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amcorbin 's review for:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
by John MacBride, M.R. James, E.F. Bleiler
I was shocked how many times I made a horrified face while reading. I think I even gasped once or twice!
You have to understand that I'm not a reactive reader generally. But something about these stories brought it out in me. The story goes at a stately pace, like the narrator is telling you while on a healthful walk through the gardens; the narrator tells you, he tells you that there is a horrible thing that happened, that left everyone involved mentally scarred, but then he goes on to describe an old book, or the minutiae of a day, or how he doesn't understand golf so won't try to relate the details of the game these men played, but will just skip right to the -- night.
In other words, it's not like I didn't know what was coming, and yet, and yet I still gaped in horror.
Oh, and there is one story that horrified me for a split second but mostly amused me becauseit is so obviously where the cartoon idea of the ghost under the sheet comes from. It is literally a terrifying though ineffectual ghost underneath bedclothes. So ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ was not nearly as scary as I had been led to believe.
Rating by story
Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book - 7
Lost Hearts - 8
The Mezzotint - 9
The Ash-Tree - 9
Number 13 - 8
Count Magnus - 6
‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ - 7
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas - 7
You have to understand that I'm not a reactive reader generally. But something about these stories brought it out in me. The story goes at a stately pace, like the narrator is telling you while on a healthful walk through the gardens; the narrator tells you, he tells you that there is a horrible thing that happened, that left everyone involved mentally scarred, but then he goes on to describe an old book, or the minutiae of a day, or how he doesn't understand golf so won't try to relate the details of the game these men played, but will just skip right to the -- night.
In other words, it's not like I didn't know what was coming, and yet, and yet I still gaped in horror.
Oh, and there is one story that horrified me for a split second but mostly amused me because
Rating by story
Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book - 7
Lost Hearts - 8
The Mezzotint - 9
The Ash-Tree - 9
Number 13 - 8
Count Magnus - 6
‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ - 7
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas - 7