Review by Booklist Review
The Phantom Coach is a collection of delightfully creepy ghost stories that were once popular in Victorian periodicals. In his foreword, Sims (The Dead Witness, 2011) explains how supernatural tales rose as a subgenre during this time, while illustrating their running themes, including grief and guilt. The author introductions contextualize each piece and show how it does (or doesn't) fit into the Victorian ghost-story genre. Two works worth noting are Robert W. Chambers' The Yellow Sign and Margaret Oliphant's The Library Window. The first is the most open-ended of the set, the only story that does not warrant an explanation about the uncanny happenstances surrounding an artist who dreams about a sinister hearse man. In the latter, a young woman is obsessed with a window and the man she sees through it even though her relatives deny its existence. This dichotomy blurs perception and reality, which makes the reader wonder if the ghost exists or if the girl is insane. Overall, a great collection for literature fans who enjoy lesser-known stories by famous novelists.--Hyzy, Biz Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The mournful, moralizing, and malevolent dead lurk in the gaslit streets, ancestral estates, and tortured psyches of this solid but unremarkable reprint anthology, which will appeal more to newcomers than to "connoisseurs." Selections explore the genre's varied stylistic approaches and major themes, including women's rights, social injustice, and psychological realism. A spirit punishes familial abuse in Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story." Spectral children haunt Rudyard Kipling's bittersweet "They." Amelia B. Edwards's "The Phantom Coach" is a gritty, evocative tale of spectral reoccurrence, and Henry James's "Sir Edmund Orme" elegantly renders psychological reaction to the otherworld. Cosmic terror reverberates from a forbidden text in Robert W. Chambers's "The Yellow Sign," and death knocks at home in W.W. Jacobs's morally gripping "The Monkeys Paw." Abstract notions of revolution and repression are given ghostly form, inviting historical introspection as well as literary enjoyment. Sims's survey of the unquiet Victorian dead is a decent introduction to the period. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Ghost stories permit us to peek behind the shroud. So says editor Sims in the introduction of his newest collection, which gathers the 12 greatest ghost stories of the Victorian era. His picks include such celebrated authors as Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Henry James, but he also gives justice to those whose stars faded at the turn of the 20th century, particularly female writers like Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Amelia Edwards. Sims doesn't adhere to strict definitions of what is Victorian; four of the featured writers are Americans. Verdict Sims has a rich enthusiasm for things that go bump in the night, and the accessibility, variety, and deftness of this collection allow readers to revel in it. While classic stories like W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" are here, Sims places top priority on what's spookiest, not simply what's most celebrated. Each piece is preceded by an introduction that is equally brief and insightful. Here, Sims has successfully pulled back the Victorian shroud. A fine follow-up to Sims's acclaimed Dracula's Ghost and a necessary addition for lovers of all things Victorian, especially of the creepy variety.-Erin Kelly, Media, PA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
