The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Three
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R. James proposed a formula that indicates what made Dickens and his contemporaries so successful: Two ingredients most valuable in the concocting of a ghost story are . . . the atmosphere and the nicely managed crescendo. Let us . . . be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage . . . Then, for the setting. The detective story cannot be too ...more