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A review by burritapal_1
The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories by Michael Sims
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
August Heat, by W.F. Harvey is the reason i requested this book from the library.
Not all stories are included in this review; some are rated 2 stars by me, so are not included.
The Old Nurse's Story, Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 stars
Gowk=abusive term for someone you think is dumb
Maud=a cloak that shepherds wore
"All at once, the East door gave way with a thundering crash, as if torn open in a violent Passion, and there came into that broad and mysterious light the figure of a tall old man, with Gray hair and gleaming eyes. He drove before him, with many a relentless gesture of abhorrence, a Stern and beautiful woman, with a little child clinging to her dress."
The Phantom Coach, Amelia B. Edwards, 2 stars
Usquebaugh=whiskey
The Trial for Murder, Charles Dickens, 3 stars
The ghost of the murdered man shows up at the trial of his murderer.
The Captain of the Pole-Star, Arthur Conan Doyle, 3 stars
Said by Doyle about his trip as a ship's surgeon, towards the end of his medical school, and about which he wrote this story:
"...soon he was high in the Crow's nest, surveying the breeding ice field, densely populated with many thousands of dark mother seals and their white cubs. The yowling of the Cubs sounded so human that the Hope seemed moored beside a nursery - yet soon Arthur was helping slaughter them, as acres of crimson blood stained the ice...."😡
Fey=giving an impression of vague unworldliness
Medusse=a kind of jellyfish
Sealemon=any of several nudibrancheate mollusks
The Yellow Sign, Robert W. Chambers, 3 stars
I mainly liked this for its similarity to the works of HP lovecraft, And Edgar Allan Poe.
The Library Window, Margaret Oliphant, 3 stars
"... The light had changed in some wonderful way during that 5 minutes I had been gone, and there was nothing, nothing, not a reflection, not a glimmer. It looked exactly as they all said, the blank form of a window painted on the wall. It was too much: I sat down in my excitement and cried as if my heart would break...."
A Scottish girl goes to stay for the summer with her aunt. She loves to sit in her aunt's window seat, and look across the way, to a window of the college library there. But at times, it seems a window that's only painted on the building. At other times, she sees through the window, dimly, into the room, where a man sits writing at a desk. She almost falls in love with him, wishing for him to turn around and look at her. It's like she has a spell cast on her by this window, that's not a window.
The Monkey's Paw, by W.W. Jacobs, 5 stars
(" Despite his conservatism, Jacobs married a busy suffragette, Agnes Eleanor Williams, and apparently they did not flourish as a couple.") 😆
" 'It had a spell put on it by an old fakir,' said the sergeant-major, a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that 3 separate men could each have 3 wishes from it.' "
...
" 'I only just thought of it,' she said hysterically. 'why didn't I think of it before? Why didn't you think of it?'
'think of what?' he questioned.
'the other 2 wishes,' she replied rapidly. 'we've only had 1.'
'was not that enough?' he demanded fiercely.
'no,' she cried, triumphantly; 'we'll have 1 more. Go down and get it quickly, and wish our boy alive again.' "
The Southwest Chamber, Mar E. Wilkins Freeman, 4 stars
" That night about 12 o'clock the reverend John dunn essayed to go to his nightly Slumbers. He had been sitting up until that hour preparing his sermon…
...he could not believe his senses. The door was certainly open; he could look into the room full of soft lights and shadows under the moonlight which streamed into the windows. He could see the bed in which he had expected to pass the night, but he could not enter. Whenever he strove to do so he had a curious sensation as if he were trying to press against an invisible person who met him with a force of opposition impossible to overcome.…"
A room in a house is cursed by the evil aumt wholived there.
They, Rudyard Kipling, 4 stars
" ...' I only don't like being laughed at about them. It hurts; and when one can't see.. I don't want to seem silly"
' - her chin quivered like a child as she spoke - 'but we blindies have only 1 skin, I think. Everything outside hits straight at our souls. It's different with you. You've such good defenses in your eyes - looking out - before anyone can really pain you in your soul. People forget that with us.' "
Supposedly written about Kipling's own dead daughter. The story is about a place in the woods where dead children come to play. (Children who have died and are not yet ready to enter heaven.)
The Moonlit Road, Ambrose Bierce, 3 stars
"... At any small surprise of the senses he would start visibly and sometimes turn pale, then relapse into a melancholy apathy deeper than before. I suppose he was what is called a 'nervous wreck.' as to me, I was younger then than now - there was much in that. youth is Gilead, in which is balm for every wound.… "
A ghost story about a jealous husband who strangles his wife; afterwards, she hangs around their old house, in her Life Invisible.
August Heat, W.F. Harvey, 4 stars
"It is after 11 now. I shall be gone in less than an hour.
But the heat is stifling.
It is enough to send a man mad."
Not all stories are included in this review; some are rated 2 stars by me, so are not included.
The Old Nurse's Story, Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 stars
Gowk=abusive term for someone you think is dumb
Maud=a cloak that shepherds wore
"All at once, the East door gave way with a thundering crash, as if torn open in a violent Passion, and there came into that broad and mysterious light the figure of a tall old man, with Gray hair and gleaming eyes. He drove before him, with many a relentless gesture of abhorrence, a Stern and beautiful woman, with a little child clinging to her dress."
The Phantom Coach, Amelia B. Edwards, 2 stars
Usquebaugh=whiskey
The Trial for Murder, Charles Dickens, 3 stars
The ghost of the murdered man shows up at the trial of his murderer.
The Captain of the Pole-Star, Arthur Conan Doyle, 3 stars
Said by Doyle about his trip as a ship's surgeon, towards the end of his medical school, and about which he wrote this story:
"...soon he was high in the Crow's nest, surveying the breeding ice field, densely populated with many thousands of dark mother seals and their white cubs. The yowling of the Cubs sounded so human that the Hope seemed moored beside a nursery - yet soon Arthur was helping slaughter them, as acres of crimson blood stained the ice...."😡
Fey=giving an impression of vague unworldliness
Medusse=a kind of jellyfish
Sealemon=any of several nudibrancheate mollusks
The Yellow Sign, Robert W. Chambers, 3 stars
I mainly liked this for its similarity to the works of HP lovecraft, And Edgar Allan Poe.
The Library Window, Margaret Oliphant, 3 stars
"... The light had changed in some wonderful way during that 5 minutes I had been gone, and there was nothing, nothing, not a reflection, not a glimmer. It looked exactly as they all said, the blank form of a window painted on the wall. It was too much: I sat down in my excitement and cried as if my heart would break...."
A Scottish girl goes to stay for the summer with her aunt. She loves to sit in her aunt's window seat, and look across the way, to a window of the college library there. But at times, it seems a window that's only painted on the building. At other times, she sees through the window, dimly, into the room, where a man sits writing at a desk. She almost falls in love with him, wishing for him to turn around and look at her. It's like she has a spell cast on her by this window, that's not a window.
The Monkey's Paw, by W.W. Jacobs, 5 stars
(" Despite his conservatism, Jacobs married a busy suffragette, Agnes Eleanor Williams, and apparently they did not flourish as a couple.") 😆
" 'It had a spell put on it by an old fakir,' said the sergeant-major, a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that 3 separate men could each have 3 wishes from it.' "
...
" 'I only just thought of it,' she said hysterically. 'why didn't I think of it before? Why didn't you think of it?'
'think of what?' he questioned.
'the other 2 wishes,' she replied rapidly. 'we've only had 1.'
'was not that enough?' he demanded fiercely.
'no,' she cried, triumphantly; 'we'll have 1 more. Go down and get it quickly, and wish our boy alive again.' "
The Southwest Chamber, Mar E. Wilkins Freeman, 4 stars
" That night about 12 o'clock the reverend John dunn essayed to go to his nightly Slumbers. He had been sitting up until that hour preparing his sermon…
...he could not believe his senses. The door was certainly open; he could look into the room full of soft lights and shadows under the moonlight which streamed into the windows. He could see the bed in which he had expected to pass the night, but he could not enter. Whenever he strove to do so he had a curious sensation as if he were trying to press against an invisible person who met him with a force of opposition impossible to overcome.…"
A room in a house is cursed by the evil aumt wholived there.
They, Rudyard Kipling, 4 stars
" ...' I only don't like being laughed at about them. It hurts; and when one can't see.. I don't want to seem silly"
' - her chin quivered like a child as she spoke - 'but we blindies have only 1 skin, I think. Everything outside hits straight at our souls. It's different with you. You've such good defenses in your eyes - looking out - before anyone can really pain you in your soul. People forget that with us.' "
Supposedly written about Kipling's own dead daughter. The story is about a place in the woods where dead children come to play. (Children who have died and are not yet ready to enter heaven.)
The Moonlit Road, Ambrose Bierce, 3 stars
"... At any small surprise of the senses he would start visibly and sometimes turn pale, then relapse into a melancholy apathy deeper than before. I suppose he was what is called a 'nervous wreck.' as to me, I was younger then than now - there was much in that. youth is Gilead, in which is balm for every wound.… "
A ghost story about a jealous husband who strangles his wife; afterwards, she hangs around their old house, in her Life Invisible.
August Heat, W.F. Harvey, 4 stars
"It is after 11 now. I shall be gone in less than an hour.
But the heat is stifling.
It is enough to send a man mad."