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With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. Oliver Onions is unique in the realms of ghost story writers in that his tales are so far ranging in their background and substance that they are not easily categorised. His stories are powerfully charged explorations of psychical violence, their effects heightened by detailed character studies graced with a powerful poetic elegance. In simple terms Oliver Onions goes for the cerebral rather than the jugular. However, make no mistake, his ghost stories achieve the desired effect. They draw you in, enmeshing you in their unnerving and disturbing narratives. This collection contains such masterpieces as The Rosewood Door, The Ascending Dream, The Painted Face and The Beckoning Fair One, a story which both Algernon Blackwood and H. P. Lovecraft regarded as one of the most effective and subtle ghost stories in all literature. Long out of print, these classic tales are a treasure trove of nightmarish gems.… (more)
User reviews
Certain imagery and themes recur across the stories. Quite often the tales open at the threshold of a door and/or a straircase, clearly symbolic of entry or ascension in another realm (be it external or internal). Indeed the excellent story "The Rosewood Door" centers on an exquisite yet oddly shaped door with mysterious origins, rescued from a house demoliton, and when reinstalled anew sparks bizarre occurences. Artists and their work (painting, sculpture, writing) figure prominently in quite a few stories; their struggles and obsession seem surely one of Onions' signature autobiographical touches.
The standout story is the perfectly crafted and often anthologized "The Beckoning Fair One" wherein a writer moves into a possibly haunted house and experiences a growing obsession with a perceived spiritual presence, as well as a debilitating case of writer's block... or does his mania ensue from his maddening inability to write? Other highlights include "The Rope in the Rafters," a tale of World War I disfigurement; a sculptor's deepening madness and obsession in "Resurrection in Bronze," and a pair of tales concerning time dislocation (past or future events encroaching on the present), "The Cigarette Case" and "The Accident."