Product Description

Moving, his candle was instantly extinguished, and in the very moment of being left in the darkness he saw, standing in the doorway, a woman, resembling her who had haunted his dream overnight. He rushed with outstretched hands to seize her, but clutched only air. Night Shivers presents a treasure trove of the stories of Mrs J. H. Riddell, one of the greatest Victorian writers of ghost stories. These tales, many of which have been out of print for years, take the reader on fearful journeys into the gloomy haunts of old neglected houses, into a world of prophetic dreams, out onto the wild terrain of Ireland to encounter a frightful banshee and even down into Hell itself. In these fourteen short stories and one novella, The Uninhabited House, there is the distillation of the best and most effective of Riddell s spine-tingling supernatural fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62870 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Customer Reviews

Not Scary, but very readable
Tastes change and what one generation considers terrifying another considers tame. The stories her are never tame, but probably had greater value for creating shudders in the Victorian era. However, this book is still worth reading as the writer can still create a subtle sense of unease. Read together the stories fall into a familiar pattern of haunted houses, prophetic dreams and undead spirits after justice. What sets them apart is the quality of the writing and the characters Mrs Riddell produces. The novella "The Uninhabited House" takes an unusual slant on the haunted house tale and offers us memorable characters such as Mr Craven, the worthy solicitor and Miss Blake a spinster worthy of Dickens. The classic "The Open Door" is typical of Riddell's work and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Victorian fiction, but not to anyone expecting classic horror.