Nightshade: 20th Century Ghost Stories » (1ST CAROL)

A riveting collection of spectral chills and ghostly tales by twenty-seven masters of twentieth-century literature. The phantasms, shades, and specters in this volume of ghost stories by contemporary writers like Alison Lurie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joyce Carol Oates, and William Trevor as well as such modern literary giants as Henry James, Isak Dinesen, Franz Kafka, and Rudyard Kipling write letters, carry lanterns, ride bicycles, patrol halls, run motorboats, rake leaves, and deliver mail. They also inhabit dolls and sticks of furniture. Some of them merely haunt houses, while others invade the darkest corners of the soul. Throughout this expertly edited collection, a companion to Robert Phillips's equally successful anthology, the very popular Omnibus of 20th Century Ghost Stories, writers as distinctive of their decade as Edith Wharton and Muriel Spark or the incomparable Max Beerbohm and the up-and-coming Max Eberts explore the literary possibilities of the classic ghost story to deliver taut suspense, psychological terror, and eerie mystery. The irresistible mix of chills and artistry, of terror and genius, make every tale in this volume worth the visit.

Library Journal

Author/editor Phillips jumps on the fin-de-si cle bandwagon with this offering of 27 paranormal tales. Created as a companion to his earlier collection, The Omnibus of 20th Century Ghost Stories (Carroll & Graf, 1991), this volume continues to display Phillips's high literary standards. Classics by Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Edith Wharton are included, as are stories like Elizabeth Bowen's "The Happy Autumn Fields," all considered to be among the authors' best writings. This collection has a broader scope than its predecessor, marked by the inclusion of noted world writers such as Isak Dinesen, Franz Kafka, and Gabriel Garc a M rquez, and the contemporary voices of Christopher Tilghman and Max Eberts. But for those who truly enjoy a good ghost story, the basis for this collection's intrigue will be the variety of specters--visible and invisible, symbolic and concrete--that are presented. A solid addition to most libraries.--Nancy McNicol, Hagaman Memorial Lib., East Haven, CT Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.