"The China Bowl"

"The China Bowl"
by E.F. Benson


Synopsis:
While still settling into his newly purchased home, a man is witness to a persistent apparition. 


My Reaction (with SPOILERS):
It didn't take long for me to recognize this story.  I've certainly read it before-- probably as part of a collection of ghost stories I read before starting this blog.  (Or at least I think it was that long ago...)  In any case, I remembered most of the story.  The significance of the china bowl was immediately clear-- though that might not be difficult to figure out on the very first read-- but I had forgotten the gruesome ending. 

So... Decent run-of-the-mill ghost story, but not in any way outstanding.  Predictable-- and the ghost itself isn't even scary.  (She's basically a grown-up version of that little girl from The Sixth Sense.)  What is it with ghosts being "witnessed" by multiple people at the same time?  I've written about this before, and it still mystifies me.  Is it supposed to lend credence to the tale that two or more people are seeing the same thing?  Because if that's the purpose-- don't make me laugh!  Now, on rare occasions it works, but in general, it simply doesn't. 

"An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House"

"An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House"
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu


Synopsis:
On the advice of his doctors, an invalid takes his family and servants to a rented home by the sea-- but it turns out that the house already has a group of occupants.  (Helpful Hint: The other occupants are ghosts.)


My Reaction:
(This was a stop-gap "shared read".  I.e. no detailed notes.)

The story has a few creepy moments, but on the whole was rather dry and included so many going-nowhere details that my total impression was something like a shiver followed by mild interest... succeeded by a period of waiting for something to happen... concluded with a shrug. 

What creepy moments there were, were effective.  I just could have wished for more of them!

Cold Comfort Farm

Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons


Publisher's Blurb:

...a wickedly funny portrait of British rural life in the 1930s. Flora Poste, a recently orphaned socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, and becomes enmeshed in a web of violent emotions, despair, and scheming, until Flora manages to set things right.

My Reaction: 
(This was shared read.  As such, there are no detailed notes.)

We saw the 1990s film adaptation years ago-- so long ago that I had only the vaguest memories of it.  However, I feel safe saying that the book is better.

What higher praise can you give a book than to say that it made you laugh (in the intended places)?  Well, we laughed!
 
(A couple of slightly spoilery things follow, so if you want to remain innocent of all spoilage, sneak out the side door now.)  



At times, I could have wished for more explanation--  Flora's "rights"!  The exact nature of the "something nasty in the woodshed"!  How did Flora's conversation with Aunt Ada Doom begin?!  (Yes, I realize that we aren't meant to know those things and that they were very intentionally left out.  But I still want to knoooooow!)


...It was just fun to read.  I'm satisfied. 

"The Other Bed"

"The Other Bed"
by E.F. Benson


Synopsis:
When a man checks into the last vacancy available in a Swiss resort, he is thrilled to find that he'll be enjoying a large room for an excellent price.  He'll even have two beds all to himself-- or will he?  ~dun Dun DUN!~


My Reaction (with a chance of SPOILERS):
This one is predictable.  I figured out the nature of the ghostly roommate pretty quickly, and for the rest of the story was just waiting for the inevitable conclusion.  Still creepy, though. (And I was surprised that the narrator actually glimpsed the face of the ghost.  Gruesome...)

I feel that I've read several hotel-based ghost stories over the years, but I can't recall if any of the others were by Benson.  At least a few by M.R. James, one or two by H.R. Wakefield.  Anyway, I guess hotels are a natural choice for a ghost story setting-- so many people coming and going, each with his/her own life story--  no way of knowing who occupied your bed in the weeks, months, and years before-- a rare place that is not home where you give yourself up to the vulnerability of sleep.

(Confession:  I kind of hate hotels.  I view them as a necessity only-- not a place where I'll actively enjoy spending time.  I'm not afraid that a hotel room might be haunted, though I've written before that I find 1408 particularly awful.  No, for me, the horror is mostly on the microscopic level...  I don't like knowing that those sheets and pillows-- that bathtub-- those chairs-- that remote control have all been used by so many unknown people who have left behind their unknown germs.  ~shudder~  Much more frightening than your average silly ghost story.  ...Also, sleeping in an unfamiliar place is not always easy, so I worry that I'll wake up and be unable to fall back to sleep... or that there'll be a fire... or a break-in... or... well, I just don't like hotels, ok? ;o)) 

Back on topic...
The best parts of the story might have been the little touches of humor:

-- "Once I made him come in, but I saw him cross himself as, with a face of icy terror, he stepped into the room, and the sight somehow did not reassure me."  Ha!  Yes, it's never completely reassuring when hotel staff cross themselves before entering your room...

--  The ("Sensitive") young hotel attendant (or whatever he's called in the story) apologizes for (repeatedly) bringing a bottle of alcohol to the room, under the mistaken impression that the narrator has rung for it, suggests that perhaps the other gentleman staying in the room might have rung for it, then corrects himself that, oh yes, you told me last time that there is no other occupant... "It was on the night when this happened for the second time that I definitely began to wish that I too was quite certain that the other bed was unoccupied." 

--  And then the end... "No, monsieur had not rung.  But monsieur made himself a couch in the billiard-room."

Reminds me of the Lucia books.  I'll have to re-read them, one of these days...

"The Terror by Night"

"The Terror by Night"
by E.F. Benson


Synopsis:
The story of a ghostly phenomenon demonstrates how people's sensitivities and perceptions differ.


My Reaction (with a chance of SPOILERS):
Benson evidently was very fond of this type of set-up.  He (or rather his narrator) tells you one of his theories regarding ghosts, etc., then provides a story to back it up.  That might not be a problem if you're just happening across a tale now and again in a magazine, but that literary device gets a bit repetitive when you're reading a collection of his stories.


-- "...They may appeal to any of the senses.  Some ghosts are seen, some heard, some felt, and though I know of no instance of a ghost being tasted, yet it will seem in the following pages that these occult phenomena may appeal at any rate to the senses that perceive heat, cold, or smell."  Very clinical, aren't we?

--  "The following story, however, to my mind, is interesting because it shows how different pieces of what no doubt was one message were received and recorded by several different people simultaneously."  I've already read this exact premise (that different people perceive a ghost differently) in Benson's own "The Dust-Cloud".

--  "Ten years have elapsed since the events recorded took place, but they were written down at the time."  Why ten years?  It seems that the passage of a certain length of time is required, in these cases.  It's very rarely, "Oh, hey, let me tell you about this ghostly experience I had two days ago."

--  "'Oh, don't look so woebegone, Jack,' his wife had said; 'you'll see me again before long.'"  (~shivery-chuckle~)

--  "...I remember going to sleep feeling quite cheerful, but I awoke in some dark still house and It, the terror by night, had come while I slept.  Fear and misgiving, blind, unreasonable, and paralysing, had taken and gripped me."  I know this is supposed to be something more than just that horrible feeling you can get when you wake at 3 a.m. and can't stop thinking about every little worry and fear lurking in the corners of your mind-- but it reminds me of it, anyway.  What is it about three o'clock in the morning?  It's the worst hour of the whole twenty-four for lying awake and worrying.