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The Room Opposite
In 1935, Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd. published The Room Opposite: And Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination by F. M. Mayor, a collection of sixteen tales that had been left unpublished at the author's death. It was issued with a recommendation from no less eminent a critic of ghost stories than M. R. James, who wrote, 'The stories in this volume which introduce the supernatural commend themselves to me very strongly.' Secondhand copies of the first edition are incredibly hard to come by, and the book has never been republished... until now. This new edition contains all sixteen stories, along with a long article which originally appeared in The Queen newspaper in 1905 entitled 'Life in a Touring Company'. This edition also includes an introduction by Gina R. Collia: 'F. M. Mayor: Author, Actress & Champion of the Superfluous Woman'.
The Uncanny House
Old Mr Barker was a curmudgeon who underfed his dogs to make them vicious and kept his low-paid staff loyal with promises of legacies that never materialised. Following his death, his home is sold at auction for an absurdly cheap price to Peggy and Percy Dacre. But when the young couple move into their new home with their four children, Peggy soon discovers that The Beeches-commonly referred to as 'Hell Corner' by the locals-is already occupied. This new edition of The Uncanny House, the first since its original publication in 1927, includes a twenty-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia: 'Mary L. Pendered: Author, Suffragist, Pacifist, and Thoroughly Good Woman'.
The Forsaken House at Misty Vale
Celia Grey, a fifty-year-old, unmarried writer who has longed for a home of her own for decades, thinks all her prayers have been answered when she inherits her uncle's house. But Clew Lodge is a property with an uncanny reputation. It is a grim and daunting place, desolate and derelict, having been left to the forces of corruption since Uncle Jerrold abandoned it a decade prior to his death-because he 'could not stand the whispering'. This new edition of The Forsaken House at Misty Vale, the first since its original publication in 1932, includes a twenty-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia: 'Mary L. Pendered: Author, Suffragist, Pacifist, and Thoroughly Good Woman'.
Trebetherick
Gratiana Chanter's novel Trebetherick, a tale of shipwrecks, wreckers, hidden treasure, abducted maidens, murder and other evil doings, was first published in 1913 by Francesco Giannini & Figli of Naples. The story is told from the perspective of David Rounsevall of Trebetherick in the Parish of St. Enodoc, Cornwall, and begins the night he first hears ghostly Tregeagle howl during a ferocious storm. This edition includes a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Gratiana Chanter: A Typical Daughter of Devon'.
Mistress Bridget and Other Tales
It is seventeenth century England, a country divided in the aftermath of the English Civil War, and paranoia and superstition are rife throughout the land. In the village of Rithycombe in Somerset, Bridget Conyngham, the squire's beautiful young daughter, is abandoned to the mercy of lawless soldiers and paranoid villagers. Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, is going about the country torturing anyone he doesn't like the look of, and the villagers of Rithycombe, suspicious of Bridget's healing abilities, are determined to save Hopkins the trouble of burning their witch. The novel 'Mistress Bridget' was originally published in 1898. This volume also includes all seven of E. Yolland's incredibly rare short stories. Before now, not a single fact, not even the tiniest tidbit of information, had been discovered to shed light on the identity of E. Yolland. There was no clue to the writer's full name or sex, let alone anything more substantial. However, in the introduction to this volume, Gina R. Collia reveals the true identity of E. Yolland and paints a full and vivid picture of this forgotten Victorian author's life.
The Shadowy Third
Ellen Glasgow wrote only thirteen short stories during her long career, seven of which appeared in 'The Shadowy Third'. Published in 1923 by Doubleday, Page & Company, it was the only collection of short stories published during her lifetime. Of the seven tales it contains, only four are supernatural, but all have an eerie quality to them; in fact, 'Jordan's End', a non-ghost story, is the most ghostly story that the author ever wrote. This new edition contains the seven stories included in the first edition and adds to those tales a seventeen-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Ellen Glasgow: The Solitary Spirit'.
Over the Cliffs
Charlotte Chanter is best known as the author of Ferny Combes, a guide to collecting and identifying the ferns of Devonshire. Her only fiction novel, Over the Cliffs, was first published in two volumes by Smith, Elder and Co. in the autumn of 1860. The story is set on the coast of Devon at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is a tale of murder, a stolen inheritance, smuggling, shipwrecks, blackmail, treachery, greed, plotting, counter-plotting... and love. There is even a hint of the supernatural in the form of a sighing ghost. Its fearless heroine is Gratiana Dawson, the daughter of a brutal bully who hates his children and is prone to violent paroxysms of passion. Motherless, forced to live under the roof of a tyrant, and the victim of one indignity after another, Gratiana refuses to surrender to the abusive men around her. Edward Mountjoy, the hero of the story, says of her, when speaking to Captain Douglas of the Royal Navy, 'She has done things in her day that required from her more nerve than would be required of you in attacking an enemy.' This edition includes a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Charlotte Chanter: Fearless Fern-Hunter of Devonshire'.
The Witch of Withyford and Other Stories
Gratiana Chanter's novella The Witch of Withyford: A Story of Exmoor, containing her own illustrations, was first published by J. M. Dent & Co. in May 1896. In it, Nance Darvel, a gruesome woman who lives in a hovel, is intent on punishing a slight by destroying the life of the local squire. It is an uncanny tale of witchcraft, superstition, child-theft and revenge, set in Gratiana's beloved Devonshire and told by an elderly servant of Withyford Grange. This current edition includes three other tales: 'The Appledore Boy', 'The Shadowy Hillside', and 'The Forty Thieves of Exmoor'. It also includes all of the author's illustrations for the first edition and a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Gratiana Chanter: A Typical Daughter of Devon'.
Through the Night: Tales of Shades and Shadows
First published in 1882, 'Through the Night: Tales of Shades and Shadows' contains fourteen traditional Victorian supernatural stories. There are tales of vengeful ghosts, wraiths, premonitions, voodoo, curses, folklore and fairies. Isabella Banks, best remembered for her novel 'The Manchester Man', was known for her historical accuracy and meticulous attention to detail, and the appendix from the first edition, which outlines the historical background for the stories, is included in this current edition. Also included in this edition is an introductory essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Mrs G. Linnaeus Banks: The Lancashire Antiquarian'.
The Other End
In his day, R. Ellis Roberts was a well-known literary critic and writer. He contributed reviews and articles to a number of periodicals, including the Daily News, Observer, Empire Review, London Mercury, Bookman, Saturday Review, and Guardian. He was literary editor for the New Statesman and Time and Tide, and he hosted a book review programme for BBC Radio. In 1923, his only collection of uncanny short stories, The Other End, was published by Cecil Palmer and received glowing reviews. The critic for the Bookman declared the author 'as well able to write stories of his own as to criticise those of others', having achieved a mastery of his subject that at times 'challenges comparison with Poe and Hawthorne'. And Gerald Gould, in the Saturday Review, suggested that no nervous person should read the book when 'alone at night in a remote cottage on a lonely moor'. This new edition of The Other End includes four reviews written by R. Ellis Roberts about the work of Arthur Machen, of whom he was an admirer-for the Bookman, Daily News, and Sewanee Review-and a biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'R. Ellis Roberts: The Critic Who Read for Pleasure'.
