Nightshade: 20th Century Ghost Stories - Softcover

Phillips, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786708085 ISBN 13: 9780786708086

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2000

Synopsis

The ghost story redefined in twenty-seven chilling tales from notable crafters 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.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Phillips is the author and editor of more than twenty-five books, including The Triumph of the Night, which was reissued in paperback as The Omnibus of 20th Century Ghost Stories. He is Moores University Scholar at the University of Houston and has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. He lives in Texas.

From 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 spectersAvisible and invisible, symbolic and concreteAthat are presented. A solid addition to most libraries.ANancy McNicol, Hagaman Memorial Lib., East Haven, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0786708085
• ISBN 13: 9780786708086
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496