Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1984), 235 pages
Description
Who better to investigate the literary spirit world than that supreme connoisseur of the unexpected, Roald Dahl? Of the many permutations of the macabre or bizarre, Dahl was always especially fascinated by the classic ghost story. As he realtes in the erudite introduction to this volume, he read some 749 supernatural tales at the British Museum Library before selecting the 14 that comprise this anthology. "Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story," Dahl writes. "It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts." For this superbly disquieting collection, Dahl offers favorite tales by such masterful storytellers as E. F. Benson, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Rosemary Timperley, and Edith Wharton.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Ron18
The premise sounds like one that could not possibly disappoint, but it is also not quite presented truthfully. The idea is that Dahl read 450 ghost stories in preparation for creating screenplays for a season's worth of them for an anthology TV show. The forward, and publishers, tell you that this
Few of these stories could be thought of as the best out of 450 classic ghost stories. They aren't bad - *none* are "bad" - but a lot are mediocre. I started reading the book by doing a story-by-story review, then rating them by overall story and then how scary they are. The quality of the story almost universally outstripped the quality of the horror. The premise of the book relies on their having been scary. Few of them are scary enough that you will linger on frightening ideas. Most are formatted neatly to fit into a comparable presentation as The Twilight Zone. "Weird Tales", in other words - not horror.
Some of the stories don't even feature ghosts. The very first one, for instance (W.S. by Hartley). Some are more like folktales or legends, as is Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie. A lot of them will feel antiquated to a modern reader - and a lot of them are classic and influential enough to have inspired works that are more well known (Stephen King is a famous "miner of ideas" from classic roots - - and a couple here certainly influenced him, or the stories that later influenced him, like The Corner Shop, and W.S.).
Personal favorites in the bunch are: Harry (feels inspired by the anxiety of a child becoming school-age), Playmates (was truly moved by the ending), The Sweeper (has Tales From The Crypt written all over it), and The Upper Berth (no stranger to "best of" ghost anthologies - and just a wonderfully written short story).
I was somewhat disappointed. I thought I was being served a super-charged, concentrated, carefully selected bunch of ghost stories determined to have been the best of the best. It really isn't. A lot of the best of the best may have been overlooked for having been well enough known that Dahl couldn't present them and get a fresh reaction. A lot of the best of the best may have been unattainable properties for the project (too expensive).
I'm slightly on the fence over whether to keep the book. I like the idea of having a decent ghost story shelf in my library... and while I'm still arguing against this book fitting in as neatly as others (like a Henry James ghost story collection, or the two books created out of an essay by HP Lovecraft on what books inspired him most), or a complete Poe... it doesn't deserve a fate out in the cold.
Show More
book prints the best 14 stories out of those 450 - as chosen by Dahl. I think the dishonesty in that idea is that they were the best stories - - I think, rather, they were chosen by him as the best stories to create screenplays for and reformat for a visual medium.Few of these stories could be thought of as the best out of 450 classic ghost stories. They aren't bad - *none* are "bad" - but a lot are mediocre. I started reading the book by doing a story-by-story review, then rating them by overall story and then how scary they are. The quality of the story almost universally outstripped the quality of the horror. The premise of the book relies on their having been scary. Few of them are scary enough that you will linger on frightening ideas. Most are formatted neatly to fit into a comparable presentation as The Twilight Zone. "Weird Tales", in other words - not horror.
Some of the stories don't even feature ghosts. The very first one, for instance (W.S. by Hartley). Some are more like folktales or legends, as is Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie. A lot of them will feel antiquated to a modern reader - and a lot of them are classic and influential enough to have inspired works that are more well known (Stephen King is a famous "miner of ideas" from classic roots - - and a couple here certainly influenced him, or the stories that later influenced him, like The Corner Shop, and W.S.).
Personal favorites in the bunch are: Harry (feels inspired by the anxiety of a child becoming school-age), Playmates (was truly moved by the ending), The Sweeper (has Tales From The Crypt written all over it), and The Upper Berth (no stranger to "best of" ghost anthologies - and just a wonderfully written short story).
I was somewhat disappointed. I thought I was being served a super-charged, concentrated, carefully selected bunch of ghost stories determined to have been the best of the best. It really isn't. A lot of the best of the best may have been overlooked for having been well enough known that Dahl couldn't present them and get a fresh reaction. A lot of the best of the best may have been unattainable properties for the project (too expensive).
I'm slightly on the fence over whether to keep the book. I like the idea of having a decent ghost story shelf in my library... and while I'm still arguing against this book fitting in as neatly as others (like a Henry James ghost story collection, or the two books created out of an essay by HP Lovecraft on what books inspired him most), or a complete Poe... it doesn't deserve a fate out in the cold.
Show Less
LibraryThing member caerulius
Unlike "Skin", this is not stories BY Dahl, so much as stories selected by Dahl. In the introduction, he discusses how he labroiously searched for the best ghost stories... but most of them are rather bland and innocuous. Much better is the compilation Open at Your Own Risk (which does not have
Show More
anything to do with Dahl.) Show Less
LibraryThing member stipe168
Deftly proves that the best stories are the old ones. roald dahl didn't write any of these, but he picked them as his favorites. They are actually spooky, not scary. And they are written with a great deal of care. Very readable and extraordinarily good.
LibraryThing member TFS93
I read this book with my 9 year old son. His favorite story was "Harry" which he said was "very creepy" . A good mix of spooky stories for young and old!
LibraryThing member frightful_elk
a couple of really good ones in here!
LibraryThing member Bcushman
While not actually written by Dahl the stories contained within are sufficiently creepy for the young ghost story lover in your life.
LibraryThing member Madison_DeWeerdt
This would be great for a project about poetry and for Halloween time!
LibraryThing member sturlington
Roald Dahl states in his introduction that after reading hundreds of ghost stories, he was surprised to find that very few of them were any good, and here they are in this collection. (His introduction also has a strangely sexist slant, as he discusses how unusual it is that women wrote so many of
Show More
the "good" ones--nearly half!). These are fine ghost stories but are largely, in my opinion, campfire stories, which rely on a little twist or a-ha! moment but don't have many layers to them. This would be a good starter collection for a young reader interested in the genre, but I am positive there are many more excellent ghost stories beyond these to be read. Show Less
LibraryThing member AliceaP
Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories was a must-have for me for 2 reasons: 1. Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors and I want to read everything he's ever written and 2. I love ghost stories. I have to admit that going into this one I was very much under the impression that this was going to be a
The first is called 'Harry' and was written by Rosemary Timperley. It bore a striking resemblance to The Imaginary in that its primary focus was on a little girl who had a strong friendship with an imaginary boy. The biggest difference here is that the mom tried very hard to squash this relationship because she had a deep and abiding fear...of the name Harry. Yes, I too found this odd. Nevertheless, while it may seem irrational this fear was quite powerful and instead of ignoring the interactions of her child and her invisible playmate she let it consume her until...well you'll have to read the story. 😀 Suffice to say, the ending was quite the surprise.
The other story I'd like to mention came immediately after 'Harry' and was written by Cynthia Asquith. 'The Corner Shop' follows a man who stumbles into an old rundown shop full of what appears to be dusty junk. Persuaded by the decrepit shop owner, he buys something that turns out to be of immense value. Bothered by his conscience, he feels that it is his duty to give some of this money back to the proprietor as he feels the sale was too much to his benefit. When he returns to the shop, he is shocked to discover...gosh you'll just have to check it out yourself. 😀 It's a creepy tale with a whiff of Stephen King about it that is sure to get the hairs on your neck to stand up.
I have to admit that I had to go back and look at the chapter listing to remember the stories written in this collection and only a few of them came back to me clearly. That seems to be the way with most collections that I read (except for Stories of Your Life and Others) so that shouldn't discourage you from giving it a shot. There are some real gems in there as well as some illuminating thoughts from Dahl himself in the introduction. 7/10 overall.
Show More
book filled with stories written by Dahl himself. I clearly hadn't read the synopsis or book jacket because that is not what this book is about. This is a collection of some of Dahl's favorite ghost stories written by other people. He compiled this list when he was working on a project for American television and his preparation was extensive. He read 749 tales of the supernatural by different authors and from that large number he whittled it down to 14 of his favorites that he felt were not only excellent examples of writing in this genre but that would make for good television. (He also discovered that women are experts in this field and until the 11th hour he thought they would beat out the men with a hard majority.) Since there are 14 different stories in this collection, I will only talk about 2 that I found particularly chilling (and yes they are written by women). The first is called 'Harry' and was written by Rosemary Timperley. It bore a striking resemblance to The Imaginary in that its primary focus was on a little girl who had a strong friendship with an imaginary boy. The biggest difference here is that the mom tried very hard to squash this relationship because she had a deep and abiding fear...of the name Harry. Yes, I too found this odd. Nevertheless, while it may seem irrational this fear was quite powerful and instead of ignoring the interactions of her child and her invisible playmate she let it consume her until...well you'll have to read the story. 😀 Suffice to say, the ending was quite the surprise.
The other story I'd like to mention came immediately after 'Harry' and was written by Cynthia Asquith. 'The Corner Shop' follows a man who stumbles into an old rundown shop full of what appears to be dusty junk. Persuaded by the decrepit shop owner, he buys something that turns out to be of immense value. Bothered by his conscience, he feels that it is his duty to give some of this money back to the proprietor as he feels the sale was too much to his benefit. When he returns to the shop, he is shocked to discover...gosh you'll just have to check it out yourself. 😀 It's a creepy tale with a whiff of Stephen King about it that is sure to get the hairs on your neck to stand up.
I have to admit that I had to go back and look at the chapter listing to remember the stories written in this collection and only a few of them came back to me clearly. That seems to be the way with most collections that I read (except for Stories of Your Life and Others) so that shouldn't discourage you from giving it a shot. There are some real gems in there as well as some illuminating thoughts from Dahl himself in the introduction. 7/10 overall.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LongDogMom
The writing in most of these stories was excellent, and although I'm not normally a fan of ghost stories or short stories, I quite enjoyed this collection.
LibraryThing member Jonathan_M
"Good ghost stories, like good children's books, are damnably difficult to write," Dahl notes in his introduction to this fourteen-story collection. He was right, but the criteria for a good ghost story are subjective enough to make any collection a hit-and-miss affair, and this one is no
But Dahl also selected some real corkers. In A.M. Burrage's "The Sweeper," a young caregiver learns the macabre secret of the wealthy old woman who employs her; the story vividly evokes a feeling of autumn decay, and has just the right ratio of creepiness to melancholy. Robert Aickman's stories gradually ceased to make any kind of logical sense, but in "Ringing the Changes" he offers a sufficiently coherent premise to maintain the reader's interest. (Not every detail is explained, of course--and you wouldn't want it to be in an Aickman story--but the conclusion of Gerald and Phrynne's strange adventure in the seaside resort town of Holihaven is consistent and satisfying in a way that many of Aickman's later tales were not.) The pick of the litter is Rosemary Timperley's "Harry," a brief but superbly written piece about family ties that remain unsevered by death. If there's such a thing as the perfect ghost story, this may be it.
Show More
different. For example, Dahl singles out Jonas Lie's "Elias and the Draug" as possibly the most disturbing tale in the book, but I wasn't at all impressed by it. Others, like E.F. Benson's "In the Tube," are just okay. (Benson was one of the unquestioned masters of the English ghost story, but in my opinion this piece is not representative of his best work.)But Dahl also selected some real corkers. In A.M. Burrage's "The Sweeper," a young caregiver learns the macabre secret of the wealthy old woman who employs her; the story vividly evokes a feeling of autumn decay, and has just the right ratio of creepiness to melancholy. Robert Aickman's stories gradually ceased to make any kind of logical sense, but in "Ringing the Changes" he offers a sufficiently coherent premise to maintain the reader's interest. (Not every detail is explained, of course--and you wouldn't want it to be in an Aickman story--but the conclusion of Gerald and Phrynne's strange adventure in the seaside resort town of Holihaven is consistent and satisfying in a way that many of Aickman's later tales were not.) The pick of the litter is Rosemary Timperley's "Harry," a brief but superbly written piece about family ties that remain unsevered by death. If there's such a thing as the perfect ghost story, this may be it.
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1983
Physical description
235 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
0374518688 / 9780374518684