| Author | Message | ||
     Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Was having a good peruse through an old 1979 anthology when I came across this William Hope Hodgson short. It quite annoyed me at times, what with several blatant references to the central protagonist's previous adventures, but I found this to be one of the most unnerving haunted room stories I'd read in a long time. Has anybody else read this before? Don't tell me it's a classic? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.91 |
I'm afraid it is just that. It's one of Hodgson's Carnacki stories; Carnacki is a psychic detective, a bit like Algernon Blackwood's John Silence. They're collected in CARNACKI THE GHOST-FINDER (Arkham House 1947), nine stories in all: tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnacki | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.91 |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnacki | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Cheers Hubert. Egg all over my face as I speak/type. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
It got me thinking about other great/classic haunted room stories. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
I read these stories after HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. I wasn't grabbed by them. Please take that into account when you mention them again.  His sea/fungus stories I did like very much. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Great atmospheric storyteller. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.235.65 |
Put me off mushrooms for quite a while. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.139.105.17 |
The guy who wrote THE HORSE WHISPERER should have read it, then! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.134 |
I believe THE WHISPERING ROOM may have been broadcast on't radio back in the 'seventies here in the UK, along with THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND and THE HOG, but I may be mistaken about that. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.108.12.25 |
It's easily the best of the Carnacki stories, which I find generally a bit too rational for my taste – I keep thinking 'Come on, this isn't a gym workout, be a bit scared already.' The sea stories are much weirder. But yes, 'The Whistling Room' is quite powerful. Needs a good edit though. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
I actually felt unnerved, but didn't like the rationality of the story served up Agatha Christie style. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.97.22 |
>>I keep thinking 'Come on, this isn't a gym workout, be a bit scared already.' I dunno, I thought Carnacki's constant struggling with his fear and his gauging of his companions' fear was an important part of the stories. Let's face it, it's about the only characterization anyone gets in the stories. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.251.102.223 |
I have to admit that I loved this story. I put it up there with Thurnley Abbey and No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince as greats in the haunted house/castle stories | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.14.96 |
It stands out for the surreal image of the you know what. But that's all that did stand out. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.183 |
"Thurnley Abbey" is nightmarish. I first read it as a 12-year old, in bed no less, and the apparition at the foot of the narrator's bed scared the hell out of me. |