Shadows on the Wall (Tales of the Weird)

The disquieting tales of New England author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman explore a world of domestic spaces turned uncanny, hopeful youths grasped by the spirits of vengeful ancestors and nature made sinister when the effects of twisted physics suggest some supernormal influence.

Collecting the best of the author’s strange and unsettling tales – including two stories which have long evaded her anthologists – this volume casts a light on an underappreciated contributor to weird fiction, and the shadowy corners of a dark imagination.

Introducing an influential American author to the series, offering a view of how weird fiction developed in the US alongside the works of British authors. It includes two stories missed by the ‘complete’ strange story anthologies which have been assembled thanks to Mike Ashley’s expertise.

Suddenly he began hastening hither and thither about the room. He moved the furniture with fierce jerks, turning ever to see the effect upon the shadow on the wall. Not a line of its terrible outlines wavered.

The disquieting tales of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman explore a world of contrast, where the supernatural erupts out of authentically drawn portraits of New England life. This is a world of witchcraft, secrecy, domestic spaces turned uncanny and ancestral vengeances inflicted upon the unfortunates of the present.

Collecting the best of the author’s strange tales – including ‘The White Shawl’, which was unpublished during her lifetime – this volume casts a light on an underappreciated contributor to weird fiction and the shadowy corners of a dark imagination.

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930) was a prolific New England writer, whose works included children’s tales, historical novels and accounts of the supernatural. Her writing often espoused feminist beliefs and the rejection of traditional domestic roles for women. In 1926, she was awarded the first medal for Distinction in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Table of Contents:
Entrée: In the Marsh-Land
A Far-Away Meldoy
A Gentle Ghost
Silence
The School-Teacher's' Story
The Wind in the Rose-bush
The Vacant Lot
Luella Miller
The Shadows on the Wall
The Southwest Chamberl
The Lost Ghost
Sweet-Flowering Perennial
The Jade Bracelet
The White Shawl
Finale: Death

Contos / Ficção / Horror / Literatura Estrangeira / Terror