{"id":967,"date":"2020-02-12T14:09:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T14:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hebulstrode.co.uk\/?p=967"},"modified":"2020-02-12T14:09:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T14:09:16","slug":"the-ghost-stories-of-edith-wharton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hebulstrode.co.uk\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edith Wharton\u2019s supernatural tales are, on the whole, overlooked by the general reading public in favour of her many acclaimed novels such as  The Age of Innocence<\/em>. For me, however, it is her ghost stories brought together in this volume that cried out to be read, my appetite for her prose having been whetted some years ago by her most famous exercise in the genre \u2013 Afterward<\/a><\/em>. Whereas the latter is frequently cited as being the most accomplished of her ghost stories, having read this volume there are a handful of others that I would rate almost as highly, including The Duchess at Prayer<\/em>, Mr Jones<\/em>, and Pomegranate Seed<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stylistically, Wharton\u2019s literary\nexcursions into the supernatural share certain commonalities with the two\nJamesian masters of the ghost story genre \u2013 Henry and M.R. \u2013 being both\nrestrained and suggestive in their approach, and often playing upon an ambiguity\nof interpretation rather than trading in overt and visceral horror. Although\nthe ghost story might commonly be regarded as a sub-genre of \u2018horror\u2019, it\ntends, in the capable hands of its greatest exponents, to be something more\nsubtle, and it is the sense of the uncanny in these tales, rather than any\nsense of visceral revulsion, that predominates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her prose is often sumptuous and\nbeguilingly evocative, whether describing the gardens and interior of a Tuscan\nducal villa, or the air of lassitude hanging over a crumbling Crusader castle\nin the Levant, with the settings of her tales often mirroring her favourite\npersonal haunts. Thus we not only encounter narratives that unfold in her native\nNew York and New England (Pomegranate\nSeed<\/em>, Bewitched<\/em>), but also in old\nEngland (Afterward<\/em>, Mr<\/em> Jones<\/em>),\nBrittany (Kerfol<\/em>, Miss<\/em> Mary<\/em>\nPask<\/em>), Italy (The<\/em> Duchess<\/em> at<\/em> Prayer<\/em>,\nThe<\/em> Eyes<\/em>) and further afield (A<\/em>\nBottle<\/em> of<\/em> Perrier<\/em>). Like Wharton\nherself, who sadly endured almost three decades of unsatisfying marriage, many\nof the female protagonists that we meet in these pages find themselves, and\ntheir happiness, constrained by less-than-ideal domestic circumstances. We see\nthis sentiment expressing itself most powerfully in her gothic masterpiece in\nminiature, The Duchess at Prayer<\/em>,\nwhich contains the sort of deliciously horrific twist that Roald Dahl would\nhave given his eye teeth for.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her early life she read and absorbed the classics, history, philosophy and poetry, and read relatively little fiction, and her writing is as a consequence imbued with a powerful intelligence. The best of Edith Wharton\u2019s ghost stories rank alongside the very best in the genre, and her deft and subtle approach, relying upon the careful delineation of the uncanny and the skilful sculpting of atmospherics in a perfectly realistic setting, makes for a deeply satisfying, albeit often unsettling, read. If your taste should incline in this direction, then I would not hesitate in recommending this very reasonably priced volume to you published in paperback<\/a> by Wordsworth Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may also find the Breton-set ghost story The Bread Oven<\/a><\/em> of interest. <\/p>\n

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