The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories Read online

  PETER HAINING has written and edited a number of bestselling books on the supernatural, notably the widely acclaimed Ghosts: The Illustrated History (1975) and A Dictionary of Ghosts (1982), which have been translated into several languages including French, German, Russian and Japanese. His companion volume to this anthology, Haunted House Stories, was published by Robinson in 2005. A former journalist and publisher, he lives in a sixteenth-century timber frame house in Suffolk that is haunted by the ghost of a Napoleonic prisoner of war.

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  THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

  Modern Ghost Stories

  Great Supernatural Tales of The Twentieth Century

  Edited by PETER HAINING

  ROBINSON

  London

  Constable & Robinson Ltd

  3 The Lanchesters

  162 Fulham Palace Road

  London W6 9ER

  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the UK by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2007

  Collection and editorial material copyright © Peter Haining 2007

  All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in

  Publication Data is available from the British Library.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-84529-476-2

  Printed and bound in the EU

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  For my wife

  Philippa

  – who has shared a lifetime with ghosts

  “Ghosts, to make themselves manifest, require two conditions abhorrent to the modern mind: silence and continuity.”

  Edith Wharton, 1937

  “The modern ghost story appears to be as much about longing as it is about dread.”

  Sinclair McKay, 2001

  Contents

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  FOREWORD

  1. RAISING SPECTRES: The Modern Tradition

  “OH WHISTLE, AND I’LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD”

  M. R. James

  THE HOUSE AT TREHEALE

  A. C. Benson

  THE RICHPINS

  E. G. Swain

  THE EVERLASTING CLUB

  Arthur Gray

  NUMBER SEVENTY-NINE

  A. N. L. Munby

  2. GHOST WRITERS: The “Golden Era”

  PLAYING WITH FIRE

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  THE HOUSE SURGEON

  Rudyard Kipling

  THE GROVE OF ASHTAROTH

  John Buchan

  A MAN FROM GLASGOW

  Somerset Maugham

  THE LAST LAUGH

  D. H. Lawrence

  THE VISIT TO THE MUSEUM

  Vladimir Nabokov

  3. PHANTOM RANKS: Supernatural at War

  THE BOWMEN

  Arthur Machen

  THE GHOST OF U65

  George Minto

  “VENGEANCE IS MINE”

  Algernon Blackwood

  THE PUNISHMENT

  Lord Dunsany

  THE HAUNTED CHATEAU

  Dennis Wheatley

  PINK MAY

  Elizabeth Bowen

  A GREMLIN IN THE BEER

  Derek Barnes

  MONEY FOR JAM

  Sir Alec Guinness

  4. THE GHOST-FEELERS: Modern Gothic Tales

  THE LADY’S MAID’S BELL

  Edith Wharton

  THE DUENNA

  Marie Belloc Lowndes

  CLYTIE

  Eudora Welty

  THE POOL

  Daphne du Maurier

  A SPOT OF GOTHIC

  Jane Gardam

  5. ENTERTAINING SPOOKS: Supernatural High Jinks

  THE INEXPERIENCED GHOST

  H G. Wells

  FULL FATHOM FIVE

  Alexander Woollcott

  THE NIGHT THE GHOST GOT IN

  James Thurber

  SIR TRISTRAM GOES WEST

  Eric Keown

  WHO OR WHAT WAS IT?

  Kingsley Amis

  ANOTHER FINE MESS

  Ray Bradbury

  6. CHRISTMAS SPIRITS: Festive Season Chillers

  ONLY A DREAM . . .

  Rider Haggard

  THE HAUNTED HOUSE

  Edith Nesbit

  THE LIGHT IN THE GARDEN

  E. F. Benson

  THE PRESCRIPTION

  Marjorie Bowen

  CHRISTMAS HONEYMOON

  Howard Spring

  SOUTH SEA BUBBLE

  Hammond Innes


  RINGING IN THE GOOD NEWS

  Peter Ackroyd

  7. HAUNTING TIMES: Tales of Unease

  SMOKE GHOST

  Fritz Leiber

  THE GHOST

  A. E. Van Vogt

  THE PARTY

  William F. Nolan

  UNDERGROUND

  J. B. Priestley

  HAUNTED

  Joyce Carol Oates

  VIDEO NASTY

  Philip Pullman

  MY BEAUTIFUL HOUSE

  Louis de Bernières

  APPENDIX: A Century of Ghost Novels 1900–2000

  Acknowledgments

  Acknowledgment is made to the following authors, agents and publishers for permission to reprint the stories in this collection.

  “Ringing in the Good News” by Peter Ackroyd © 1985. Originally published in The Times, 24 December 1985. Reprinted by permission of Sheil Land Associates Ltd.

  “Who or What was It?” by Kingsley Amis © 1972. Originally published in Playboy magazine, November 1972. Reprinted by permission of PFD.

  “A Gremlin in the Beer” by Derek Barnes © 1942. Originally published in The Spectator, June 1942 and reprinted by permission of the magazine.

  “The Light in the Garden” by E. F. Benson © 1921. Originally published in Eve, December 1921. Reprinted by permission of the Executors of K. S. P. MacDowall.

  “Vengeance is Mine” by Algernon Blackwood © 1921. Originally published in Wolves of God, 1921. Reprinted by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd.

  “Pink May” by Elizabeth Bowen © 1945. Originally published in The Demon Lover, 1945. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

  “The Prescription” by Marjorie Bowen © 1928. Originally published in the London Magazine, December 1928. Reprinted by permission of the Penguin Group.

  “Another Fine Mess” by Ray Bradbury © 1995. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1995. Reprinted by permission of Abner Stein.

  “My Beautiful House” by Louis de Bernières © 2004. Originally published in The Times, 18 December 2004. Reprinted by permission of Lavinia Trevor Agency.

  “The Pool” by Daphne du Maurier © 1959. Originally published in Breaking Point, 1959. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

  “The Punishment” by Lord Dunsany © 1918. Originally published in Tales of War, 1918. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

  “A Spot of Gothic” by Jane Gardam © 1980. Originally published in The Sidmouth Letters, 1980. Reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates.

  “The Everlasting Club” by Arthur Gray © 1919. Originally published in Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye, 1919. Reprinted by permission of W. Heffer & Sons.

  “Money for Jam” by Alec Guinness © 1945. Originally published in Penguin New Writing, 1945 and reprinted by permission of Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson.

  “South Sea Bubble” by Hammond Innes © 1973. Originally published in Punch magazine, December 1973. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Ralph Hammond Innes.

  “Sir Tristram Goes West” by Eric Keown © 1935. Originally published in Punch magazine, May 1935. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Eric Keown.

  “Smoke Ghost” by Fritz Leiber © 1941. Originally published in Unknown Worlds, October 1941. Reprinted by permission of Arkham House.

  “The Duenna” by Marie Belloc Lowndes © 1926. Originally published in The Ghost Book, 1926. Reprinted by permission of the Executors of M. B. Lowndes.

  “The Bowmen” by Arthur Machen © 1914. Originally published in London Evening News, 29 September, 1914. Reprinted by permission of A. M. Heath Ltd.

  “A Man From Glasgow” by Somerset Maugham © 1944. Originally published in Creatures of Circumstance, 1944. Reprinted by permission of William Heinemann.

  “The Ghost of U65” by George Minto © 1962. Originally published in Blackwood’s Magazine, July 1962. Reprinted by permission of William Blackwood & Sons.

  “Number Seventy-Nine” by A. N. L. Munby © 1949. Originally published in The Alabaster Hand, 1949. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of A. N. L. Munby.

  “A Visit to the Museum” by Vladimir Nabokov © 1963. Reprinted by permission of Esquire Publications Inc.

  “The Party” by William F. Nolan © 1967. Originally published in Playboy, April 1967. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Haunted” by Joyce Carol Oates © 1987. Originally published in The Architecture of Fear, 1987. Reprinted by permission of Sara Menguc Literary Agency.

  “Underground” by J. B. Priestley © 1974. Originally published in Collected Stories of J. B. Priestley, 1974. Reprinted by permission of PFD.

  “Video Nasty” by Philip Pullman © 1985. Originally published in Cold Feet, 1985. Reprinted by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd.

  “Christmas Honeymoon” by Howard Spring © 1940. Originally published in the London Evening Standard, December 1940. Reprinted by permission of PFD.

  “The Richpins” by E. G. Swain © 1912. Originally published in The Stoneground Ghost Tales, 1912. Reprinted by permission of W. Heffer & Sons.

  “The Night the Ghost Got In” by James Thurber © 1933. Originally published in the New Yorker, September 1933. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of James Thurber.

  “The Inexperienced Ghost” by H. G. Wells © 1902. Originally published in the Strand magazine, March 1902. Reprinted by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd.

  “The Ghost” by A. E. Van Vogt © 1942. Originally published in Unknown Worlds, October 1942. Reprinted by permission of Forrest J. Ackerman.

  “Clytie” by Eudora Welty © 1941. Originally published in The Southern Review, Number 7, 1941. Reprinted by permission of the Penguin Group.

  “The Haunted Chateau” by Dennis Wheatley © 1943. Originally published in Gunmen, Gallants and Ghosts, 1943. Reprinted by permission of Hutchinson Publishers and the Estate of Dennis Wheatley.

  “Full Fathom Five” by Alexander Woollcott © 1938. Originally published in the New Yorker, October 1938. Reprinted by permission of the New Yorker.

  Foreword

  I Have Been Ghost Hunting

  Cambridge has the reputation of being a city of ghosts. With its centuries’ old colleges, streets of ancient buildings and a maze of small alleyways, the spirits of the men and women who once lived and died in the area are almost tangible. Legends have long circulated about wandering spooks, numerous eyewitness reports exist in newspapers and books about restless phantoms – the internet can also be employed to summon up details of several more – and a nocturnal “ghost tour” is a regular feature of the city’s tourist trail.

  A story that is associated with one particular property, the Gibbs’ Building on The Backs, has intrigued me for years. The Gibbs is an imposing, three-story edifice, standing in the shadow of King’s College Chapel: that wonderful example of Gothic architecture built in three stages over a period of 100 years. King’s itself was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI as an ostentatious display of royal patronage and intended for boys from Eton College. It has, of course, boasted some distinguished if varied alumni over the years, including E. M. Forster, John Bird and, most recently, Zadie Smith, when the college became one of the first to admit women.

  Gibbs’ Building lies on the banks of the River Cam which, as its name suggests, gave the city its name. The area was first settled by the Romans at the southern edge of the Fens, a stretch of countryside consisting mostly of marshes and swamps that were not properly drained until the 17th century. Cambridge evolved at the northernmost point, where the traveller was first confronted by the ominous, dank Fens. Even then, stories were already swirling in from the darkness of strange figures and unearthly sounds that only the very brave – or foolish – would think of investigating.

  Today, of course, the whole countryside from Cambridge to the coast of East Anglia is very different. But a story persists in King’s College that a ghostly cry is still sometimes heard on a staircase in Gibbs’ Building. The main authority for
this is the ghost story writer, M. R. James, who came from Eton to Kings at the end of the 19th century and was allotted a room close to the staircase. He never heard the cry, James explained in his autobiography, Eton and King’s (1926), but he knew of other academics who had. Out of a similar interest, I have visited Cambridge on a number of occasions hoping to get to the bottom of the haunting. I had one fascinating discussion with a local author and paranormal investigator, T. C. Lethbridge, who suggested a novel reason why the city had so many ghosts. It was due to being near the Fen marshes, he said. During his research, Lethbridge had discovered that ghosts were prevalent in damp areas and came to the conclusion that they might be the result of supernatural “discharges” being conducted through water vapour. It was – and is – an intriguing concept.

  But to return to the story of the Gibbs’ Building Ghost. Certainly there is some further evidence about it in the form of brief reports in the archives of the Society for Psychical Research, which were given to the Cambridge University Library in 1991. However, though like M. R. James I have neither heard nor seen anything during my visits, there is a possible explanation as to its cause of the phenomena.

  It seems that a certain Mr Pote once occupied a set of ground floor rooms at the south end of Gibbs’ Building. He was, it appears, “a most virulent person”, compared by some who crossed his path to Charles Dickens’ dreadful Mr Quilp. Ultimately, Pote was banned from the college for his outrageous behaviour and sending “a profane letter to the Dean”. As he was being turned out of the university, Pote cursed the college “in language of ineffaceable memory”, according to M. R. James. Was it, then, his voice that has been occasionally heard echoing around the passageways where he once walked? I like to think it might an explanation for a mystery that has puzzled me all these years – but as is the way of ghost stories, I cannot be sure.

  It comes as no great surprise to discover that M. R. James, who is now acknowledged to be the “Founding Father of the Modern Ghost Story”, should have garnered much of his inspiration while he was resident in Cambridge. He was a Fellow at King’s and, as an antiquarian by instinct, could hardly fail to have been interested in the city’s enduring tradition of the supernatural. Indeed, it seems that he was so intrigued by the accounts of ghosts that he discovered in old documents and papers – a number of them in the original Latin – as well as the recollections of other academics, that he began to adapt them into stories to read to his friends. He chose the Christmas season as an appropriate time to tell these stories and such was the reaction from his colleagues that the event became an annual gathering.