THE HOUSE OF THE NIGHTMARE & Other Ecric Tales

Two from legend, many from febrile imagination, seven from life--an assortment of unaccountable occurrences, with accent on the late nineteenth century classics, that will satisfy readers who take ghost stories seriously. Some of the authors will be familiar to afficionados of the genre but, with only a few exceptions, the tales selected are not frequently anthologized (though it would take a computer to collate the contents of recent offerings); two, by L. M. Boston and E. F. Bozman, are published for the first time, as are all but two of the personal experiences. They build on mood, pace, implication, rather than melodrama-expectable from William Croft Dickinson, Elizabeth Bowen, Ambrose Bierce, Walter de la Mare, Henry Cecil, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, et al. Altogether, mature, cunningly styled stories that impale rather than assault--including a computer that just might have your number.