UNCLE MONTAGUE’S TALES OF TERROR

The author’s attempts to create atmosphere with constant references to half-glimpsed figures, encroaching fog, unexplained noises, etc., come off as labored in these ten tales of the supernatural. Spinning stories to a young visitor from various topics of conversation or small objects in his cluttered study, melancholy old Uncle Montague describes what happens to an arrogant lad who climbs a malevolent elm, a case of demonic possession related to a carved wooden grotesque, a traveler’s frantic and fatal flight from his own battered corpse and like incidents or cautionary tales. All, along with a linking narrative, are related in the same somber, even tones and formal language—except perhaps for one sparkler featuring a blind old woman who turns a young hooligan into an apple tree and then picks up her pruning shears—none are likely to cause even minor disquiet. Priestley usually does better. (Short stories. 11-13)