Night Shadows: Twentieth-century Stories of the UncannyJoan Kessler This fine collection of fifteen stories straddles the thin border between ordinary anxiety and existential nightmare. These tales of dread and darkness ignore the traditional demons haunting country houses or popping up from unopened graves, but instead feature characters inhabiting the familiar scenes of quotidian life. That these are tales of ordinary people makes them all the more disquieting, their horrors more sharply edged, precisely because they are set in modern, everyday reality. What the protagonists have in common, regardless of age, status, or profession, is that at some point in their lives, by imperceptible degrees or with alarming rapidity, reality turns strange, the unthinkable becomes conceivable, and the specters of uncertainty, fear, and stark, sheer terror become their constant companions. |
Contents
R James | 3 |
Robert Graves The Shout | 25 |
Edith Wharton | 47 |
Elizabeth Bowen | 82 |
John Collier Midnight Blue | 91 |
Miriam | 98 |
Shirley Jackson The Daemon Lover | 112 |
Hortense Calisher | 130 |
Ray Bradbury | 142 |
W | 158 |
Ramsey Campbell | 224 |
Alison Lurie The Double Poet | 244 |
Joyce Carol Oates The Doll | 270 |
Notes | 277 |
Acknowledgments | 297 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alison Lurie Ashby asked began Black Magic chocolates breath chair Charles Charlotte chimney Colonel Constantin course Crossley dark Dippy doctor dolls door dream dress Edith Wharton Elizabeth Bowen Emerald empty lot eyes face father Father Christmas fear felt floor Florence Parr Friendman frightened gone groynes hand head hear heard Hortense Calisher husband Janey Karo McKay Kenneth knew L. P. Hartley laugh letter light listening lived looked M. R. James Miller mind Miriam Mockler morning mother never night Not-Karo once Parkins perhaps Rachels Ramsey Campbell remember Richard Robert Aickman Robert Graves Royster sand hills Screaming Woman seemed Shirley Jackson shout silent smiled someone Spiers staring stood stopped story suddenly sure tell there's thing thought told turned uncanny upstairs voice wait walk Walter William Trevor window writing