Product Description

Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952) spent the early part of her working life providing for a demanding and ungrateful family. We are lucky that she did so, since among the results were these short stories of rare quality. In their use of dreams, ancient anecdote, and ruined or dilapidated buildings ('Florence Flannery', 'The Fair Hair of Ambrosine') they are at times in the finest tradition of The Castle of Otranto and the Gothic revival which had chilled the blood of the British public a hundred and fifty years earlier. But her stories are more subtle in their construction, and often use simple materials ('The Crown Derby Plate', Elsie's Lonely Afternoon'), interweaving their terror and mystery with the commonplace of everyday life. Their mastery of detail, sureness of expression and acute reading of human nature give them a sinister force, which is realistic and unnerving, yet at the same time tinged with pity and compassion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #760118 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Words of an angry woman
The book's rear cover tells us that Marjorie Bowen "spent the early part of her working life providing for a demanding and ungrateful family." An examination of her writing appears to demonstrate just how much that experience embittered her.

The stories are well-enough written, and demonstrate a deft touch with the sort of non-explicit horror that marks the period. In ones or twos, the stories are excellent. However, I don't suggest sitting down with the intention of reading the book cover-to-cover, as the effect would prove painful. Each of the stories leads to some unfortunate conclusion, a little reminder of the pain of human interaction or existence itself. The innocent and the guilty alike come to bad ends, as a human or cosmic malice seems designed to overtake all.

A Freudian might feast on the clues to unhappiness found in Bowen's short stories; the rest of us might just note that heavy current of bitterness that pervades them.