The Book Tower

This is the first in a new regular series. I enjoy writing about stories that I love reading. With novels, there can be a slow turnaround. So something to keep me posting more regularly…

I have a mini library of ghost story collections. Great Ghost Stories, published in 1960, features ten such stories – perfect for this occasional simply chilling series. And it features one of my favourites. But more of that another time. The book is edited by Herbert van Thal, with illustrations by Edward Pagram. The first two stories are Running Wolf by Algernon Blackwood and The Haunted and the Haunters by Lord Lytton.

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was an English writer of ghost stories. I’ve seen clips of the appearances he made in the early days of television, an urbane old gentleman in an ill-fitting suit. Reading Running Wolf directly after The Tenderness of Wolves is a strange coincidence. Like Stef Penney’s novel, it’s also set in a remote part of Canada, concerning an isolated individual who encounters both an enigmatic wolf and American Indian culture. Unlike Penney, Blackwood did spend some time in Canada, but although suitably atmospheric Running Wolf is a much slighter work. Penney also has the advantage of a modern and sympathetic perspective; there’s a whiff of disregard for the Indian culture in Blackwood’s writing. This aside, Running Wolf quickly establishes a tremendous sense of mood, it’s protagonist spooked and intrigued in equal spoonfulls.

Troubled by a pair of watching eyes in the night, a camper discovers he is being observed by a wolf. Eventually befriending the creature, he makes a strange discovery…

I don’t know if this short story is typical of Blackwood or not, but I’ll certainly be investigating more of his work.

Chill Factor: 4/5

Lord Lytton (1803-1873) is most famous for coining the phrase the pen is mightier than the sword in his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. He was also a writer of occult and science fiction stories. His novel The Coming Race shares the distinction for being possibly the first ever sci-fi novel with the notoriety for being influential in Nazi thinking.

The Haunted and the Haunters is a typical haunted house story. Hearing of one such house, a man is over eager to spend the night there. He takes with him, as usually happens in this type of 19th Century yarn, his faithful servant. The story offers no surprises, and lurches from the usual haunted goings on, mysterious footfalls, discovered bundles of letters, a slaughtered dog, to cumbersome attempts at trying to describe what a ghost might actually be.

I’m keeping Lytton at arms length, although The Coming Race does intrigue me…

Chill Factor: 1/5