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Widdershins

The First Book of Ghost Stories

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Widdershins

By: Oliver Onions
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Rosalyn Landor, Stefan Rudnicki
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About this listen

At first blush, Widdershins is a conventional haunted house story involving an unsuccessful writer, who moves into an empty house in hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend, and his sanity are all destroyed in the process....

The story can be interpreted as narrating the gradual possession of the protagonist by a mysterious and possessive feminine spirit, or as a realistic description of a psychotic outbreak culminating in catatonia and murder, told from the psychotic subject’s point of view. The precise description of the slow disintegration of the protagonist’s mind is terrifying in either case.

Public Domain (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Scary Short Stories Fiction
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Disappointing

I had read the odd Oliver Onions story in anthologies before (dimly remembered), and so had reasonable expectations for these stories.

In truth they are well written, literate and incorporate some clever and quirky ideas. They are also exceedingly Dull, not helped by a hotchpotch of different readers.

The well constructed dialogue and believable characters are no substitute for atmosphere or the feeling of mystery which pervades the best ghost or horror stories. These stories do not really belong under that heading, and do not compare with James or Blackwood. I suppose the nearest comparison is perhaps some of Dahl's stories.

In short, these stories were something other that which I expected, and not in a good way. You may enjoy them, but I certainly did not - listening was an absolute chore.

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2 people found this helpful