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'The great oaken gate heaved and splintered, and a monstrous beast as huge as a horse appeared at the mouth of the den; his small head was laid back on his hairy shoulders, his little eyes gleamed wickedly, and his red mouth opened snarling fiercely'. Undeservedly, the weird and chilling ghost stories of Arthur Christopher Benson and Robert Hugh Benson have been neglected for far too long. This volume attempts to rectify that situation. This dark banquet of tales take us to strange, unworldly and often archaic environments, far removed from the manic pace and pressures of the twenty-first century, but as exercises in the art of luring the reader into a state of unease, they are as potent as they were when the ink was barely dry on the page.
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He had spent the night with an old and calm man, who had been a warrior in his youth, but who could now do little but attend to his farm. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
He had spent the night with an old and calm man, who had been a warrior in his youth, but who could now do little but attend to his farm. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Diverting but less than the sum of its parts,
By
This review is from: The Temple of Death & Other Stories (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Paperback)
I agree with `Good Book Fan' that AC is preferable to RH. But although AC's stories are quite effective individually they are highly repetitive - again and again we heard about haunted or unlucky buildings or places, men who were irresistibly tempted to pry into their secrets, strange goat-like beasts and (usually) last minute rescues/redemptions.
My favourite tale was `The Uttermost Farthing' and I wondered whether A C Benson had based his hero, Bendyshe, on Henry James (with whom he was acquainted) as the account of Bendyshe's house and habits reminded me strongly of contemporary accounts of Henry James at Lamb House in Rye. The idea behind `The Traveller' was ingenious but the best tale by RH was, I thought, the atmospheric and mysterious `The Blood-Eagle'. To sum up, this isn't a bad collection but there are plenty of better uncanny stories from the period - the Kipling volume in the same Wordsworth series is really outstanding, for example.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A teaser for A.C. Benson,
By
This review is from: The Temple of Death & Other Stories (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Paperback)
Those unfortunate enough (me included) to have missed out the excellent Ash Tree Press book "Ghosts in the House" containing some of the best stories written by the lesser known Benson brothers, can draw some solace from the ownership of this slim volume. The stories included in this volume are dividable into 2 distinct parts. The first part comprising some of the stories by A.C. Benson, has the following short tales:
1. The Temple of Death: a musing on the nature of fear and the tussle between different faiths in the pagan days, with ample dosage of suspense and good story-telling. 2. The Closed Window (included in GITH): A superb & chilling story that can be called a true companion to best of M.R. James tales. 3. The Slype House (included in GITH): A fable, with enough horror in it to make it distinct. 4. The Red Camp (included in GITH): A gothic tale with its appendages (e.g. recurring dream, desire conflicting with virtue, regal gestures. etc.) that, nevertheless, succeeds in portraying the horror felt by the protagonist. 5. Out of the Sea (included in GITH): A terrific and spine-chilling story of redemption & retribution that would have made, and would make, any writer proud. 6. The Gray Cat (included in GITH): Another good & solid horrific story, shaped like a fable, but one which packs a lot of punch. 7. The Hill of Trouble (included in GITH): A brilliant story, with those features whose presence had made the post-gothic supernatural stories so attractive in those days. 8. Basil Netherby (included in GITH): This is one of the best horror stories that I have read, and this story can deservedly walk into any anthology of "the very best of" classic supernatural horror. 9. The Uttermost Farthing (included in GITH): Another top-notch story that would offer those pleasing terrors so looked for by the readers of M.R. James. Unfortunately, after this high of average to exceptional stories, we are forced to suffer a bunch of frankly sub-par stories written by R.C Benson, who appears to have forgotten that he was writing "stories" and goes into the sermonising groove from the beginning. The stories are: 1) The Watcher (included in GITH). 2) The Blood-Eagle (included in GITH). 3) Consolatrix Afflictorum. 4) Over The Gateway. 5) Father Meuron's Tale (included in GITH). 6) Father Macclesfield's Tale (included in GITH). 7) The Traveller (included in GITH). The book is great on value-terms, and it loses the only star because of R.H. Benson, and not because of any fault on its own part. Nevertheless, recommended for the 1st part alone.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A.C. not R.H.,
By Good Book Fan (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Temple of Death & Other Stories (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Paperback)
Any short story collection is going to have stories of varying quality, but this collection takes it to extremes- it is a book of two halves. The first half by A.C Benson is consistently good with tales from different eras- Roman, Medieval to the then modern. "Basil Netherby" and "The Uttermost Farthing" are particularly effective, in the classic English ghost story tradition. Up to this point I greatly enjoyed the book. Unfortunatley, R.H. Benson's stories didn't work for me. The writer seemed more interested in his religous convictions than telling a good story and the stories themselves, were conventional and uninspiring with only "The Traveller" and the "The Watcher" rising above the general level.
I would rate the first half as well worth four stars; the second two stars, so I'll compromise with three stars for the whole book. Enjoy A.C. and endure R.H.
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