Bewitched

With not a nose wiggle in sight this 1983 adaptation of Edith Wharton's 'Bewitched' from her 1926 collection 'Here and Beyond' was made for the mid 80s ITV series 'Shades of Darkness' which made use of several of her stories alongside stories by Agatha Christie, May Sinclair (The Intercessor), Elizabeth Bowen (The Demon Lover), L.P. Hartley (Feet Foremost) and Walter De La Mare (Seaton's Aunt).

Mrs Rutledge (Eileen Atkins) calls the leading men of her village - Reverend Hibben (Alfred Burke), Sylvester Brand (Ray Smith) and Owen Bosworth (Gareth Thomas) to her farm with the claim that her husband is bewitched and consorting with Brand's dead daughter who is slowly draining the life from him. With discussions of the area's history of witchcraft the 'good' men of the village spring into action and tragedy ensues.

Like the other episodes of the series 'Bewitched' is sumptuously produced thanks in no small part I imagine to the presence of executive producer Michael Cox the man behind the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series.  The story is quick but within it's denoument are layers of mystery and intrigue of witchcraft, vampirism, superstition, conspiracy, murder, madness and revenge. 

(The episode is only the first 50 minutes of the video below)

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Afterward

'Afterward' by American writer Edith Wharton is one of those classic ghost stories that turns up again and again in anthologies.  First published in 1910 it's a story of a married couple (Mary and Ned (Edward in the adaptation) Boyne) newly ensconced in their English country home after he has made their fortune in mining.  Warned that their new house is haunted the pair are enthralled by the idea even when told that it's a ghost seen in retrospect where you only realise you've seen a ghost long after you've seen it. Whilst walking on the roof of their new abode (as you do) the pair spot an unexpected visitor heading to the house who subsequently is nowhere to be found which leads to Ned becoming increasingly preoccupied but it's not until he disappears in the company of another visitor that Mary starts to unravel the mystery.

This adaptation was made in 1983 as part of the ITV series Shades of Darkness that consisted of adaptations of stories by ghostly luminaries such as Walter de la Mare (watch 'Seaton's Aunt' here), Agatha Christie, Elizabeth Bowen and May Sinclair (watch 'The Intercessor' here).  As is the case with the others it's a very faithful adaptation but the rather sedate pacing of the original and the subtleties of the story means it's a much less successful adaptation than the two linked to above (both of which are highly recommended) but it is a solid if slight stolid version of a much loved tale that should satisfy both those familiar with the source material and those who are not.



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The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories

Robert Aickman
Fontana Books

Robert Aickman "Introduction"
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Playing With Fire"
Edith Nesbit "Man-Size in Marble"
Robert Hichens "How Love Came to Professor Guildea"
Elizabeth Bowen "The Demon Lover"
Sir Max Beerbohm "A. V. Laider"
Edgar Allan Poe "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"
Lord Dunsany "Our Distant Cousins"
Robert Aickman "The Inner Room"
Perceval Landon "Thurnley Abbey"
John Metcalfe "Nightmare Jack"
Ambrose Bierce "The Damned Thing"
Edith Wharton "Afterward"

It's been a while since I stuck my head into one of these Fontana anthologies but tonight I had the craving.

Aickman has put together an admirable collection with only 3 of the 12 stories being of the 'Oh, it's that one again' variety; E. Nesbit's 'Man Size in Marble', Elizabeth Bowen's 'The Demon Lover' and Edith Wharton's 'Afterward'. All great tales and all solid choices but one's I've become very accustomed to skipping past.

Lord Dunsany

A few of the stories here proved to be an absolute delight; Conan Doyle's 'Playing With Fire' with it's cautionary tale of reaching beyond ones abilities, Robert Hichens' superbly crafted 'How Love Came To Professor Guildea' and Aickman's own supremely creepy 'The Inner Room' are all deliciously bewitching,

A few others, such as Lord Dunsany's 'Our Distant Cousins', with it's odd little scfi-fi tale very much in the spirit of both Wells' 'Time Machine' and C.S. Lewis' 'Out of the Silent Planet', and Poe's 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar' provided an enjoyable distraction. Whilst others like Sir Max Beerbohm's 'A.V. Laider', Perceval Landon's ghostly 'Thurnley Abbey', John Metcalfe's almost Sherlockian 'Nightmare Jack' and Ambrose Bierce's 'The Damned Thing' filled both time and pages without too much complaint or distraction.

As with the other volume - I have them all here but am eking them out - Aickman proves himself the consummate anthologist. Each story, even the ones I didn't overly enjoy felt as though they belonged, as though they were at home in the collection and it proved for the most part to be a hugely enjoyable read.

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Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

Penguin Books

Who better to investigate the literary spirit world than that supreme connoisseur of the unexpected, Roald Dahl? Of the many permutations of the macabre, Dahl was always especially fascinated by the classic ghost story. For this superbly disquieting collection, he selected fourteen of his favorite tales by such authors as E.F. Benson, Rosemary Timperley, and Edith Wharton.

In his introduction to this collection Dahl makes a big thing about how he read 749 ghost stories and had only found 32 that he deemed to be any good; of those he includes 14 here. One of them, 'Playmates' by A.M. Burrage, is my favourite of all the ghostly tales I've read over the years and a few of them - Robert Aickman's 'Ringing the Changes', Edith Wharton's 'Afterward' and Marion Crawford's 'The Upper Berth' - are staples of these sort of books. Of the rest they can best be described as a tepid selection.

A.M. Burrage

Of these remaining stories a couple such as L.P. Hartley's 'W.S.', Rosemary Timperley's 'Harry' and Cynthia Asquith's 'The Corner Shop' have a flavour of those 'unexpected tales' that Dahl himself was famous for. A few such, such as the ever readable J. Sheridan le Fanu's 'The Ghost of a Hand' are a little cliché or lovely but a little bit twee like Timperley's other tale 'Christmas Meeting'. Some are just bad - 'Elias and the Draug' by Jonas Lie and 'The Telephone' by Mary Treadgold - and a couple proved to be a delightful surprise - E.F. Benson's 'In The Tube' and A.M. Burrage's 'The Sweeper'.

It must be said I was expecting more from this collection. I thought a writer like Dahl would be able to assemble a collection to beat all others but this one rarely seemed to sparkle and was often a bit of a chore. It did serve to remind me though that what I really need to do is more fully explore the writing of A.M. Burrage.

Buy it here:  Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories