This Wordsworth collection contains all the weird fiction of Crawford, a bestseller from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. There are just eight stories and the titular novel, yet Crawford has always figured in lists of the best and scariest practitioners. I can now see why,
The Screaming Skull is probably his most anthologised story but my favourite was The Upper Berth, a ghost story set at sea in which Crawford really relies on his favourite stratagem - we see nothing but we definitely feel the terror.
The novel, however, is pure fantasy - a gothic fantasy, to be true, but not for me I'm afraid.
No comments:
Post a Comment