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The Villa Desiree & Other Uncanny Stories
From publishers website:
MAY SINCLAIR (1863–1946) began writing the first of her 'uncanny stories', 'The Intercessor', in 1910, and it was published a year later, laying the way for the seventeen pieces collected in this volume. The stories are taken from three collections: Uncanny Stories (1923), Tales Told by Simpson (1930), and The Intercessor (1931).
Here you will find tales of psychological terror, ghost stories in their more familiar form, and stories which reflect Sinclair's own deep thought processes. You will be chilled by the evil Louis Carson and the Villa Désirée; touched by the need of a child in 'The Intercessor'; alarmed that the events in 'Heaven' might be real; and relieved that the murdered victim of 'The Victim' actually didn't mind being murdered at all.
The Villa Désirée and Other Uncanny Stories collects all of May Sinclair's supernatural, strange, and weird tales in one volume for the first time, and is complemented by Rebeccah Kinnamon Neff's detailed introduction.
CONTENTS: Introduction by Rebeccah Kinnamon Neff; Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched; The Token; The Flaw in the Crystal; The Nature of the Evidence; If the Dead Knew; The Victim; The Finding of the Absolute; 'Khaki'; Portrait of My Uncle; The Pictures; The Pin-Prick; The Bambino; The Mahatma's Story; Jones's Karma; Heaven; The Intercessor; The Villa Désirée.
MAY SINCLAIR (1863–1946) began writing the first of her 'uncanny stories', 'The Intercessor', in 1910, and it was published a year later, laying the way for the seventeen pieces collected in this volume. The stories are taken from three collections: Uncanny Stories (1923), Tales Told by Simpson (1930), and The Intercessor (1931).
Here you will find tales of psychological terror, ghost stories in their more familiar form, and stories which reflect Sinclair's own deep thought processes. You will be chilled by the evil Louis Carson and the Villa Désirée; touched by the need of a child in 'The Intercessor'; alarmed that the events in 'Heaven' might be real; and relieved that the murdered victim of 'The Victim' actually didn't mind being murdered at all.
The Villa Désirée and Other Uncanny Stories collects all of May Sinclair's supernatural, strange, and weird tales in one volume for the first time, and is complemented by Rebeccah Kinnamon Neff's detailed introduction.
CONTENTS: Introduction by Rebeccah Kinnamon Neff; Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched; The Token; The Flaw in the Crystal; The Nature of the Evidence; If the Dead Knew; The Victim; The Finding of the Absolute; 'Khaki'; Portrait of My Uncle; The Pictures; The Pin-Prick; The Bambino; The Mahatma's Story; Jones's Karma; Heaven; The Intercessor; The Villa Désirée.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1932
About the author
May Sinclair
211 books67 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2022
A recently engaged woman is to stay in her fiancé's villa in the south of France. But will her misgivings about sleeping in the room in which his former bride-to-be died prove unfounded...or does the Villa Désirée hold a shocking secret?
The reading of this creepy story on the channel EnCrypted Horror - narrated by Jasper L'Estrange really made this story pop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS2De...
The reading of this creepy story on the channel EnCrypted Horror - narrated by Jasper L'Estrange really made this story pop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS2De...
June 14, 2022
SPOILERS
Not sure I get this: a Bluebeard-type of man has sent his fiancé ahead to his villa and he’ll be following along in a few days. She spends the night in his dead wife’s room. In the night she sees an apparition. She presumes his last wife died of fright upon seeing this apparition. What is it? His libido is so eager it leaves his body and assumes shape to scope out the object of his desire.
I feel like this idea has potential but the writing was very sleepy and not well constructed. The description isn’t very haunting and the plot is too truncated. It needed more atmosphere and suspense. More spirit! Also, what does the ghostly libido do except startle the women? Is Bluebeard even aware of it? Maybe he can’t control it or maybe it’s harmless? Not very threatening unless, probably, you’re afraid of sex. And is Louis really even a Bluebeard? The friends kind of just came out with that stuff at the end.
But I would like to read another story by Sinclair just to see what I think. Libido Ghost is dumb, but original. I like dumb and original. This one just needed some TLC.
5 WEEKS LATER:
I got an alert that someone liked my review of this and I genuinely thought my account had been hacked or something. That’s how forgettable this is.
Not sure I get this: a Bluebeard-type of man has sent his fiancé ahead to his villa and he’ll be following along in a few days. She spends the night in his dead wife’s room. In the night she sees an apparition. She presumes his last wife died of fright upon seeing this apparition. What is it? His libido is so eager it leaves his body and assumes shape to scope out the object of his desire.
I feel like this idea has potential but the writing was very sleepy and not well constructed. The description isn’t very haunting and the plot is too truncated. It needed more atmosphere and suspense. More spirit! Also, what does the ghostly libido do except startle the women? Is Bluebeard even aware of it? Maybe he can’t control it or maybe it’s harmless? Not very threatening unless, probably, you’re afraid of sex. And is Louis really even a Bluebeard? The friends kind of just came out with that stuff at the end.
But I would like to read another story by Sinclair just to see what I think. Libido Ghost is dumb, but original. I like dumb and original. This one just needed some TLC.
5 WEEKS LATER:
I got an alert that someone liked my review of this and I genuinely thought my account had been hacked or something. That’s how forgettable this is.
January 5, 2021
It cannot be read piecemeal, I feel. It needs to be read as a whole. All I will say is that May Sinclair has written three famous Ghost Stories: ‘Where There Fire is not Quenched’, ‘The Intercessor’ and ‘The Villa Désirée’ – but there is at least one more classic May Sinclair story embedded within the book’s gestalt: one that should be just as famous: i.e. a ‘triptych’ of three (lesser known?) stories blended together: ‘The Pictures’ + ‘The Pin-Prick’ + ‘The Bambino’.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its conclusions.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its conclusions.
January 6, 2024
Eu não conhecia esta autora, mas com certeza lerei outros de seus livros, embora este seja um conto muito assustador de final incerto. Não aconselho sua leitura à noite.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews