Book Review: "The Outcast" ed. by Mike Ashley

Full Title: The Outcast: And Other Dark Tales by E.F Benson edited by Mike Ashley

It is interesting to think that the first thing that this book claims is that the Golden Age of the Ghost Story was not, as we believe, the High Victorian Age but instead the fin-de-siècle, the Edwardian era and beyond. But when we think that those mentioned as being in that era include Algernon Blackwood, M.R James and more then it doesn't seem that far-fetched anymore. I was a little taken aback by the claim but I like the fact that this is the way a book about E.F Benson starts off in order to appreciate the author of the stories within.

With the new age comes new inventions and with those come new fears that Benson loved to explore and hunt out - much like how today we are becoming overwhelmed by the power of A.I and Harlan Ellison's I have no mouth and I must scream has become popular again.

A while ago, I read a collection of Benson's stories collected by Vintage Randomhouse. The one with the blue cover and the ghost on the front of it. Honestly, I loved it. I thought it was brilliant and here, I can appreciate how the works have been collated chronologically to show us his writing curve.

One of the first stories that stood out to me was called A Winter Morning. Now, many people do not actually like this story, but I thought it was short and clever. It is about a boy called Jack who loves his pony so much he draws pictures of him in chalk. He drew a picture of said pony with one of its legs missing only for him to fall from the horse and break his back. Now, I'm not going to tell you the reveal but the narrator just sounds really annoyed until about the last few paragraphs. It was not very frightening, but I think the atmosphere of winter and the tragedy of the narrative gives us a great reason to pay attention to it.

The next one is called The Secret Garden. I am quite fascinated about how much atmosphere E F Benson is able to create whilst also telling the story. It is said to be based on a true story about Benson himself but I do not know how much of that is true. However, it is about a secret garden in which there are weird folk horrors taking place. As the atmosphere grows more and more tense, we start to see an apparition:

Now the odd feature about this meaningless apparition is that the first time this visitor appeared he was seen simultaneously by two people whos impressions as to his general mien and his gesture with his cloak completely tailed with each other. There was no legend about such an appearance which could have been predisposed to either of them to have imagined that he saw nothing at all, and the broad sunlight certainly did not lend itself to any conjuring up of a black moving figure.

I mean, it might not sound as frightening as you think it should but it definitely lends a hand to being really confusing because of the way there is so much atmosphere throughout the story but when the ghost is actually seen, there is none whatsoever. Benson goes on in this story to talk about what he knows of ghost stories and the early folktales. He states that he went to the town hall to find out about the apparition in order to separate the fact from the fiction and honestly, though this bit could have done with some paragraphing, I don't think it was particularly that bad. I enjoy reading about the folkish and weird and so, I thought that Benson's take on the criticism and philosophies of the ghost story was interesting enough.

Other stories I enjoyed include The Flint Knife, The Outcast, Between the Lights and The Passenger. Though E.F Benson might not be the scariest ghost story author, he definitely reflects his time and his writing reflects the horrors they were experiencing. The tales are dark and atmospheric, they are interesting and cover a range of topics. I am therefore, more than satisfied.