Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Temple of Death The Ghost Stories of A.C. & R.H. Benson by A.C. Benson A.C. Benson. Arthur Christopher Benson (1862-1925), from The Poems of A.C. Benson , 1909. Courtesy Internet Archive . Arthur Christopher Benson (24 April 1862 - 17 June 1925) was an English poet and essayist, who served as the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Contents. Life [ edit | edit source ] Benson was 1 of 6 children of Edward White Benson (Archbishop of Canterbury, 1882-1896) and his wife Mary (Sidgwick), sister of philosopher Henry Sidgwick. His siblings included novelists E.F. Benson and Robert Hugh Benson, and Egyptologist Margaret Benson. The Benson family was exceptionally literate and accomplished, but their history was somewhat tragic. A son and daughter died young; and another daughter, as well as Arthur himself, suffered badly from a mental condition that was probably manic-depressive psychosis, which they had inherited from their father. None of the children ever married. Benson never married, and his diaries suggest that he was gay but asexual. [1] Despite his illness, Arthur was a distinguished academic and a prolific author. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. [2] From 1885 to 1903 he taught at Eton, returning to Cambridge to lecture in English literature for Magdalene College. From 1915 to 1925, he was Master of Magdalene. From 1906, he was a governor of Gresham's School. [3] Benson caricatured in Vanity Fair , June 1903. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons . He died in Cambridge, aged 63. He is buried at the Ascension Parish Burial Ground in Cambridge. [4] Recognition [ edit | edit source ] His poems and volumes of essays, such as From a College Window, were famous in his day; and he left 1 of the longest diaries ever written, some 4 million words. Today, he is best remembered as the author of the words to a well-loved patriotic song, Land of Hope and Glory. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he founded in 1916 the Benson Medal to be awarded ‘in respect of meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles lettres’ [5] His poem "The Phoenix" was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse (1250-1900). [6] Publications [ edit | edit source ] Poetry [ edit | edit source ] Le Cahier Jaune: Poems . Eton, UK: G. New, 1892. Poems . London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1893. Lyrics . London: John Lane / New York: Macmillan, 1895. Lord Vyet, and other poems . London & New York: John Lane, 1897. Ode in Mamory of the Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone . Eton, UK: R. Ingleton Drake, 1898. The Professor, and other poems . London & New York: John Lane, 1900. The Aschamite's Dream: A bicentenary ode . Eton: 1901. Ode to Japan . London: privately printed at the Chiswick Press, 1902. The Myrtle Bough: A vale . Eton, UK: Spottiswoode, 1903. The Olive Bough . Eton, UK: Spottiswoode, 1904. Poems, Sonnets, Songs, and Verses . London: George Bell , 1904. Peace, and other poems . . London & New York: John Lane, 1905. Hymns and Carols . Eton, UK: Spottiswoode, 1907. The Poems of A.C. Benson . London & New York: John Lane, 1909. At Various Times: A book of verses . London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1910. Poems . London: S.I. Hardpress, 2013. Fiction [ edit | edit source ] The Hill of Trouble, and other stories . London: Isbister, 1903. The Isles of Sunset . London: Isbister, 1904. The Upton Letters . New York & London: Putnam, 1905. The Gate of Death: A diary . New York & London: Putnam, 1906. The Altar Fire' . New York & London: Putnam, 1907. Beside Still Waters . New York & London: Putnam, 1907. The Silent Isle . New York & London: Putnam, 1910. The Child of the Dawn . New York & London: Putnam, 1912 republished as Child of the Dawn: A journey from death to rebirth . Jean, NV: New Logo Press, 1994. Non-fiction [ edit | edit source ] William Laud, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury: A study . London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1887. Men of Might: Studies of great characters (with H.F.W. Tatham). London: E. Arnold, 1892. Gray . Eton, UK: R. Ingalton Drake, 1895. Genealogy of the Family of Benson: Of Banger House and Northwoods, in the parish of Ripon and Chapelry of Pateley Bridge: with biographical and illustrative notes . Eton, UK: G. New, 1895. Essays by Arthur Christopher Benson . London: Heinemann, 1896; New York: Macmillan, 1898. Fasti Etonenses: A biographical history of Eton, selected from the lives of celebrated Etonians . Eton: UK: R.I. Drake; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1898. The Life of Edward White Benson, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury . London: Macmillan, 1899-1900, 1901. Mary Eleanor Benson: A memoir . 1901. Rossetti . London & New York: Macmillan, 1904. Edward FitzGerald . . London & New York: Macmillan, 1905. From a College Window . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1906. Alfred Tennyson . New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907; Greenwood Press, 1969. The House of Quiet: An autobiography (edited by G.J.T.). London: John Murray, 1904; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907. Walter Pater . London & New York: Macmillan, 1906. The Thread of Gold . New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907. The School-Master: A commentary upon the aims and methods of an assistant master in a public school . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1908. Contentment . . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907. At Large . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1908. Until the Evening . New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1909. The Leaves of the Tree: Studies in biography . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1911. Tennyson . London: Methuen, 1912. Joyous Gard . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1913. Along the Road . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1913. Ruskin: A study in personality . London: John Murray, 1913. Where No Fear Was: A book about fear . London: Smith, Elder / New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1914. Escape, and other essays . New York: Century, 1915. Hugh: Memoirs of a brother . New York: Longmans Green, 1915. Lest We Forget . London: Civic Arts Association, 1917. The Life and Letters of Maggie Benson . London: John Murray, 1918. Cambridge Essays on Education . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1918; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1967. Magdalen College, Cambridge: A little view of its buildings and history . Cambridge, UK: Bowes & Bowes, 1923. The Trefoil: Wellington College, Lincoln, and Truro . London: John Murray, 1923. Memories and Friends . New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1924. A.C. Benson . London: George G. Harrup, 1926. Rambles and Reflections . London: John Murray, 1926. The Life of Alcibiades (edited by E.F. Benson). London: Benn, 1928. Mary Benson: A memoir . Rye, UK: E.F. Benson Society, 2010. Translated [ edit | edit source ] The Reed of Pan: English renderings of Greek epigrams (from the Greek Anthology) and lyrics . London: John Murray, 1922. Collected editions [ edit | edit source ] The Beauty of Life: Being selections from the writings of Arthur Christopher Benson (edited by Carolyn Abbott Derby). New York: Hodder & Stoughton, [1912?]. Etc. [ edit | edit source ] A Thought for Every Day . London: John Murray, 1905. The Thread of Gold: Compiled from the books of A.C. Benson (a calendar). Cheltenham, UK: J.J. Banks, 1914. Letters and journals [ edit | edit source ] The Diary of Arthur Christopher Benson (edited by Percy Lubbock). London: Hutchinson; New York: Longmans Green, 1926. Extracts from the Letters of A.C. Benson to M.E.A. (with M.E. Allen). London: Jarrolds, 1926. Edwardian Excursions: From the diaries of A.C. Benson, 1898- 1904 . London: John Murray, 1981. Bensonia: From two notebooks of A.C. Benson (edited by Logan Pearsall Smith, John A Gere, & Blanche Warre Cornish). Settrington, UK: Stone Trough, 1999. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat . [7] Paul The Minstrel And Other Stories. Arthur Christopher Benson (Fellow Of Magdalene College, Cambridge) AbeBooks Seller Since January 16, 2015 Seller Rating. About this Item. Title: Paul The Minstrel And Other Stories. Publisher: John Murray, London. Publication Date: 1911. Binding: Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good. We guarantee the condition of every book as it's described on the AbeBooks web sites. If you're dissatisfied with your purchase (Incorrect Book/Not as Described/Damaged) or if the order hasn't arrived, you're eligible for a refund within 30 days of the estimated delivery date. If you've changed your mind about a book that you've ordered, please use the Ask bookseller a question link to contact us and we'll respond within 2 business days. This does not affect your statutory consumer rights includ. Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required. Robert Hugh Benson. Monsignor Benson in 1912. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Robert Hugh Benson AFSC KC*SG KGCHS (18 November 1871 – 19 October 1914) was the youngest son of Edward White Benson (Archbishop of Canterbury) and his wife, Mary. He was also the brother of novelist Edward Frederic Benson and poet A.C. Benson. Contents. Life [ edit | edit source ] Benson was educated at Eton College and then studied classics and theology at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1890 to 1893. [1] In 1895, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England by his father who was the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Benson's father died suddenly in 1896 and he was sent on a trip to the Middle East to recover his own health. While there, he began to question the status of the Church of England and to consider the claims of the Catholic Church. His own piety began to tend toward the High Church variety and he started exploring religious life in various Anglican communities, eventually obtaining permission to join the Community of the Resurrection. Benson made his profession as a member of the community in 1901, at which time he had no thoughts of leaving the Church of England. But as he continued his studies and began writing, he became more and more uneasy with his own doctrinal position and, on 11 September 1903, he was received into the Catholic Church. He was awarded the Dignitary of Honour of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Benson was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1904 and sent to Cambridge. He continued his writing career along with his ministry as a priest. Like both his brothers, Fred (Edward Fredrick/E.F.) Benson and Arthur (A.C.) Benson, Robert Hugh Benson wrote many ghost stories, collected in The Light Invisible (1903) and The Mirror of Shallott (1907). Seven of these stories are included in David Stuart Davies (ed) The Temple of Death: The Ghost Stories of A.C. and R.H. Benson (Wordsworth, 2007) along with nine by his brother A.C. Benson. As a young man, he recalled, he had rejected the idea of marriage as “quite inconceivable.” [2] . Then in 1904, soon after his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest, he formed a passionate friendship with Frederick Rolfe. For two years this relationship involved letters “not only weekly, but at times daily, and of an intimate character, exhaustingly charged with emotion.” All letters were subsequently destroyed, probably by Benson’s brother [3] . He was appointed a supernumerary private chamberlain to the Pope in 1911, and consequently styled Monsignor. Robert Hugh Benson: Life and Works , a biography by Janet Grayson, was published in 1998. My Weird Life. Exploring horror, fantasy, and science-fiction literature, with an emphasis on the weird. GHOST BOX II: “The Watcher” by Robert Hugh Benson. This is the third entry in a two-week series focusing on a horror anthology edited by Patton Oswalt called Ghost Box II (buy it here) . The blog will resume its standard format in May . Robert Hugh Benson was born in 1871, son of E. W. Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his wife Mary. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1895, but after his father’s sudden death in 1896 he visited the Middle East, where he began to consider the teachings of Catholicism. By 1903 he was an ordained minister in the Catholic Church; by 1911 he was Chamberlain to Pope Pius X. He died in 1914 at the age of 42. He was also a prolific author. He wrote many religious works, of course, but he also penned historical fiction, horror, science-fiction, plays, and children’s stories. His 1907 novel Lord of the World is regarded as one of the first modern dystopian novels. “The Watcher” first appeared in his 1903 novel The Light Invisible . Written before his conversion to Catholicism, the book is a collection of short stories linked by a framing device – in this case, an elderly priest telling tales of his life to a young man. The novel was described by Benson biographer Joseph Pierce as “a confession of faith amidst the confusion of doubt.” “The Watcher” relates an episode in the life of the priest as a teenager. Gifted with a firearm, he quickly grows tired of target practice and decides, knowing full well that it is wrong, that he wants to kill something. He decides to hunt a rabbit, justifying his decision with the excuse that he is hunting food rather than killing for sport. However, he quickly finds he does not have the skill necessary to hunt rabbits. Angry and frustrated, he instead shoots a thrush – not for food, but simply because it is convenient. As he retrieves the body of the bird, he notices a face watching from a nearby bush. The face does not appear to be human, nor does it appear to notice him. It does, however, appear utterly delighted that an innocent creature has just been murdered. Our narrator is horrified, destroying his gun and giving the bird a proper burial. In my previous entry, I described Louisa Baldwin’s “How He Left the Hotel” as a campfire story. Gertrude Atherton’s “The Striding Place” aims higher, but ultimately I would describe it the same way. “The Watcher,” however, surpasses both, because it is a story in which fear is generated from within rather than an external force. The face in the bush is unnerving, but what I found most frightening here was Benson’s descriptions of the narrator craving violence and destruction, and of these impulses wrestling with his inner kindness. What human has not struggled so? What human has not worried that, under the right circumstances, they might succumb to their inner darkness? I have struggled so. I have worried so. I recognized myself in the narrator, and this is what frightened me. Being aware of the larger theme – faith amidst doubt – is helpful in understanding “The Watcher.” What we are reading here is the story of a man who is subtly guided into renouncing violence by higher forces. Is the face in the bush that of Satan? Benson refuses to say, but given the religious context of the story, I’d wager that’s surely the case. God Himself neglects to make an appearance, but as the story winds to its conclusion we get the distinct sense that He engineered events to play out this way. Apart from its thematic depth, “The Watcher” is also the most beautifully written of the three stories I have read in Ghost Box II thus far. Benson’s description of turning eighteen is memorable (“when blood and fire and death and loud noises seem the only things of interest, and all tender things shrink back and hide from the dreadful noonday of manhood”), but I was most impressed by his description of the thrush and the line that follows, one of the most chilling juxtapositions of light and dark in the story: “I looked up idly and caught sight of him as the leaves of the beech parted in the breeze, his head lifted and his whole body vibrating with the joy of life and music. As some one has said, his body was one beating heart. The last radiance of the sun over the hill reached him and bathed him in golden warmth. Then the leaves closed again as the breeze dropped but still his song rang out. Then there came on me a blinding desire to kill him.” I have read this story several times now and that line has never failed to make me shudder. If I had one complaint – and it is a minor one – it is that the story suffers on occasion from being separated from its larger context. The story begins, “On the following day we went out,” and I could not help but think, “Following from what?” There are also a couple small references to a story that precedes “The Watcher,” which sows further confusion. Ultimately the story is not derailed by this, but I couldn’t help but think that Benson might have written parts of it differently were it not part of a larger novel. “The Watcher” has been reprinted many times, including in the anthologies The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories , Ghosts In The House , and The Temple of Death: The Ghost Stories of A. C. & R. H. Benson . To fully appreciate it within its proper context, however, I might advise seeking out a copy of The Light Invisible , which has been reprinted as recently as this year by the Echo Library. To wrap up, this has been my favorite story in Ghost Box II so far. If you find yourself with the opportunity to read it, do so. 7 Great Edwardian Ghost Story Writers. While the weird tale and horror fiction existed in Britain long before the Edwardian Era (fl. 1895 – 1919), this period was certainly the zenith of supernatural fiction in the English-speaking world. Although the Victorians boasted a handful of truly excellent supernaturalists (Le Fanu, Riddell, Oliphant, Edwards, Broughton, etc.), the production of high-octane speculative fiction reached a high watermark during the years between Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan and M. R. James’ “A Warning to the Curious.” This period was profuse with talent and vision. The weird tale virtually cut its teeth in the wake of the Decadent Movement, with a renewed fascination in the occult, the pagan, and the otherworldly rushing into the salons and intellectual clubs of London, Dublin, Edinburgh, New York, and Paris. The Edwardians rejected the sober piety of their forefathers, embracing lifestyles of oppulence, fashion, and society. While the masters of Victorian horror used their fiction to expose and exercise the sins of a society which sought repress its violent, feudal past and its oppressive colonial policies, the Edwardians investigated the consequences of excess — of comfort and indulgence, of individualism and artistic integrity. While the Victorian victim of supernatural terror was often a member of the social elite plagued by guilt and haunted by the phantoms of their exploitative privilege, the typical Edwardian quarry was a loner — an artist, scientist, or scholar — who rejected company and the approval of society in order to plumb the limits of self-indulgence, often with catastrophic results. Here, in a follow up to our “7 Great Victorian Ghost Story Writers,” we laud seven of the era’s best. 7 — WALTER DE LA MARE Rarely anthologized and often remembered more for his poetry, children’s stories, and children’s verses than his speculative fiction (some have placed this blame on his estate, which may want to promote his wholesome albeit conventional verse and put distance between his legacy and his startlingly grim horror), Walter de la Mare was, nonetheless, a master of the sinister, investing his writing with the same fluid, lyrical beauty that made his poetry renowned. His stories often dealt with the predatory influence of the dead, psychic vampirism, and rich, succlent atmospheres of dread and decay, woven in masterful prose. His most famous tale is “Seaton’s Aunt” — about just such a psychic vampire, an old woman consumed with thoughts of death, whose influence on her nephew is less than wholsome — although “Out of the Deep” (a smiliar premise, but with a deceased uncle as the parasite) and The Return (similar to Lovecraft’s “Evil Clergyman,” it follows a man who falls asleep on a grave and wakes up physically transformed) are perhaps even more powerful. 6 — W. W. JACOBS Though principally known for his tremendously popular “The Monkey’s Paw” (most pedestrian anthologies of classic horror will, without fear of contradiction or complaint, include this tale alongside Stoker’s “The Judge’s House (a Le Fanu rip-off), Stevenson’s “The Body Snatcher,” and Dickens’ “The Signal-Man”), W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs was a talented practioner of the short story, and his horror oeuvre of some twenty tales are remarkable for their proficient use of irony, mood, and suspense. “The Monkey’s Paw” does indeed deserve its reputation — it is embalmed in a deep and wrenching pathos — but other tales such as “Jerry Bundler” (a Christmas story about the lurking ghost of a highwayman and the dire consequences of mocking fear), “The Toll House” (perhaps the best haunted house story of the era, rivalled only by Onions’ magnum opus), and “The Well” (a grisly, Jamesian story about romantic rivals and a cold, wet embrace) deserve far more recognition than they have so far accrued. 5 — WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON Although Hodgson is more remarkable for his weird fiction, in particular his grisly Sargasso Sea Mythos and a series of oceanic tales, his ghost stories continue to be regularly anthologized and continue to unsettle. Most notable for his collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Hodgson’s contributions to the ghost tale eminate chiefly from this volume. The eponymous psychic investigator — a combination of Van Helsing and Sherlock Holmes — regularly regails his friends with the details of his supernatural exploits: uncovering villainous hoaxes and disarming genuine psychic perils. Although his stories begin in a well-lit den, warmed by port and beef, the reader is rapidly sucked into his harrowing experiences, steeped in demonic terrors and predatory phantoms. “The Whistling Room,” perhaps the best story, involves a chamber possessed by the carnivorous spirit of a jester whose tongue was removed to keep him from singing, “The Gateway of the Monster” follows a vicious, homicidal entity haunting a room known for its murders, and “The Hog” concerns a horrific, porcine demon which invades dreams. 4 — OLIVER ONIONS Perhaps only James and Benson out perform Onions in his craft. Best known for the novella “The Beckoning Fair One,” a sickening story of possession and artistic mania in a haunted house, and for the anthology that it headlined, Widdershins, Onions pairs well with de la Mare, both for his phenomenally lyrical prose and for his penchant for possession, psychic vampirism, and dramatic irony. Onions tales often concern the interplay between erotic beauty and supernatural danger, and while they rarely follow the same plot conventions of TBFO (his “ghosts” are sometimes rifts in the demensions of space and time, visions of the future, and reincarnation), his stories are regularly chilling, mystifying, and unsettling. Like Jacobs, they double easily as literary fiction, and like Blackwood, they exceed the genre’s tropes and conventions, exploring the breadth of supernatural mysticism. Of note are his tales “Rooum” (a Lovecraftian story of vampirism on a molecular level), “Benlian” (wherein a monomaniacal artist worships his art and creates his own savage gods), and “The Painted Face” (a shy girl goes on a fateful vaccation, whereafter her personality is transformed and her past lives — as a fatal temptress throughout many aeons — is revealed). 3 — ALGERNON BLACKWOOD Like Hodgson, Blackwood is primarily known for his weird fiction and his psychic investigator (the meddlesome “physician extraordinary” John Silence), but his ghost stories are among the era’s best. For Blackwood, whose experiences in New York City left him deeply disturbed by the isolationism and anonymity of postindustrial urban life, there was no social sin in more need of exposition than urban dehumanization. His ghost stories followed the lives of marginalized intellectuals with petty jobs leading lonely lives, bunkered in cheap lodgings run by unprincipled landladies. The ghosts who haunt them all died as a result of the isolation, marginalization, and abuse of commercialized, urban materialism, and those they haunt are unwitting victims of the same forces, sometimes just as imperiled as their deceased predecessors. In “The Listener” a man is trailed by the specter of a leper — and his hoard of cat familiars, while “A Case of Eavesdropping” features a poor boarder becoming a witness to a patricidal murder, and “The Kit-Bag” and “The Occupant of the Room” both involve bachelors preparing for alpine vaccations and being thwarted by the predatroy spirit of a suicide. 2 — E. F. BENSON Tremendously underrated, under-anthologized, and under-adapted, E. F. Benson was the most prolific member of a family of ghost story writers. While A. C. and R. H. Benson, his brothers, wrote definite Victorian ghost tales, Edward Frederic forged a complex and chilling oeuvre of modern supernatural tales. His themes revolved around female vampires, violently vindictive spirits, and gruesome elementals. Like Blackwood and Hodgson, his weird fiction — even more underrated than his ghost tales — was superb, and stories like “The Horror-Horn,” “Negotium Perambulans,” and “Caterpillars” smack of James and Lovecraft. But his ghost stories bear the clear influence of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, following in their tradition of brutal, violent, and physical visitants who prey on the guilty and the guiltless alike. “Mrs Amworth,” “The Cat,” “The Outsider,” and “The Room in the Tower” concern the influence of subtle female vampires; “The Confession of Charles Linkworth” (a hanged man wants to be heard — over the phone), “Naboth’s Vineyard” (a wronged man returns — with avengence, and a telltale limp), “In the Tube” (a subway casualty makes a grisly reappearance), and “The Other Bed” (a man would not sleep quite so well if he could see his roommate’s throat — Blackwood’s “Occupant…” meets James’ “Oh, Whistle”) are splendid examples of the genre. 1 — M. R. JAMES The dean of the English ghost story (pun intended very much, indeed), M. R. James followed in the tradition of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, incorporating a loathsome ickiness that would inspire Benson and Lovecraft, and earn him the adoration of generations of ghost story readers. His tales concerned the seminal theme of the Edwardian Era: the isolated man further isolating himself, tunnelling deeper into the perils of his unconscious, from which crawling things might climb. James’ stories, written to be read, were invested with a lulling rhythm which inspired both comfort and unease. Following his principle dictum — “let us see [the protagonist] going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage” — James’ ghost stories featured chilling shocks in the most unsuspecting places. Of most mention are his “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” (a loner-scholar learns the maxim “caveat emptor” — and the maxim “QUIS EST ISTE QUI UENIT”) and “A Warning to the Curious” (a relic hunter deeply regrets uncovering his quarry — with grave results). “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book,” and “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” follow the selfsame ramifications of unearthing hidden antiques; “Lost Hearts,” “Martin’s Close,” “The Tractate Middoth,” and “The Ash Tree” concern justice being dealt by the vengeful dead, and “The Haunted Doll’s House,” “Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance,” “A View From a Hill,” and “The Mezzotint” involve innocent persons who unwittingly stumble upon… malice in inanimate objects. PERCEVAL LANDON – “THURNLEY ABBEY” OSCAR WILDE – “THE CANTERVILLE GHOST” ARTHUR MACHEN – “THE MONSTRANCE” A. C. BENSON – “THE TEMPLE OF DEATH” R. H. BENSON – “FATHER MACCLEFIELD’S TALE” BARRY PAIN – “THE CASE OF VINCENT PYRWHIT” LORD DUNSANY – “GHOSTS” BRAM STOKER – “THE JUDGE’S HOUSE” ELLIOTT O’DONNELL – “THE TOP ATTIC” SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE – “THE LEATHER FUNNEL”