The 3rd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories

The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories #3

by Robert Aickman (Editor), A.J. Alan (Contributor), E.F. Benson (Contributor)

Contents:
7 • Introduction (The Third Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories) • essay by Robert Aickman
13 • Negotium Perambulans • (1922) • short story by E.F. Benson
29 • The End of the Flight • (1926) • short story by W. Somerset Maugham
35 • The Beckoning Fair One • (1911) • novella by Oliver Onions
107 • The Dream • (1927) • short story by A.J. Alan
116 • The Stranger • (1934) • short story by Hugh MacDiarmid
120 • The Case of Mr. Lucraft • (1876) • novella by Walter Besant and James Rice [as by Sir Walter Besant and James Rice]
154 • The Seventh Man • (1928) • short story by Arthur Quiller-Couch [as by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch]
168 • No Ships Pass • (1932) • novelette by Lady Eleanor Smith
194 • The Man Who Came Back • (1931) • short story by William Gerhardi
198 • The Visiting Star • novelette by Robert Aickman

Genres: Horror, Anthologies

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Author of: close to 50 "strange stories" in the weird-tale and ghost-story traditions, two novels (The Late Breakfasters and The Model), two volumes of memoir (The Attempted Rescue and The River Runs Uphill), and two books on the canals of England (Know Your Waterways and The Story of Our Inland Waterways).

Co-founder and longtime president of the Inland Waterways Association, an organization that in the middle of the 20th century restored a great part of England's deteriorating system of canals, now a major draw for recreation nationally and for tourism internationally.

Grandson of author Richard Marsh.

Reviews

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW:

In "The Dream" by A.J. Alan, an amiable chap (think a less silly/less well-off Bertie Wooster) relates a recurrent dream that has occurred on and off throughout his life. He finds himself late to a gathering, exclusively of men, who all sit watching a woman on a low platform seemingly interviewing a single man, but he cannot hear the questioning, and often finds himself turning down an offer to take a seat. And rarely does he recognize any of the men from his waking life, but the two times he does... This is a charming, breezy little weird piece - more TWILIGHT ZONE than WEIRD TALES - with a fairly simple concept elevated by the informal dialogue of the presentation. Nice.

William Gerhardie turns in a short & charming tale of a dying man who is an obsessive reader, his hopes for an afterlife and whether he achieves. Cute, but not scary in the slightest.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of an old series of ten ghost stories from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, selected by the writer Robert Aickman, who includes one of his own. They are all worth reading, with the stand-out being the much anthologised "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions.

[Bill Borre]

The Seventh Man is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror