Description
Author: Johnson, StephenAnthologies (non-poetry)Published on 5 October 2021 by Notting Hill Editions in the United Kingdom.Hardback | 184 pages122 x 191 x 23 | 266g
Why do people love ghost stories, even if they dont believe (or say they dont believe) in ghosts? Is it simply the adrenaline rush that comes from being mesmerized and terrified by a great storyteller, or do these tales yield deeper meaningstelling us things about our own inner shadows? Stephen Johnson brings together some of the most memorable encounters with ghosts in world literature, from Europe, Russia, the United States, and China. Recurring themes and imagery are noted, interpretations suggestedbut only suggested, since ambiguity and resistance to rational interpretation are key elements in the best ghost stories. As the writer Robert Aickman observed, often the decisive moment comes when someone, somehow, makes a wrong turningliterally, perhaps, but at the same time psychologically, even morallyand some mysterious nemesis takes over.Old favorites by M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman are interlaced with extracts from longer works by Emily Bront, Henry James, and Alexander Pushkin,, along with slightly left-field apparitions from Tove Jansson and Flann OBrien. With such expert guides, who knows what we will be led to encounter in the haunted chambers of our minds?
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