Tales From the Fireside…
From mid-September, social media images are rife with candles, cobwebs, pumpkins, fog, and the tattered edges of old books. As we pass that night where the veil between the living and dead is the thinnest, we may bring out twinkling lights and throw bright, loud parties… only to discover that the gloomy air, howling wind, and the long darkness of night has only grown worse; and charming holiday décor has done nothing to quell our ever-growing sense of doom.
At year’s end, we tend to take stock of our lives, thus thinking about past events and often people who are no longer with us. In Ireland and Scotland, some of our own ancestors would spread ashes before the hearth on the first of November to see if departed family members left footprints overnight; they would be on the lookout for the bean-sídhe, whose wrath-like wail could sound like an owl’s, or a song, but always foretelling demise.
Certainly, Charles Dickens (of foggy, smoggy London) knew a thing or two about melding the holiday season with something altogether less jolly:
“It is required of every man," the ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.”
A Christmas Carol isn’t the only Christmas ghost story Dickens wrote, and there are similar holiday ghost stories written by authors like M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell. We highly recommend reading them, preferably aloud and in front of a roaring fire, your toes curled inside your sherpa slippers.
Whether you have already settled into Halloween ghoulies and all things Autumn-vibes, or are warily watching for the frozen dark of winter, sitting fireside with a good book—or book of stories—is a must, don’t you agree?
Here are our recommendations for such Tales From the Fireside, 2023, which the editors and staff at Briar Press have enjoyed many times over with a glass of brandy and a few cats on our laps:
The Works Of E.A. Poe by E.A. Poe
Murderers and madmen, premature burials, and lost loves who return from the dead… and oh, yes, one very smart, large black bird and one black cat. These are the characters which populate the early 19th century American writer known as the grandfather of the modern horror story. Where there is bizarre revelation and overwrought excitement, there is also grief and tragedy. Perhaps this is what keeps Poe’s works so beloved.
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Somewhere between Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby and Hilary Mantel’s Every Day Is Mother’s Day sits, uncomfortable and terrorized, the characters of The Fifth Child. Told with blunt wit and smoldering horror, Lessing examines themes of motherhood as the ultimate nightmare when a very “normal” family brings into the world something perhaps not quite human.
Carmilla by J.S. Le Fanu
The original vampire story, Carmilla was written twenty years before Bram Stoker (a fellow Irishman like Le Fanu) wrote Dracula. A tiny but nevertheless engaging story, it centers on a group of boarding school girls. It’s sexy female-centric vibe has come to be associated with LGBTQ literature as well as vampire lore.
Ghost Stories by Muriel Spark
Right up there with Doris Lessing and Hilary Mantel is Muriel Spark, whose sharp pen and keen wit never seem to get in the way of her telling an unsettling (if sometimes darkly funny) tale. In fact, Mantel loved Spark’s work, and thought Spark vastly underrated. So do we!
Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
Charles Dickens’ close friend Mrs. Gaskell was one of the only Victorian female writers to gain fame under her own name and gender. While she’s known for epic family stories, her many Gothic short stories are amazing and will keep you riveted for nights.
The Haunted House by Charles Dickens (and other authors)
This concise grouping of supernatural tales was commissioned by the master himself (he also contributed three of the stories). The gist is that a party of friends gather on Twelfth Night and relate the various haunted experiences they’ve had—each is written by other masters of the genre like Dickens’ friends Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Adelaide Anne Procter.
The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Whelp… what can you say about this? Especially if you are Briar Press editors and staff who spent an awful lot of time at a certain college where “Hill House” is set? We can say that this remains one of the most unnerving novels ever written; and that we would never recommend watching the 1961 film version while on said campus… in the dark… in the night… when no one can hear you scream…
The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
This perfectly-sized novella may indeed be the English-Victorian companion to Shirley’s Hill House (though it was written fairly recently). Chilling, spine-tingling, and genuinely terrifying, there’s also the right does of humanity and gorgeous turn of phrase. Protagonist Arthur is a young solicitor come north from London to attend a funeral and settle the affairs of Eel Marsh House, a house no one in their right mind would spend a minute if they knew what lurked there.
Haunters At The Hearth edited by British Library Collection
We adore this brilliant collection of Winter and Christmas-themed ghost stories written over a wide range of time periods by authors as varied as D.H. Lawrence and Winston Graham to L.P. Hartley and Elizabeth Bowen. All of them are well-written, and there are many we’d never before read (which is saying a lot as this is our favorite genre after all).
Silence For The Dead by Simone St. James
If you’re looking for a contemporary author of the traditional Gothic genre, Simone St. James fits the bill nicely. Silence For The Dead, like others of her works, mixes a bit of romance with period flare and sinister, ghostly happenings. It takes place in a post-Great War hospital for soldiers affected with PTSD as well as terrifying dreams of the former mansion that is now their home. Think Downton Abbey meets Shirley Jackson on the creepy, foggy English coastline.