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A review by lene_kretzsch
The Complete Hauntings by Vernon Lee, David G. Rowlands
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
A sort of Lee grab-bag, this 500 plus page collection throws together virtually everything the author wrote featuring supernatural elements of any kind (even including two essays, "Ravenna and Her Ghosts" and "Faustus and Helena: The Supernatural in Art"). While this certainly makes the collection comprehensive it does not do much for its cohesion and results in one of the most frustratingly uneven collections of short stories I've read in a long time.
Masterpieces like "Amor Dure", "Dioneia", "Oke of Okehurst, or the Phantom Lover", "Winthrop's Adventure" and "The Legend of Madam Krasinska" sit cheek by jowl with far less inspired tales, some downright awful (I have rarely read anything as pointlessly drawn out and dull as "The Gods and Ritter Tanhûser" and the less said about the endlessly arch introductions to stories from 'For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories', the better). Due to this uneveness, the book is best read slowly, a story or two at a time, and I believe the average reader will lose nothing skipping Lee's introductions and even the closing two essays (which are overwritten, in a style that seemed dated even when they were first composed).
Masterpieces like "Amor Dure", "Dioneia", "Oke of Okehurst, or the Phantom Lover", "Winthrop's Adventure" and "The Legend of Madam Krasinska" sit cheek by jowl with far less inspired tales, some downright awful (I have rarely read anything as pointlessly drawn out and dull as "The Gods and Ritter Tanhûser" and the less said about the endlessly arch introductions to stories from 'For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories', the better). Due to this uneveness, the book is best read slowly, a story or two at a time, and I believe the average reader will lose nothing skipping Lee's introductions and even the closing two essays (which are overwritten, in a style that seemed dated even when they were first composed).