Isabella Bruschi

A cura di I. Bruschi 
 
 Six short stories having the world of the supernatural as their main theme.
 Disquieting and mysterious presences, suspense, the atavic fear of the unknown are the characteristic ingredients of these stories.
 They were written in a pre-freudian time where the irrational was still unknown and therefore enigmatic and threatening. Taken from top-level authors – E. A. Poe, J. K. Jerome, E. G. Swain, E. F. Benson, M. R. James, J. G. Lang – they are accompanied by inserts on supernatural entities and on cultural and historical aspects related to the contents of the tales. 
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Transcripts - Summing-up Activities
 
 Sei racconti che hanno come tematica il mondo del soprannaturale.
 Presenze inquietanti e misteriose e la paura atavica dell’ignoto sono gli ingredienti di queste storie in cui, in un’epoca pre-freudiana, l’irrazionale risulta completamente sconosciuto e minaccioso.
 Tratte da autori di grande livello – E. A. Poe, J. K. Jerome, E. G. Swain, E. F. Benson, M. R. James, J. G. Lang – sono corredate dalle biografie degli autori, da schede sulle "short stories" e "ghost stories" e su aspetti storico-culturali collegati ai contenuti dei racconti.

Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe

Ligeia

Extension: A film director who loved Poe

Montague Rhodes James

The Rose Garden

Extension: What’s in a rose

Jerome Klapka Jerome

A Ghost Story

Extension: Supernatural company

John George Lang

The Ghost upon the Rail

Extension: Transportation to Australia

Edmund Gill Swain

Bone to his Bone

Extension: Ghosts, spirits or human imagination?

Edward Frederick Benson

The Confession of Charles Linkworth

Extension: The death penalty in the U.K.

Summing-up activities

Stories. Montague Rhodes James s stories should be seen as part of the late-Victorian and Edwardian vogue for stories of ghosts, fantasy and the supernatural and have remained lastingly popular because of their  masterly combination of scholarly control and antiquarian detail with suggestions of underlying2 supernatural horror . M.R. James, is not particularly interested in the psychology of his characters but rather in the creation of a state of fear in the mind of the reader. His supernatural fiction is still read today, and his style and ideas have served as inspiration for many modern authors. He never reveals the ghost completely; the horror is always left to the reader to imagine. One of the best reviews of his work was written by H.P. Lovecraft in his excellent essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, where, in analysing James and his work, he writes:    gifted with an almost diabolic power of calling horror by gentle steps from the midst3 of prosaic daily life, is the scholarly Montague Rhode James, Provost of Eton College, antiquary of note, and recognized authority on medieval manuscripts and cathedral history. Dr. James, long fond of telling spectral tales at Christmastide, has become by slow degrees a literary weird4 fictionist of the very first rank; and has developed a distinctive style and method likely to serve as models for an enduring line of disciples. Dr. James, [ ] creating the illusion of every-day events, introduces his abnormal phenomena cautiously and gradually; relieved at every turn by touches of homely and prosaic detail, and sometimes spiced with a snatch or two of antiquarian scholarship. [ ] In inventing a new type of ghost, he has departed considerably from the conventional Gothic tradition; for where the older stock ghosts were pale and stately, and apprehended chiefly through the sense of sight, the average James s ghost is lean, dwarfish5, and hairy, a sluggish6, hellish night-abomination midway betwixt beast and man and usually touched before it is seen.  5. dwarfish: deforme (da nano). 6. sluggish: indolente. 2. underlying: di fondo. 3. from the midst: dal bel mezzo. 4. weird: strano, bizzarro. 32 

  The Rose Garden BEFORE READING to the following extract from the story and decide if the m Listen following statements are true or false. T F 1 Mrs Anstruther sat on her chair and admired the landscape It was evening c c c c What caught Mrs Anstruther s attention was the song of a bird c c to the passage again and try to imagine what the mask Mrs m Listen Anstruther saw among the bushes was. Write a short paragraph to 2 describe it. ............................................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................................... to another extract from the story and try to guess something m Listen of what is narrated there. Fill in the grid. 3 The main character/s The setting (place) 33 Reason for the Lord Chief Justice s death 

Sei racconti gotici con atmosfere inquietanti e figure misteriose da autori come E. A. Poe, J. K. Jerome, E. G. Swain, E. F. Benson, M. R. James e J.

Tales of The Supernatural - Collana Rainbows

Level B2 • Intermediate - Collana RAINBOWS

Tales of The Supernatural

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