This is not an artistically rounded-off ghost story[1], and nothing is explained in it[2], and there seems to be no reason why any of it should have happened. But that is no reason why it should not be told. You must have noticed that all the real ghost stories you have ever come close to, are like this in these respects --no explanation, no logical coherence[3]. Here is the story. There were three of us and another[4], but she had fainted suddenly at the second extra[5] of t

Nesbit mastered the late Victorian clairvoyant tale, and this very short sketch – almost flash fiction – is an underappreciated jewel of her work. Her stories featured calamity reaching out of the invisible world, afflicting completely innocent persons. Most Victorian tales of this genre – the clairvoyant dream – result in prevention and avoidance (Riddell’s “Forewarned, Forearmed” is a fine example). While the vision is partially avoided, it proves fateful, challenging Victo

One of the most psychologically fascinating horror writers of her time, Edith Nesbit, perhaps more so than any of her peers, invested herself into her fiction. The woman who is today better known as a Victorian children’s book writer is often neglected as a powerful architect of the terrible and ghastly. It is tremendously fitting that Nesbit’s literary reputation should be so disparate (indeed, most lovers of her children’s stories are clueless about her horror oeuvre, and m

Most famous as a children's book writer who influenced J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and P.L. Travers, Edith Nesbit has a second, darker reputation as the writer of some of the English language's most powerful supernatural horror. Nesbit’s writing is absolutely crisp, evocative, and touching, and her legacy as both a children’s writer and a master of horror is well deserved, if not far overdue. Her stories can best be described as raw – emotionally wringing, cruel, and richly iro

The Victorian Age brings with it a tremendous amount of associations, baggage, and stereotypes that make it one of the most colorful periods in British history (or at least filmable; I myself am partial to the Georgian period, the Enlightenment, and the Civil War -- but that's my cross to bear). The Victorians are known -- someties unfairly -- for their saccharine sentimentalism, sexual repression, and jingoistic nationalism, and -- more or less fairly -- for a great thirst f