The Haunted House, Charles Dickens et al.
Book: 19
Title: The Haunted House
Author: Charles Dickens and Friends
Genre: General fiction
One-sentence summary: A series of Victorian ghost stories; the premise is that the original narrator leases a haunted house, and decides to have his friends stay with him for a month and then have them all debrief at the end of the month on what ghostly happenings they've experienced while they were there. Each of the characters' stories is authored by a different Victorian writer.
Why did you get this book? Several reasons: It was on the bargain table at the Brookline Booksmith; I like Hesperus Press; I like Charles Dickens. And it looked like fun.
Do you like the cover? Yeah, it's nicely atmospheric. I really like the way Hesperus books are bound and designed anyway.
Did you enjoy the book? It was fun. A few of the stories by some of the lesser-known writers fell a bit flat for me, mostly near the beginning, but then it went on a Wilkie Collins-Charles Dickens-Elizabeth Gaskell run and I got sucked in again. I was a particularly big fan of the Collins story - I'd never read Wilkie Collins before. In this particular story he reminded me a good deal of Poe. (Whom I'd've liked to see in this collection, incidentally, along with Charlotte Perkins Gilman; but I suppose there was an ocean between those two and the people who were writing on this project, and - the Internet not having been invented yet - it'd be awfully difficult for them to collaborate on such a thing across the Atlantic.)
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? I don't think I'd have been allowed to graduate college as an English major if I'd never read Charles Dickens. (Or high school, for that matter.) I will confess, though, that for all the Dickens I have read I have never yet gotten to Oliver Twist, and I hope to someday. I have a copy of it somewhere.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping.
Anything else? Not really.
Scale of 1 to 10: 7
Number of pages: 124
Total pages for the year: 5592
Title: The Haunted House
Author: Charles Dickens and Friends
Genre: General fiction
One-sentence summary: A series of Victorian ghost stories; the premise is that the original narrator leases a haunted house, and decides to have his friends stay with him for a month and then have them all debrief at the end of the month on what ghostly happenings they've experienced while they were there. Each of the characters' stories is authored by a different Victorian writer.
Why did you get this book? Several reasons: It was on the bargain table at the Brookline Booksmith; I like Hesperus Press; I like Charles Dickens. And it looked like fun.
Do you like the cover? Yeah, it's nicely atmospheric. I really like the way Hesperus books are bound and designed anyway.
Did you enjoy the book? It was fun. A few of the stories by some of the lesser-known writers fell a bit flat for me, mostly near the beginning, but then it went on a Wilkie Collins-Charles Dickens-Elizabeth Gaskell run and I got sucked in again. I was a particularly big fan of the Collins story - I'd never read Wilkie Collins before. In this particular story he reminded me a good deal of Poe. (Whom I'd've liked to see in this collection, incidentally, along with Charlotte Perkins Gilman; but I suppose there was an ocean between those two and the people who were writing on this project, and - the Internet not having been invented yet - it'd be awfully difficult for them to collaborate on such a thing across the Atlantic.)
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? I don't think I'd have been allowed to graduate college as an English major if I'd never read Charles Dickens. (Or high school, for that matter.) I will confess, though, that for all the Dickens I have read I have never yet gotten to Oliver Twist, and I hope to someday. I have a copy of it somewhere.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping.
Anything else? Not really.
Scale of 1 to 10: 7
Number of pages: 124
Total pages for the year: 5592
