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D. K. Broster

Couching at the Door (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) Paperback – 10 Feb. 2007

by D.K. Broster (Author)

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Dorothy Kathleen Broster (1877-1950) is best known for her historical novels. But there is a darker side to her writing, glimpsed in her early poems - ‘The Second of September 1792’ is a fine example - and finding full expression in the stories she wrote after she had become a highly successful novelist.

Sometimes - as in ‘The Window’ or ‘The Pestering’, or ‘All Soul's Day’ these are what we might call ‘explainable’ ghost stories: apparitions or hauntings whose origin is to be found in some violent or unjust action in the past. Other stories, ‘Couching at the Door’ and ‘From the Abyss’, have little or no explanation, even in supernatural terms. Add to these an elegant reworking of the ‘Persephone’ myth, ‘The Taste of Pomegranates’, the downright bloodthirsty ‘Clairvoyance’, and the psychological studies, ‘The Promised Land’ and ‘The Pavement’ which so well merit the heading ‘Madness and Obsession’, and you have a collection to disturb and unsettle the strongest nerves.

ISBN-10

1840226072
ISBN-13

978-1840226072
Publisher

Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Publication date

10 Feb. 2007
Language

English
Dimensions

12.9 x 0.9 x 19.8 cm
Print length

192 pages
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Product details

Publisher : Wordsworth Editions Ltd (10 Feb. 2007)
Language : English
Paperback : 192 pages
ISBN-10 : 1840226072
ISBN-13 : 978-1840226072
Dimensions : 12.9 x 0.9 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 823,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,065 in Classic Horror
- 28,278 in Fiction Classics (Books)

Customer reviews:
13 ratings

Product description

Synopsis

Dorothy Kathleen Broster (1877-1950) is best known for her historical novels. But there is a darker side to her writing, glimpsed in her early poems - 'The Second of September 1792' is a fine example - and finding full expression in the stories she wrote after she had become a highly successful novelist. Sometimes - as in "The Window" or "The Pestering", or "All Soul's Day" - these are what we might call 'explainable' ghost stories: apparitions or hauntings whose origin is to be found in some violent or unjust action in the past. Other stories, "Couching at the Door" and "From the Abyss", have little or no explanation, even in supernatural terms. Add to these an elegant reworking of the "Persephone" myth, "The Taste of Pomegranates", the downright bloodthirsty "Clairvoyance", and the psychological studies, "The Promised Land" and "The Pavement" which so well merit the heading "Madness and Obsession", and you have a collection to disturb and unsettle the strongest nerves.

Customer reviews

5 star		57%
4 star		9%
3 star		17%
2 star		17%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Arthur T Burton

Peculiar tales beautifully written.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2018

Verified Purchase

A beautifully crafted collection of tales from an author I’d not heard of before. I always love discovering unfamiliar and weird tales, and D.K.Broster doesn’t disappoint, laying before us the fruits of a vivid imagination. Apart from the title story, I particularly liked ‘Clairvoyance’, if for nothing else than the pitch black humour it displayed! This is a volume for all aficionados of the weird and peculiar in English literature.

Helpful

666albertastarr

Great summer read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 August 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a wonderful collection of creepy stories by D.K. Broster. I raced through each story. Chilling and fun. Such a different style from her marvelous book The Flight of the Heron. I received the perfect copy within days from the seller and at such a low price.

One person found this helpful

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CMBC

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2015

Verified Purchase

Excellent

One person found this helpful

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BevRen

A touch of supernatural class

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2010

Verified Purchase

DK Broster captured my imagination with The Pestering, one of the few worthwhile contributors to the Virago Book of Ghost Stories. Broster's settings epitomise wealthy inhabitants of old dark houses on large estates between the wars.
At its best you could compare this style to Virginia Woolf, but at worst it reads like a script from Upstairs Downstairs. Only chance it if you really like posh meets gawd blimey gov'nor with a twinge of the unexplained thrown in for good measure...

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

The Holy Ferret

Vastly under-rated writer of the macabre...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2009

The lack of high regard for D.K. Broster's supernatural writings is an enigma. I suppose during the hey-dey of the ghost story, many women writers were overlooked due to the politics of the time. Whilst today women writers in this tradition are only celebrated if their stories ramble on about how oppressed women are for 30 pages (again, politics of the time). More's the pity, for their is some truly great material here.

D.K. Broster's supernatural tales are very eclectic in style. The title story, about an artist who's suffering demonic visitations by some slug-like creature recalls some of Sheridan Le Fanu's finest works, especially 'Green Tea' and 'The Familiar'. 'From The Abyss' on the other hand, is a very subtle tale of doubling, which has strong shades of Henry James about it. There's a good balance between the traditional and the psychological in this book, all of which make for great winter reading (preferably, of course, by a roaring fire).

Broster's prose is void of the banal simplicity of most 20th century fiction and her sentences are a joy to read. Her style feels much closer to that of the Victorian period that typical post-war literature, making it all the more enjoyable. Some of her stories have quite clear points to them, others are far more ambiguous and uncertain, which means 'Couching At The Door' has a wide range of appeal.

All in all, I'd say D.K. Broster is one of the greatest rare gems. Her stories linger in your mind for a long-time afterward due to the unanswered questions they pose, and their psychological intrigue. For £2.99 you can't go wrong with this.

17 people found this helpful

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Couching at the Door (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) Paperback – 10 Feb. 2007

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