Horror Middleton, Richard: The Ghost Ship and Other Stories. v1, 08 Oct 2008

[Dr. Drib]

I just recently discovered the horror writer Richard Middleton by accident and have yet to read any of his short stories. As soon as I'm through posting this, I'm going to load it onto my Sony PRS-505 and start reading.

This is what FantasticFiction has to say about this writer:

"One of the most interesting stylists in British ghostly fiction, Middleton is rich and exuberant in his more traditional ghost stories (especially the humorous ones), lean and concise in his more original psychological tales. He was a sad, neglected figure, and is still not well known. He was also a tragic figure: he killed himself at the age of 29."

And later:

"Richard Barnham Middleton's "The Ghost Ship" is one of the best-loved ghost stories in English literature, about which Arthur Machen wrote, "I declare I would not exchange this short, crazy, enchanting fantasy for a whole wilderness of seemly novels." Middleton himself (1882-1911) was a tragic figure, a young man impatient for success, who managed to live the archetypal life of the Romantic Bohemian poet, complete with poverty, unrequited love for an impossible woman (a prostitute), despair, and an early suicide. While he published many pieces in the best magazines of the day, no volumes of his work were published in his lifetime. As soon as he was dead, he was "discovered." Four volumes of his collected works were in print within eighteen months. Three more followed in the next two decades. His poetry was acclaimed in the press as a new Keats, both for the brilliance of his work and the brevity of his life. He is remembered today for a handful of superbly crafted, eerie fantasies, such as "The Coffin Merchant," "On the Brighton Road," and "The Conjurer," which only hint at the richness of the larger body of his work, and suggest what kind of a literary artist he would have become if he had lived."

Like all the books I assemble on MobileRead, this too was assembled to reflect human intervention and artistic judgment.

I hope you enjoy this. I'm really looking forward to reading him.

Don

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[Dr. Drib]

I read the the first story, "The Ghost Ship," and it's quite delightful.

It's a tongue-in-cheek story about ghosts who just want to have fun....and about a certain turnip-patch that always seems to be in the way.


Don

P.S.: Arthur Machen wrote the intro to this book, if you're a Machen fan, as I am.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Thanks for creating this version, Don. I really wish I could find a current epub version with Machen's intro, but I'm happy to have your 2008 lrf to try to convert.