimate to say that the picture frame in this story is in fact the Gothic habitation of the vampire. Once the narrator has cleaned up the picture frame he sees that the decoration he wants took as being fine art is in fact the exquisite working of worms and other deathlike themes. Very gothic.A nice short Christmas vampire story for you to listen to on Christmas Day!LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage &amp; Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Hume NisbetHuman Nisbet was a Scottish born novelist an artist. He was born in sterling in Scotland and was trained as an artist from an early age. Nisbet moved to Australia at the age of 16.He spent a lot of time travelling around Australia and New Zealand and then returned to Great Britain.He first went back to London in 1872 but did not achieve great success with his art so went back to Scotland and became an art master in Edinburgh. Nisbet did achieve some success as a book <a href="http://illustrator.As" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">illustrator.As</a> well as his illustration work, much of his income came from writing rather than painting and he published 40 to 50 novels and volumes of <a href="http://poetry.As" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">poetry.As</a> was in vogue at the time he wrote a number of ghost and horror stories. Again a lot of these were set in Australia where he spent a lot of time.Nisbet wrote vampire stories as well as ghost stories and this story here read out – the old portrait is a clever short story on a vampire theme. Most vampire stories have a Gothic object in which the vampire dwells. Most famously this is the castle in Dracula, but we also see the family castle and the ruins of Karnstein in Carmilla.I think it is legitimate to say that the picture frame in this story is in fact the Gothic habitation of the vampire. Once the narrator has cleaned up the picture frame he sees that the decoration he wants took as being fine art is in fact the exquisite working of worms and other deathlike themes. Very gothic.A nice short Christmas vampire story for you to listen to on Christmas Day!LinksWebsitehttp://<a href="http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast</a> (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://<a href="http://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute)Patronage &amp; Supporthttps://<a href="http://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Donate a Coffee)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Become a Patreon)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 25: The Old Portrait by Hume Nisbet

Sir Arthur Conan DoyleOr to give him his full name, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh in Scotland and he died in Crowborough, Sussex, England aged 71. His family name was just Doyle and Conan was his middle name but taking Ignatius and Conan together with the surname Doyle, he could hardly be anything other than of Irish Catholic heritage. His mother was Irish and though his father was born in England, he was of Irish family. He was born in Edinburgh and his father Charles was an alcoholic and that caused the family to fall apart. His father ended up in the famous Crichton Royal psychiatric hospital just outside Dumfries. Because his father could not support him, Doyle’s wealthy uncles sent him to a large Catholic school in Lancashire, which I stumbled upon one sunny night several years ago when out for a walk. Then aged 16, he went to another Catholic school at Feldkirch in Austria. Despite his Catholic upbringing, Doyle renounced Catholicism and became an ardent believer and supporter of spiritualism. He was a member of the Hampshire Society for Psychical Research and the Society for Psychical Research in London.After his time in Austria, he went back to Edinburgh where he trained as a doctor. After graduating he worked in the south of England, setting up a practice in Southsea. Incredible as it sounds, he didn’t make money and had to become a writer to support himself. He also became the goalkeeper of the Portsmouth Association Football club when he was at Southsea. He also played cricket form Marylebone Cricket Club in London and then as part of the Authors XI with J M Barrie, P G Woodhouse and A A Milne. He was also a keen golfer!He was a big supporter of vaccination. He went to study ophthalmology in Vienna but found the German too hard (though he had been a school student in Austria off course). While he was in Vienna he mainly spent his time ice skating and writing fiction.He was a prolific writer and his first short story was published in 1879 when he was 20. He wrote his first Sherlock Holmes story when he was 27 and struggled to find a publisher for it. By the time he had written several stories he was tired of Holmes. Doyle was interested in many things and it is said that he wasn’t considered a great writer because he kept changing the focus of his enthusiasms, from writing to medicine, to golf to psychical research and many other subjectsThe Ring of ThothGiven what we’ve just said about Doyle’s wandering enthusiasms, it is interesting to note that is the same criticism he makes of the John Vansittart Smith hero of the Ring of Thoth. The observation adds little to the story, and has the ring of a personal anecdote. The Vansittarts were a noble English family of Dutch descent, and Doyle would probably have heard of them.The Ring of Thoth was published in 1890 in the Cornhill Magazine. The Ring of Thoth was the first mummy story. If we think of our Gothic Horror and especially of our Hammer Horror tradition, we have mummies, werewolves and vampires; in some movies they even meet up and do battle!I remember the Matell glow in the dark mummy, wolf man and other figures. My memory is hazy about the others. A friend of mine had a glow in the dark mummy and I wanted it. And Boris Karloff’s role in The Mummy from 1932 owes it all to The Ring of Thoth. As stories go it’s fairly straightforward. We have the learned man delving too deeply into things that should not be delved into, a little anyway. He’s not as bad as some of M R James or H P Lovecraft’s protagonists who mess with the really bad stuff. I think that’s a quote from Phil Lynott, by the way (if yousSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Sir Arthur Conan DoyleOr to give him his full name, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh in Scotland and he died in Crowborough, Sussex, England aged 71. His family name was just Doyle and Conan was his middle name but taking Ignatius and Conan together with the surname Doyle, he could hardly be anything other than of Irish Catholic heritage. His mother was Irish and though his father was born in England, he was of Irish family. He was born in Edinburgh and his father Charles was an alcoholic and that caused the family to fall apart. His father ended up in the famous Crichton Royal psychiatric hospital just outside Dumfries. Because his father could not support him, Doyle’s wealthy uncles sent him to a large Catholic school in Lancashire, which I stumbled upon one sunny night several years ago when out for a walk. Then aged 16, he went to another Catholic school at Feldkirch in Austria. Despite his Catholic upbringing, Doyle renounced Catholicism and became an ardent believer and supporter of spiritualism. He was a member of the Hampshire Society for Psychical Research and the Society for Psychical Research in London.After his time in Austria, he went back to Edinburgh where he trained as a doctor. After graduating he worked in the south of England, setting up a practice in Southsea. Incredible as it sounds, he didn’t make money and had to become a writer to support himself. He also became the goalkeeper of the Portsmouth Association Football club when he was at Southsea. He also played cricket form Marylebone Cricket Club in London and then as part of the Authors XI with J M Barrie, P G Woodhouse and A A Milne. He was also a keen golfer!He was a big supporter of vaccination. He went to study ophthalmology in Vienna but found the German too hard (though he had been a school student in Austria off course). While he was in Vienna he mainly spent his time ice skating and writing fiction.He was a prolific writer and his first short story was published in 1879 when he was 20. He wrote his first Sherlock Holmes story when he was 27 and struggled to find a publisher for it. By the time he had written several stories he was tired of Holmes. Doyle was interested in many things and it is said that he wasn’t considered a great writer because he kept changing the focus of his enthusiasms, from writing to medicine, to golf to psychical research and many other subjectsThe Ring of ThothGiven what we’ve just said about Doyle’s wandering enthusiasms, it is interesting to note that is the same criticism he makes of the John Vansittart Smith hero of the Ring of Thoth. The observation adds little to the story, and has the ring of a personal anecdote. The Vansittarts were a noble English family of Dutch descent, and Doyle would probably have heard of them.The Ring of Thoth was published in 1890 in the Cornhill Magazine. The Ring of Thoth was the first mummy story. If we think of our Gothic Horror and especially of our Hammer Horror tradition, we have mummies, werewolves and vampires; in some movies they even meet up and do battle!I remember the Matell glow in the dark mummy, wolf man and other figures. My memory is hazy about the others. A friend of mine had a glow in the dark mummy and I wanted it. And Boris Karloff’s role in The Mummy from 1932 owes it all to The Ring of Thoth. As stories go it’s fairly straightforward. We have the learned man delving too deeply into things that should not be delved into, a little anyway. He’s not as bad as some of M R James or H P Lovecraft’s protagonists who mess with the really bad stuff. I think that’s a quote from Phil Lynott, by the way (if yous<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 42: The Ring of Thoth by Arthur Conan Doyle

Alfred McLelland BurrageBackgroundAlfred McClelland Burrage was an English writer who was born in London in 1889. Both his father and his uncle were professional writers and a relatively young age Burrage began to write fiction to support his family.As  well as being a writer , Burrage was a soldier in the First World War. He served in the First World War as a member of the Artists Rifles which was originally founded as a volunteer light infantry regiments. As a point of interest, after Burrage’s time the Artist Rifles became 21 Special Air service regiment one of Britain's elite forces.Burrage wrote a lot of stories but is now primarily remembered for his series of  ghost stories in titled some ghost stories. No less and authority than MR James praised Burrage’s books. If we remember MR James had very distinct ideas about what makes a goodstory. James believed that ghost stories should be terrifying as most of his in fact are. James was not such a believer in the amiable ghost story with a happy ending.Burrage’s first ghost story collection  Some Ghost Stories was printed in 1927 and his next collection of ghost stories was Someone in the Room was published in 1931.SmeeThis story Smee comes from Burrage’s second collection Someone in the Room from 1931. I think it has all the necessary elements of a good ghost story. In line with M R James’s  edict the ghost here is very subtle. There are no screaming jump scares here.  Mainly because they protagonist doesn’t know he’s touched the ghost’s knee, though you of course do!The description of wandering around in the dark is a staple of scary stories. In most scary stories you have to wonder why the protagonist is walking around in the dark on the road perfectly good nights. But A.M. Burrage has the craft to give us a very plausible reason why our protagonists are in the dark and unable to see but only feel the ghost.The little twist at the end is one that we should have seen coming but Burrage cleverly misdirects us by giving us the cold dark haired girl whom the narrator Tony Jackson wonders about being one of those women who don't have a high opinion of any men. As if such women exist!We suspect that he’s got it wrong before he does of course.LinksWebsitehttp://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)Patronage &amp; Supporthttps://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Donate a Coffee)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Become a Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Alfred McLelland BurrageBackgroundAlfred McClelland Burrage was an English writer who was born in London in 1889. Both his father and his uncle were professional writers and a relatively young age Burrage began to write fiction to support his <a href="http://family.As" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">family.As</a>  well as being a writer , Burrage was a soldier in the First World War. He served in the First World War as a member of the Artists Rifles which was originally founded as a volunteer light infantry regiments. As a point of interest, after Burrage’s time the Artist Rifles became 21 Special Air service regiment one of Britain's elite forces.Burrage wrote a lot of stories but is now primarily remembered for his series of  ghost stories in titled some ghost stories. No less and authority than MR James praised Burrage’s books. If we remember MR James had very distinct ideas about what makes a goodstory. James believed that ghost stories should be terrifying as most of his in fact are. James was not such a believer in the amiable ghost story with a happy ending.Burrage’s first ghost story collection  Some Ghost Stories was printed in 1927 and his next collection of ghost stories was Someone in the Room was published in 1931.SmeeThis story Smee comes from Burrage’s second collection Someone in the Room from 1931. I think it has all the necessary elements of a good ghost story. In line with M R James’s  edict the ghost here is very subtle. There are no screaming jump scares here.  Mainly because they protagonist doesn’t know he’s touched the ghost’s knee, though you of course do!The description of wandering around in the dark is a staple of scary stories. In most scary stories you have to wonder why the protagonist is walking around in the dark on the road perfectly good nights. But A.M. Burrage has the craft to give us a very plausible reason why our protagonists are in the dark and unable to see but only feel the ghost.The little twist at the end is one that we should have seen coming but Burrage cleverly misdirects us by giving us the cold dark haired girl whom the narrator Tony Jackson wonders about being one of those women who don't have a high opinion of any men. As if such women exist!We suspect that he’s got it wrong before he does of course.LinksWebsitehttp://<a href="http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast</a> (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast)Musichttps://<a href="http://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute)Patronage &amp; Supporthttps://<a href="http://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Donate a Coffee)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Become a Patreon)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 24: Smee by A M Burrage

Oliver Onions

Oliver OnionsOliver Onions was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1873 and died in Aberystwyth in Wales in 1961, His father was a bank cashier. When he was a young man he was an amateur boxer. He didn’t like the surname Onions and changed it legally to George Oliver but still published his stories under the name Oliver Onions. Onions is in fact a Welsh name, being from the Welsh Ab Einion.Onions trained as an artist and worked as an illustrator. His most famous ghost story is The Beckoning Fair One. He is reckoned as one of the best writers of ghost stories. He has a very conversational lyrical style and the characters in his story come out via the tone of their voice.The Cigarette Case is a neat little story with a lovely twist in the end. We probably guess what’s going to happen, but it’s very well done.I particularly like Loder’s asides to other members of the circle, such as Marsham the romantic and Smith the sceptic.I was reminded by this story of An Adventure which is the reportedly true tale of two English ladies having a time slip experience in France at the Paris of Versailles in the early 20th Century.The Cigarette Case was published in 1911 in the collection Widdershins and I believe An Ad venture was published in 1910, so it is not impossible that the tale of two English ladies in France who mysteriously disappear was inspired by An Adventure.I’ll put a link tohttps://amzn.to/38vtWMB (An Adventure here)Ghost Stories in a Haunted CastleCome along to Dalston Hall, Carlisle in March to hear me read ghost stories, get a tour of the ghosts, have dinner, and even stay overnight in a haunted room!https://www.facebook.com/events/178095676767514/ (Check it out on Facebook)Call To Action!If you can recommend verbally or send a link to the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast to one friend or acquaintance who might like it, that could double our listeners every week!I’d be very grateful to you for that.Thank you to our Patreons!Thank you for their pledges to:Donna ConstanzaEmmaSandra VailKate UnwinMargaretSandra VailValerie SawyerYour support means a lot!Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show:https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395 (Share and rate it!) http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY (Buy Tony a coffee) to help with the long nights editing!Become a http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon (Patreon) to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Website http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast) MusicBeginning music is Some Come Back by the marvellous https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute) and end sequence is Bad Encounter by MyuuSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Oliver OnionsOliver Onions was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1873 and died in Aberystwyth in Wales in 1961, His father was a bank cashier. When he was a young man he was an amateur boxer. He didn’t like the surname Onions and changed it legally to George Oliver but still published his stories under the name Oliver Onions. Onions is in fact a Welsh name, being from the Welsh Ab Einion.Onions trained as an artist and worked as an illustrator. His most famous ghost story is The Beckoning Fair One. He is reckoned as one of the best writers of ghost stories. He has a very conversational lyrical style and the characters in his story come out via the tone of their voice.The Cigarette Case is a neat little story with a lovely twist in the end. We probably guess what’s going to happen, but it’s very well done.I particularly like Loder’s asides to other members of the circle, such as Marsham the romantic and Smith the sceptic.I was reminded by this story of An Adventure which is the reportedly true tale of two English ladies having a time slip experience in France at the Paris of Versailles in the early 20th Century.The Cigarette Case was published in 1911 in the collection Widdershins and I believe An Ad venture was published in 1910, so it is not impossible that the tale of two English ladies in France who mysteriously disappear was inspired by An Adventure.I’ll put a link tohttps://<a href="http://amzn.to/38vtWMB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amzn.to/38vtWMB</a> (An Adventure here)Ghost Stories in a Haunted CastleCome along to Dalston Hall, Carlisle in March to hear me read ghost stories, get a tour of the ghosts, have dinner, and even stay overnight in a haunted room!<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/178095676767514/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/178095676767514/</a> (Check it out on Facebook)Call To Action!If you can recommend verbally or send a link to the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast to one friend or acquaintance who might like it, that could double our listeners every week!I’d be very grateful to you for that.Thank you to our Patreons!Thank you for their pledges to:Donna ConstanzaEmmaSandra VailKate UnwinMargaretSandra VailValerie SawyerYour support means a lot!Support Us!Ways to support Tony to keep doing the show:<a href="https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/classic-ghost-stories-923395</a> (Share and rate it!) <a href="http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2QKgHkY</a> (Buy Tony a coffee) to help with the long nights editing!Become a <a href="http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/barcudpatreon</a> (Patreon) to get additional stuff and allow the show to go on in the long term. Website <a href="http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/ClassicGhostStoriesPodcast</a> (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast) MusicBeginning music is Some Come Back by the marvellous <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute) and end sequence is Bad Encounter by Myuu<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 36: The Cigarette Case by Oliver Onions

Edgar Allen Poe

#Edgar Allen Poe#Needs no real introduction. He was in some senses the man who began the horror genre. There had been Gothic fiction before but Poe made it macabre and strange. I see some influences or commonalities between him and the French poet Baudelaire with his Flowers of Evil, or the French novelist J K Huysman’s with his studies of Satanism and Decandence. The insanity in Poe is also matched in the Austrian writer Gustav Meyrink. I must read some Meyrink for you, though I’m not aware of any short stories of his.Tell Tale Heart is a first person story narrated by someone who is at pains to assure us that he is not crazy, though pretty much as soon as he says it, and certainly with a few sentences further said, we know he is.There is a view that it is the story of a perfect crime, but it seems far from that to me. It seems pretty unhinged. He is never going to get away with this crime. He buries the dismembered body under the planks of the floor. That is going to smell, believe me. Not that I know from personal experience.I had a bit of a disaster this week. I had recorded the English writer Robert Aickman with his longish Zombie story: Ringing the Changes, but the flipping computer packed in after 15 minutes. An hour later I found out the story hasn’t recorded except the first fifteen minutes.So I had nothing. I then recorded this one. I know, I think I know, (I sound like the man in the story) that listeners prefer longer stories that are American. This is short, but it is American which is a compromise. If you were helpful enough to do some or any of these following things for me, I would be immensely grateful. I swear down I would.————————Share the Podcast to your friendsRate the Podcast on Apple or elsewhereBuy me a coffee via https://paypal.me/gospatric (Paypal)Sign up as a Patron for $1 a month to keep me going on  http://www.patreon.com/barcud (Patreon) https://www.patreon.com/barcud (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

#Edgar Allen Poe#Needs no real introduction. He was in some senses the man who began the horror genre. There had been Gothic fiction before but Poe made it macabre and strange. I see some influences or commonalities between him and the French poet Baudelaire with his Flowers of Evil, or the French novelist J K Huysman’s with his studies of Satanism and Decandence. The insanity in Poe is also matched in the Austrian writer Gustav Meyrink. I must read some Meyrink for you, though I’m not aware of any short stories of his.Tell Tale Heart is a first person story narrated by someone who is at pains to assure us that he is not crazy, though pretty much as soon as he says it, and certainly with a few sentences further said, we know he is.There is a view that it is the story of a perfect crime, but it seems far from that to me. It seems pretty unhinged. He is never going to get away with this crime. He buries the dismembered body under the planks of the floor. That is going to smell, believe me. Not that I know from personal experience.I had a bit of a disaster this week. I had recorded the English writer Robert Aickman with his longish Zombie story: Ringing the Changes, but the flipping computer packed in after 15 minutes. An hour later I found out the story hasn’t recorded except the first fifteen <a href="http://minutes.So" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">minutes.So</a> I had nothing. I then recorded this one. I know, I think I know, (I sound like the man in the story) that listeners prefer longer stories that are American. This is short, but it is American which is a compromise. If you were helpful enough to do some or any of these following things for me, I would be immensely grateful. I swear down I would.————————Share the Podcast to your friendsRate the Podcast on Apple or elsewhereBuy me a coffee via <a href="https://paypal.me/gospatric" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://paypal.me/gospatric</a> (Paypal)Sign up as a Patron for $1 a month to keep me going on  <a href="http://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Patreon) <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Support the show) (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a>)<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 12: The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Cynthia Asquith

Lady Cynthia AsquithLady Cynthia Asquith, born Charteris in 1887 in Wiltshire, England was an English aristocrat, best now known for her diaries and ghost stories. Her father was Hugo Richard Chatteris the 11th Earl of Wemyss which is a place in Fife in Scotland.Lady Cynthia Asquith married Herbert Asquith who was the son of the British prime minister. Lady Cynthia was also  well-connected in British literary circles: — a friend of DH Lawrence’s, she was also the secretary to JM Barrie who is most famously the author of Peter Pan. She worked with Barrie until he died in 1937 and he left her the bulk of his estate. Lady Cynthia was also a friend of another female writer of ghost stories LP Hartley. In terms of the ghost stories, as well as her own she became famous for being the editor of a whole series of anthologies put out by the Publisher’s Pan as The Ghost Book.The story which I have just read The Corner Shop is included in Roald Dahl’s anthology of ghost stories. In the introduction to that book, Roald Dahl says that he read hundreds of ghost stories and most of them were rubbish. He only included the ones he thinks are good in his anthology and I would agree with his choice. I like this ghost story by Cynthia Asquith. I like the evocation of the cold London winter’s night in the fog, with the hero stumbling into a candlelit curio shop. She paints the picture very well.In fact, I think that this story has many of the classic elements of a good ghost story. I'm writing a little article for the website on what I think makes a good ghost story as I'm reading so many of them at the moment. Certainly one of the key elements in a ghost story is the environment and we see  that in the cold foggy winter night, which is both hostile and cuts off the hero from the normal world. There is also an essential requirement in that the protagonist must end up somewhere quite otherworldly. In earlier fiction this was the Gothic Castle, but in the Corner Shop, the antique shop itself serves as the Gothic location. These locations have to be both terrible and enchanting and that’s certainly the case.A classic ghost story must also have a moral message. The message in this story isn't hidden at all it, and it is is that if you have a stroke of good luck you mustn't keep it to yourself! Play fair old man!Here the protagonist’s good luck and moral sense enables the ghost to rest in peace ultimately and so serves the moral purpose of the story. We often read that ghosts will wander until the task is concluded, and so here, as the finder of the frog gives half the money ultimately to charity, the ghost feels his guilt is resolved.The final thing I think that Asquith does well is that she misdirects the reader. But she does it in a way that the reader is probably guessing the outcome before the protagonist does so that allows us as readers to feel that we are very clever. We are probably guessing long before our hero that the old man is not in fact the caretaker, even though Asquith shapes the story to keep up the pretense right until the end. Until in fact the final sentence where it is that the ghost is revealed, although we possibly guessed it a little while before that. So another nice ghost story for the first week in January. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed reading it and I will be back with you next week to deliver another ghost story.http://ghostpod.org (ghostpod.org)Classic Ghost Stories Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (Patreon)https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (Kofi)Music by https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four (Heartwood Institute)https://www.patreSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Lady Cynthia AsquithLady Cynthia Asquith, born Charteris in 1887 in Wiltshire, England was an English aristocrat, best now known for her diaries and ghost stories. Her father was Hugo Richard Chatteris the 11th Earl of Wemyss which is a place in Fife in Scotland.Lady Cynthia Asquith married Herbert Asquith who was the son of the British prime minister. Lady Cynthia was also  well-connected in British literary circles: — a friend of DH Lawrence’s, she was also the secretary to JM Barrie who is most famously the author of Peter Pan. She worked with Barrie until he died in 1937 and he left her the bulk of his estate. Lady Cynthia was also a friend of another female writer of ghost stories LP Hartley. In terms of the ghost stories, as well as her own she became famous for being the editor of a whole series of anthologies put out by the Publisher’s Pan as The Ghost Book.The story which I have just read The Corner Shop is included in Roald Dahl’s anthology of ghost stories. In the introduction to that book, Roald Dahl says that he read hundreds of ghost stories and most of them were rubbish. He only included the ones he thinks are good in his anthology and I would agree with his choice. I like this ghost story by Cynthia Asquith. I like the evocation of the cold London winter’s night in the fog, with the hero stumbling into a candlelit curio shop. She paints the picture very <a href="http://well.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">well.In</a> fact, I think that this story has many of the classic elements of a good ghost story. I'm writing a little article for the website on what I think makes a good ghost story as I'm reading so many of them at the moment. Certainly one of the key elements in a ghost story is the environment and we see  that in the cold foggy winter night, which is both hostile and cuts off the hero from the normal world. There is also an essential requirement in that the protagonist must end up somewhere quite otherworldly. In earlier fiction this was the Gothic Castle, but in the Corner Shop, the antique shop itself serves as the Gothic location. These locations have to be both terrible and enchanting and that’s certainly the case.A classic ghost story must also have a moral message. The message in this story isn't hidden at all it, and it is is that if you have a stroke of good luck you mustn't keep it to yourself! Play fair old man!Here the protagonist’s good luck and moral sense enables the ghost to rest in peace ultimately and so serves the moral purpose of the story. We often read that ghosts will wander until the task is concluded, and so here, as the finder of the frog gives half the money ultimately to charity, the ghost feels his guilt is resolved.The final thing I think that Asquith does well is that she misdirects the reader. But she does it in a way that the reader is probably guessing the outcome before the protagonist does so that allows us as readers to feel that we are very clever. We are probably guessing long before our hero that the old man is not in fact the caretaker, even though Asquith shapes the story to keep up the pretense right until the end. Until in fact the final sentence where it is that the ghost is revealed, although we possibly guessed it a little while before that. So another nice ghost story for the first week in January. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed reading it and I will be back with you next week to deliver another ghost story.http://<a href="http://ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ghostpod.org</a> (<a href="http://ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ghostpod.org</a>)Classic Ghost Stories Podcasthttps://<a href="http://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/barcud</a> (Patreon)<a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> (Kofi)Music by <a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/album/witch-phase-four</a> (Heartwood Institute)https://www.patre<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 28 The Corner Shop by Cynthia Asquith

Conrad Aiken

Conrad AikenConrad Aiken was an American poet and author born in Savannah, Georgia in 1889 and died in Savannah in 1973 aged 84.His family were wealthy, originally from New England, but his father was an eye surgeon who moved to Savannah. Most bizarrely and disturbingly, Aiken’s father murdered Aiken’s mother and shot himself in 1901. Aiken was 11 at the time. He heard the shots and ran through to find the bodies. Aiken then went to live with his great aunt in Massachusetts. He went to Harvard where he became a life-long friend of the poet T S Eliot.Aiken was deeply interested in philosophy and was taught by George Santayana. This influenced his poetry as did his admiration for the work of Walt Whitman. Aiken was also heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud and was due to go and meet him but never did, because he had second thoughts and money was running short.Aiken was a prolific writer and very influential in literary circles. It was his influence which led to to the recognition of Emily Dickinson as a great poet.Aiken moved to England with his Canadian wife and had three children there in Sussex. His daughter Joan became a well-known writer of children’s stories, including the famous Wolves of Willoughby Chase.Aiken was divorced in 1929 and then he returned to America. He suffered from nervous problems and was terribly frightened he was going mad. He attempted suicide at least once. Mr ArcularisConrad Aiken published Mr Arcularis in 1931. It was selected by the Library of America for inclusion in a two hundred year retrospective volume of American fantastic tales. Mr Arcularis is a strangely disquieting story. Not quite a ghost story, because he isn’t dead but dreaming until the end. The narrative becomes more dreamlike as it goes on and is threaded with the fantastic.The unsettling oddness has something of Robert Aickman’s stories to it. It’s not a moral story either. I suppose, to me it’s a curiosity — very well put together. And, on reflection if all art is to make us feel something and that is its main purpose - to work in us at the level of feelings rather than thought, then it certainly works. The description of journeys among distant frosty stars is very beautiful. It actually reminds me of when I was much younger and had some teeth out under general anaesthetic. In those days it was done by gas with a rubber mask clamped on my mouth while I struggled by the dentist. I had weird dreams that morphed in and out of reality and featured hints that I was having teeth out. This story reminds me of that rather unpleasant experience.It’s hard to know what Conrad Aiken meant by calling his protagonist Mr Arcularis. I’s not a common name. An arcularius in Latin is a maker of small chests, boxes and jewel caskets. Is Aiken alluding to this? Or is it merely because, as Mr Acularis says, his name rhymes with Polaris. Polaris the North Star, where the dead go.The first hint we get that everything is not what it seems, to me at least, is when Harry has put him on board and is about to leave and says for Arcularis to bring him a sprig of edelweiss and a postcard from the Absolute. That may make our minds cast themselves back to when he is in the car and he misses big stretches of the journey, quite plausibly by falling asleep, but certainly the story begins to acquire a more dreamlike quality from here on in.The action jumps from him being cold in his cabin to sitting opposite the freckled girl whom he recalls but can’t think who she reminds him of. Later, he feels she may be his soul — which makes me think of the Jungian concept of the Anima.The Parson, the Doctor and the Freckle-Faced woman seem alSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Conrad AikenConrad Aiken was an American poet and author born in Savannah, Georgia in 1889 and died in Savannah in 1973 aged 84.His family were wealthy, originally from New England, but his father was an eye surgeon who moved to Savannah. Most bizarrely and disturbingly, Aiken’s father murdered Aiken’s mother and shot himself in 1901. Aiken was 11 at the time. He heard the shots and ran through to find the bodies. Aiken then went to live with his great aunt in Massachusetts. He went to Harvard where he became a life-long friend of the poet T S Eliot.Aiken was deeply interested in philosophy and was taught by George Santayana. This influenced his poetry as did his admiration for the work of Walt Whitman. Aiken was also heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud and was due to go and meet him but never did, because he had second thoughts and money was running short.Aiken was a prolific writer and very influential in literary circles. It was his influence which led to to the recognition of Emily Dickinson as a great poet.Aiken moved to England with his Canadian wife and had three children there in Sussex. His daughter Joan became a well-known writer of children’s stories, including the famous Wolves of Willoughby Chase.Aiken was divorced in 1929 and then he returned to America. He suffered from nervous problems and was terribly frightened he was going mad. He attempted suicide at least once. Mr ArcularisConrad Aiken published Mr Arcularis in 1931. It was selected by the Library of America for inclusion in a two hundred year retrospective volume of American fantastic tales. Mr Arcularis is a strangely disquieting story. Not quite a ghost story, because he isn’t dead but dreaming until the end. The narrative becomes more dreamlike as it goes on and is threaded with the fantastic.The unsettling oddness has something of Robert Aickman’s stories to it. It’s not a moral story either. I suppose, to me it’s a curiosity — very well put together. And, on reflection if all art is to make us feel something and that is its main purpose - to work in us at the level of feelings rather than thought, then it certainly works. The description of journeys among distant frosty stars is very beautiful. It actually reminds me of when I was much younger and had some teeth out under general anaesthetic. In those days it was done by gas with a rubber mask clamped on my mouth while I struggled by the dentist. I had weird dreams that morphed in and out of reality and featured hints that I was having teeth out. This story reminds me of that rather unpleasant <a href="http://experience.It" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">experience.It</a>’s hard to know what Conrad Aiken meant by calling his protagonist Mr Arcularis. I’s not a common name. An arcularius in Latin is a maker of small chests, boxes and jewel caskets. Is Aiken alluding to this? Or is it merely because, as Mr Acularis says, his name rhymes with Polaris. Polaris the North Star, where the dead go.The first hint we get that everything is not what it seems, to me at least, is when Harry has put him on board and is about to leave and says for Arcularis to bring him a sprig of edelweiss and a postcard from the Absolute. That may make our minds cast themselves back to when he is in the car and he misses big stretches of the journey, quite plausibly by falling asleep, but certainly the story begins to acquire a more dreamlike quality from here on in.The action jumps from him being cold in his cabin to sitting opposite the freckled girl whom he recalls but can’t think who she reminds him of. Later, he feels she may be his soul — which makes me think of the Jungian concept of the Anima.The Parson, the Doctor and the Freckle-Faced woman seem al<a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show</a>Visit us here: <a href="http://www.ghostpod.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ghostpod.org</a> Buy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: <a href="https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker</a> If you really want to help me, become a Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/barcud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/barcud</a> Music by The Heartwood Institute: <a href="https://bit.ly/somecomeback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/somecomeback</a>

Episode 41: Mr Arcularis by Conrad Aiken

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