Which stories stay with you, years after you first read them? That’s the greydogtales question for today. We return to our love of early strange and supernatural stories, in a way which might entertain and vex in equal measure. Whilst rummaging through piles of books for a particular ghost story (which still hasn’t turned up), we drifted into thinking about those tales which never quite go away. So we thought we’d share a handful of them here.

The stories picked had to be:

• supernatural or unnatural to some certain degree (no pretend hauntings, let-downs or mundane explanations)
• memorable for their themes, key elements or imagery
• different from the usual fare in some way, either in style, approach or resolution
  
• free of the standard vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies and cthulhoids for a change

Of course, each had to be a weird tale which remained in memory long after the book was closed.

We make no excuses for the fact that many of these stories are well-known. They are well-known for a reason, and we weren’t trying to find obscure oddities so we could sound clever. We could do that if we wanted, you know. Honestly we could.

The stories are given order of the author’s year of birth, for no particular reason. The rating system is badly-thought out, unreliable and of no real value whatsoever. We understand that lists do that sort of thing, and didn’t want it to look like we hadn’t tried.

1) Sredni Vashtar
H H Munro (1862-1916)

A masterpiece in its simplicity, as so often with Saki (H H Munro). A disturbing glimpse into a boy’s life and his frustrations, one of the most inventive ‘weird’ tales ever written. As to what Sredni Vashtar is, and what it does, we can say no more without spoiling the story.

Scary rating: 8/10
Style rating: 9/10

2) The Malice of Inanimate Objects
M R James (1862-1936)

A very short story which stands out because it doesn’t follow the antiquarian Jamesian trope, having a more contemporary feel to it. It has some of his best understated prose towards the end, and the line about shaving in the penultimate paragraph is one of the finest descriptions of a rather nasty event ever written.

Scary rating: 4/10
Style rating: 9/10

3) Where Their Fire is not Quenched
May Sinclair (1863-1946)

A piece of horror concerning love and relationships which avoids every cliché. Truly chilling if you let yourself absorb its analysis of people and what they do to each other. To her credit Sinclair takes an entirely humanistic approach where a good old-fashioned ghost, witch or cursed object would have come as light relief for the reader.

Scary rating: 7/10
Style rating: 7/10

4) The Yellow Sign
Robert W Chambers (1865-1933)

The quintessential introduction to the concept of the King in Yellow and the Yellow Sign, this story evokes things beyond the natural order, and a genuine sense of madness pressing on the human mind. “…but still we murmured to each other of the King and the Pallid Mask, and midnight sounded from the misty spires in the fog-wrapped city.” The concept is fascinating enough, but with the churchyard watchman Chambers also adds suggestions of more tangible horror to his questioning of sanity.

Scary rating: 9/10
Style rating: 8/10

5) Lord Beden’s Motor
J B Harris-Burland (1870-1926)

Written in 1901, this story should already be of note because of its central use of the motor car. In fact, it’s a weird story anyway, with a wonderful sense of speed and danger as Lord Beden burns through the night in his 12 horsepower Napier, in pursuit of something far stranger and darker than his own automobile. Innovative and enjoyable.

Scary rating: 7/10
Style rating: 6/10

6) Bone to his Bone
E G Swain (1871-1938)

A marvellous Mr Batchel story. This is the epitome of Swain’s gentle humour and everyday approach, which opens up the natural presence of ghosts around us for various perfectly good reasons. It shows how a master can handle a haunting without cheap terror and trickery. Also notable for its unusual approach to bibliomancy, which is a delight.

Scary rating: 1/10
Style rating: 9/10

7) The Whistling Room
William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918)

Not the best of Hodgson, but an introduction to two of his themes – scientific ghost hunting and the possibility of true abominations rather than merely scary spirits. His portrayal of a sense of danger and imminent, utter destruction stands out, as does the source of it. As has been said, quite unfilmable because of its unique imagery, but Hodgson carries it off on paper.

Scary rating: 8/10
Style rating: 5/10

8) Hill Drums
Henry S Whitehead (1882-1932)

A new consul-general arrives on the island of St Thomas, and does not ‘fit in’. An unusual story which reflects on the nature of culture in the West Indies and relies on a remarkably simple theme to achieve its effect. It would be easy to choose one of Whitehead’s more directly frightening and equally well-handled stories, but this one has perhaps more in common with James – and Swain – than usual. “Him go back to Trebizond” is a refrain which somehow doesn’t go away. NOTE: This also includes Whitehead’s variable take on racial issues (he veered between sympathetic handling and stereotyping), but we include it for the unusual concept.

Scary rating: 1/10
Style rating: 8/10

9) Branch Line to Benceston
Sir Andrew Caldecott (1884-1951)

Another unusual story, even for its author, which pursues possibilities of alternate or co-existing worlds – or does it? As with much of Caldecott’s work, the exact explanation is elusive, but the concept of a man seeing his life play out in Benceston even as it deteriorates in ‘reality’ is a striking one, with a worrying conclusion.

Scary rating: 5/10
Style rating: 7/10

10) The Crown Derby Plate
Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952)

A woman who deals in antiques has one plate missing from a Crown Derby service which she bought at auction thirty years before. So she tries to get hold of the missing plate. Possibly one of the most wonderfully simple and prosaic starts to a deceptive story which grows as it develops. Another one which definitely stays with you, enough so that you re-read it to check it really said what you thought. Clever and quietly scary.

Scary rating: 7/10
Style rating: 9/10

11) The Outsider
H P Lovecraft (1890-1937)

Rather than pick a Mythos or Dream-Lands story, it seemed more appropriate for this list to go with one of Lovecraft’s most unsettling pieces, which seems modest enough until you get to the last lines, and reflect on what has gone before. All the better for having no strange gods or fancy names in it, employing instead a most Gothic feel. Also notable for the empathy which Lovecraft evokes, in a tale which at times seems almost autobiographical (if you prefer psychoanalysis to a good yarn).

Scary rating: 8/10
Style rating: 6/10

12) The Colossus of Ylourgne
Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961)

A late entry, but one that stuck with us. Shedding that florid, sometimes over-written fantasy style which falls between Lord Dunsany and Jack Vance, Smith returns to Averoigne, a place which is more haunting because of its closeness to reality than its divergence from it. Except for the central activities of an insane necromancer, and the graphic nature of those activities. Memorable for both the ghastly techniques involved in what the madman constructs, and the horrors which come after.

Scary rating: 7/10
Style rating: 6/10

 

At the end of this week – a major illustrated interview with the talented Andy Paciorek, artist and originator of the whole Folk Horror Revival movement. Harrumble!