Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly TalesWm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004 - 406 halaman Widely regarded as the founder of the modern conservative movement, Russell Kirk was a noted man of letters whose prodigious literary output included a syndicated newspaper column, a regular page in "National Review," and many books. This volume demonstrates another compelling side of Kirk -- the imaginative author who could communicate his powerful vision through the dramatic genre of the ghost story. "Ancestral Shadows" collects nineteen of Kirkbs best ghostly tales from periodicals and anthologies published throughout his life. In the tradition of Defoe, Stevenson, Hawthorne, Coleridge, Poe, and other master writers, these frightful stories conjure the creaks and shadows of the very places where they came to life through Kirkbs pen: haunted St. Andrews, the Isle of Eigg, Kellie Castle, Balcarres House, Durie House (bwhich has the most persistent of all country-house spectresb), and Kirkbs own ancestral spooky house in Mecosta, Michigan. Full of fantastic gothic tales masterfully told, the volume ends with bA Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale, b an incisive piece in which Kirk reflects on why he writes such stories: bexperiments in the moral imaginationb are what he is really after. Ghost stories are not merely entertaining but possess a particular ability to capture the essential features of human nature, of good and evil. bAll important literature has some ethical end, b Kirk says, band the tale of the preternatural -- as written by George Macdonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and other masters -- can be an instrument for the recovery of moral order.b Including an illuminative introduction by Vigen Guroian, "Ancestral Shadows" will enthrall and delight all lovers ofghost stories. |
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Introduction | vii |
Ex Tenebris | 3 |
Behind the Stumps | 18 |
Uncle Isaiah | 33 |
The Surly Sullen Bell | 50 |
Balgrummos Hell | 68 |
Lex Talionis | 85 |
What Shadows We Pursue | 106 |
Sorworth Place | 178 |
Saviourgate | 195 |
The Last Gods Dream | 211 |
The Peculiar Demesne of Archvincar Gerontion | 250 |
Theres a Long Long Trail AWinding | 276 |
Watchers at the Strait Gate | 308 |
The ReflexMan in Whinnymuir Close | 326 |
The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost | 353 |
The Cellar of Little Egypt | 122 |
Fates Purse | 137 |
The Princess of All Lands | 156 |
An Encounter by Mortstone Pond | 395 |