Title: The Whistling Writer: Rebecca Netley Publishing House: Michael Joseph Date of Publication: October 14th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’As I neared Iskar, my eyes drifted to Hettie’s window, and something against the pane stopped me in my tracks. I pinned my attention to it and was assailed with a spike of disquiet. As I…
Tag: 19th century
Τhe Shape of Darkness
Title:The Shape of Darkness Writer: Laura Purcell Publishing House: Raven Books Date of Publication: January 21st 2021 Rate: 5 stars ‘’Shadows flee across the cobbles and climb up walls. Agnes has spent her life studying them, but she has not appreciated their sheer number until tonight. She sees shadows thrown by a dancing flame, the…
Minor Hauntings (Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth)
Title: Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth Writer: Various edited by Jen Baker Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: April 29th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Many years ago there stood at the corner of the street leading out of Upper Kennington – lane a great red-brick mansion, which one very wet evening,…
The Mad Women’s Ball
Title: The Mad Women’s Ball (original title: Le Bal Des Folles) Writer: Victoria Mas (translated by Frank Wynne) Publishing House: Harry N. Abrams Date of Publication: September 7th 2021 (first published August 21st 2019) Rating: 5 stars ‘’They imagine naked women running through the corridors, banging their heads against tilled walls, spreading their legs to…
Charles Dickens (Little People, Big Dreams)
Title: Charles Dickens (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Isobel Ross Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication: November 9th 2021 Rating: 5 stars “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Charles Dickens (Our Mutual Friend) A young boy sees his world…
Chill Tidings
Title: Chill Tidings Writer: Various, edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 16th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’At the edge of the dark sky, sprinkled with stars, a faint band of cold light heralded the rising moon. How different from the grey light of dawn, that ushers in the…
The Mermaid in the Millpond
Title: The Mermaid in the Millpond Writer: Lucy Strange, illustrated by Pam Smy Publishing House: Barrington Stoke Date of Publication: January 6th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I’m told there is a mermaid in the millpond. Not the sort of mermaid that sits on a rock, combing her pretty hair and singing to the moon. No,…
Persuasion
Title: Persuasion Writer: Jane Austen Publishing House: Penguin Clothbound Classics Date of Publication: April 24th 2012 (first published December 1817) Rating: 4 stars “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” When…
The Witches of New York
Title: The Witches of New York Writer: Amy McKay Publishing House: Orion Date of Publication: October 27th 2016 (first published October 8th 2016) Rating: 5 stars ‘’New York had become a city of achievements. Wonders and marvels came so frequent and fast, a day without spectacle was cause for concern.’’ ‘’Queens have been crowned, schemes…
Circus of Wonders
Title: Circus of Wonders Writer: Elizabeth Macneal Publishing House: Pan Macmillan Date of Publication: May 13th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Have a long look, why don’t you?’’ Nell is unique, graced with a special kind of beauty. But the others cannot understand, they think she is an abomination, a cursed creature, lower than the low….
Half Spent Was The Night
Title: Half Spent Was the Night Writer: Ami McKay Publishing House: Knopf Canada Date of Publication: October 16th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Christmas days have come and gone, the New Year lies ahead. Strange things happen Between the Years in the days outside of time. Minutes go wild, hours vanish. Idleness becomes a clever thief,…
The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories
Title: The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories Vol.1 Writer: Edited by Tara Moore Publishing House: Valancourt Books Rating: 4 stars ‘’Imagine a midwinter night, an early sunset, a long drafty evening spent by candlelight. The season of Christmas coincides with the shortest days of the year and, for middle-class Victorians, a chance for…
Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings
Title: Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings Writer: Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library Date of Publication: August 1st 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The second Mrs. Ryder was a young woman not easily frightened, but now she stood in the dusk of the passage leaning back against the wall, her hand on her heart, looking…
Classic Ghost Stories
Title: Classic Ghost Stories Writer: Various Publishing House: Vintage Classics Date of Publication: October 12th 2017 Rating: 5 stars ‘’If the picture within was bright and cheerful, the prospect was dreary enough without. The fairy forest of snow-wreathed trees, the white valleys and undulating banks of snow had vanished, and the rain dropped slowly and…
New York Stories
Title: New York Stories Writer: Edited by Diana Secker Tesdell Publishing House: Everyman’s Library Date of Publication: January 4th 2011 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The houses across the street were silent and perhaps unoccupied at this time of day; she let her eyes move with the rhythm of the tune, from window to window along one…
To Be Read at Dusk
Title: To Be Read at Dusk Writer: Charles Dickens Publishing House: Penguin Little Black Classics Date of Publication: March 3rd 2016 (first published 1852) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Τhe monstrous thought came into my mind as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man.’’ Charles Dickens. The…
The Dante Chamber
Title: The Dante Chamber Writer: Matthew Pearl Publishing House: Penguin Press Date of Publication:May 29th 2018 Rating: 3 stars ‘’A poet never sees ghosts.’’ London, 1869. The metropolis is buzzing in its heyday. The glamorous Victorian court, the elegant literary circles, the world that changes. And right there, visible to all, yet unacknowledged by the…
Sense and Sensibility
Title: Sense and Sensibility Writer: Jane Austen Publishing House: Penguin Clothbound Classics Date of Publication: November 6th 2008 (first published October 30th 1811) Rating: 5 stars “I have not wanted syllables where actions have spoken so plainly.” Jane Austen’s first published novel is loved, widely loved. Yet, in the absence of a dashing figure like Darcy,…
Pride and Prejudice
Title: Pride and Prejudice Writer: Jane Austen Publishing House: Penguin Clothbound Classics Date of Publication: November 6th 2008 (first published January 28th 1813) Rating: 5 stars ‘’There is a stubbornness in me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others.’’ The greatness of what I consider to be Jane Austen’s finest…
The Luminaries
Title: The Luminaries Writer: Eleanor Catton Publishing House: Granta Date of Publication: August 24th 2013 Rating: 5 stars “The clock had struck that late hour of twilight when all colours seem suddenly to lose their richness, and it was raining hard; though the cockled glass, the yard was bleached and fading. Inside, the spirit lamps…
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