Monthly Archives: April 2015

April 28, 2015 · 12:10 pm

Ghostly and Mournful Mists

The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson (1907)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror April 28, 2015

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“It was a dark, starless night. We were becalmed in the Northern Pacific.”

So opens this sea adventure into a lurking and mysterious world. We have two sailors in a schooner in the Pacific. It’s dark and misty and they are unsure of their position. A singular voice—inhuman but throaty—comes across the sea. Poor soul, is he shipwrecked and starving? That may be true and much more as unknown forces descend and this nautical yarn unravels. What greater horror is there than to be stranded in the dark ocean with weird powers lurking? This atmospheric tale was adapted into a 1963 film (The Attack of the Mushroom People) and was an episode in the TV series Suspicion in 1958. The story originally appeared in The Blue Book Magazine in 1907.

William Hope Hodgson is considered to be the famous but forgotten master of cosmic horror. He is well known for his occult detective Thomas Carnacki in the novel The Whistling Room, and for numerous stories of weird, fantastic, and science fiction. H.P. Lovecraft said that Hodgson “was second only to Algernon Blackwood in his serious treatment of unreality.”

Are you a fan of the unreality?

Read the full text at Gaslight.mtroyal.ca

Listen to the audio at Pseudopod.org.

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Filed under classic horror stories, fiction, ghost ships, ghost stories, short stories, supernatural, tales of terror

Tagged as sea adventures, William Hope Hodgson

April 21, 2015 · 7:54 am

Contagion of Evil in the Air

A Short Trip Home by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1927)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror April 21, 2015

We are in Fitzgerald’s radiant world of a Cotillion Club dance, raccoon coats and high-buttoned shoes, chauffeurs, trains, and billiard palours. So what’s a ghost story doing here? And a story with a slash of glamour instead of the dark and dreary? A Short Trip Home is not one of Fitzgerald’s most notable short stories like The Ice Palace or Benjamin Button. Why would Fitzgerald want to write a ghost story? I’ll let you stab a guess after you read this odd but entertaining adventure.

Eddie is our narrator, a college sophomore, home on Christmas break. He is falling for the romantic Ellen Baker, described as having a “bewitchment.” When a thin-faced man in a derby hat appears, poor Ellen becomes dazed by him. Maybe it’s his “air of being scarred” or his sinister but soundless huffy laugh. Whatever, Eddie is determined to save the mesmerized Ellen from this stranger and decides to find out exactly who the man is.

Some critics speculate that Fitzgerald was trying to imitate Poe with this first person narrative. I found the story to be more Hitchcockian. What do you think?

Read A Short Trip Home at Gutenberg.net.au

Other Reading Web Sites to Visit

Bibliophilica Lovecraft Ezine HorrorAddicts.net

Horror Novel Reviews Hell Horror HorrorPalace

HorrorSociety.com Sirens Call Publications

Monster Librarian Tales to Terrify Spooky Reads

HorrorNews.net HorrorTalk.com

Rob Around Books The Story Reading Ape Blog

For Authors/Writers: The Writer Unboxed

Don’t forget to view the INDEX above of more free Tales of Terror classic authors.

In the Murky Twilight

Smoke Ghost by Fritz Leiber (1941)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror April 14, 2015

Robert Aickman (supernatural fiction author) said that a successful ghost story must open a door where no one else had seen a door to exist, and then at the end of the story, leave that door open.

In Smoke Ghost by Leiber, Catesby Wran is an advertising executive sitting in his office and chatting about ghosts with his secretary Miss Millick. Not a ghost from books, Mr. Wran explains, “the kind that would haunt coal-yards and slip around at night through deserted office buildings like this one. A real ghost.”

Miss Millick knows there’s no such thing as a ghost and “science and psychiatry all go to prove it.” Who wouldn’t agree with that? On his way home, Mr. Wran is riding the elevated train past rooftops and smoky brick buildings. He sees an abandoned shapeless black sack on the rooftop… and a face in the murky twilight.

Do you think there is a supernatural edge between the alienated feelings we have and the unexplained sources of ghosts? And perhaps that door that remains open.

Fritz Lieber’s fiction was highly influenced by Lovecraft and Carl Jung. He was a poet, playwright, and actor. He has written novels, novellas, and over 100 short stories.