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38 reviews for:
The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters
Scott G. Bruce
3.17 AVERAGE
38 reviews for:
The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters
Scott G. Bruce
3.17 AVERAGE
The Penguin Book of the Undead is selection of works which presents many different accounts relating to abnormal and supernatural spectres that have risen from the dead. Most of these are ghosts which have risen for the dead for some purpose or another. That is what the collection is attempting to show: for what reason ghosts appear rather than how the image of the undead has developed over time.
A large issue with the texts provided is the lack of depth within the texts, usually being only around 5 or 6 pages if generous, which results in there not being a large amount of distinction between the numerous texts. The stories are separated by categories ranging from ‘The Ghosts of War’ to ‘Haunting the Wings’ which contain around 2 to 3 stories. The fact that there is such limited information within each text coupled with the abundance of works results in a sense of fatigue when reading due it seeming as though the same texts are being repeated but by differing authors.
Some of the stories certainly are both entertaining and informative on the topic of the undead, however a significant portion are merely iterative.
Stories that I recommend to read, ignoring the others, are:
Pliny Contemplates the Existence of Ghosts
A Mistress of the Graves
Speaking with the Dead in the Hebrew Scriptures
A Ghost Upon the Waters
Dreaming of the Dead
The Discernment of the Saints
Evodius’s Inquiry: Going Forth from the Body, Who Are We?
Augustine’s Rejection of Ghosts
Pope Gregory the Great: How Can the Living Help the Dead?
The Vision of Barontus
A Lesbian Ghost
Warnings to the Living
The Evil Welshman
Terror in Tonnerre
Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Nyght
When Night Draws Swiftly Darkling On
The Torments of Tantalus
A large issue with the texts provided is the lack of depth within the texts, usually being only around 5 or 6 pages if generous, which results in there not being a large amount of distinction between the numerous texts. The stories are separated by categories ranging from ‘The Ghosts of War’ to ‘Haunting the Wings’ which contain around 2 to 3 stories. The fact that there is such limited information within each text coupled with the abundance of works results in a sense of fatigue when reading due it seeming as though the same texts are being repeated but by differing authors.
Some of the stories certainly are both entertaining and informative on the topic of the undead, however a significant portion are merely iterative.
Stories that I recommend to read, ignoring the others, are:
Pliny Contemplates the Existence of Ghosts
A Mistress of the Graves
Speaking with the Dead in the Hebrew Scriptures
A Ghost Upon the Waters
Dreaming of the Dead
The Discernment of the Saints
Evodius’s Inquiry: Going Forth from the Body, Who Are We?
Augustine’s Rejection of Ghosts
Pope Gregory the Great: How Can the Living Help the Dead?
The Vision of Barontus
A Lesbian Ghost
Warnings to the Living
The Evil Welshman
Terror in Tonnerre
Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Nyght
When Night Draws Swiftly Darkling On
The Torments of Tantalus
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I really enjoyed these stories! Most of them are short and sweet and generally easy to follow, so they were perfect when I only had a few minutes to spare. The stories taught me a lot about history, too, which I loved. Highly recommended, especially since it's almost Halloween!
As I noted on a status this was much more a tracking of the supernatural and undead events following Christian faith and it's spread and affect on the cultures it encountered. I was hoping more of a wider view, with insights into some cultures and myths I hadn't read too much about. I did get some of that in some of the more off the wall Catholic tales and essays but overall it was almost exclusively centered around the early Christian church and it's writings. It also, of course, ended with Shakespeare which was also kind of disappointing.
It might be a good read if you're interested in that intersection of the undead and the church though. There were a couple stories I'd never heard and one or two legends I did enjoy, so it gets credit for that. I think if I'd been looking specifically for that intersection I would have enjoyed this more. So be aware going in.
It might be a good read if you're interested in that intersection of the undead and the church though. There were a couple stories I'd never heard and one or two legends I did enjoy, so it gets credit for that. I think if I'd been looking specifically for that intersection I would have enjoyed this more. So be aware going in.
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
It's not that this book is bad. As an idea for an anthology it's interesting, it's just that it's very brief. Too brief to be possessed of any considerable depth. It definitely reads as something compiled by an academic, and while Professor Bruce may find this fascinating, that interest doesn't transfer when reading. This is probably due to a lack of context we as readers would have about the time period; a context which Bruce would have. One which would, indeed, make clear the value of these tales insofar as they underscore/highlight attitudes within the historico-cultutal situation from which they spring. As they are presented, we get mere snippets of this. While the book did climax somewhat by deepening the understanding of Hamlet, and some stories were interesting in and of themselves, for the most part this work is nothing remarkable. It is a collection of curious, one which is by no means worthless, but only of niche appeal.
The Penguin Book of the Undead is, unfortunately, Eurocentric. It's also heavily weighted towards Christian sources. What's there is good, but I'm more interested to see what it left out.
I read this as a potential teaching resource, and am looking forward to using it as such. It would fit nicely either in a medieval course (mine's "The Living and the Dead in Medieval Literature") or in a longitudinal survey of the supernatural, perhaps more selectively used. The readable translations would, I think, also be appreciated by fans of the mysterious and the macabre, the gothic and the ghostly. I don't anticipate having much luck getting undergrads to read the apparatus, but it's useful, and Bruce's framing material should be appreciated by the student and the enthusiast alike.