Stories to read under the covers, on a stormy night. Tales of haunted houses, restless souls, ghost carriages and evil presences. And also creaks, living pictures, icy breaths and hands too pale to be real.
Queens of Suspense is the new collection in the Dark Ladies series: fourteen new mystery stories from fourteen masters of the genre, such as Frances Hodgson Burnett, May Sinclair, Margaret St. Clair, Mary E. Braddon, Edith Nesbit and many others.
Because no one, like the female authors between the 19th and 20th centuries, has been able to reverse the point of view and construct stories in which it is men who discover what it means to be afraid: in which it is men, and not women, who behave irrationally, like "women," like hysterics.
Queens of Thrills is the book that celebrates this subtle, refined rebellion against the status quo. A powerful and classy blow to the certainties of patriarchal society, which is also and above all a joy to read.
The stories:
Mary E. Braddon, Chrighton Abbey
Marie Corelli, The Sculptor's Angel
Edith Nesbit, From the World of the Dead
Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Christmas in the Fog
May Sinclair, The Nature of Evidence
Marjorie Bowen, The Bishop of Hell
Greye La Spina, The Wagon of the Dead
Sophie Wenzel Ellis, White Lady
G.G. Pendarves, Thing of Darkness
Lady Eleanor Smith, By Candlelight
Jessie Douglas Kerruish, The Wonderful Melody
Margaret St. Clair, The Island of Hands
Mary Elizabeth Counselman, The Three Pennies Marked
Leonora Carrington, The Seventh Horse
