David Blair (5) (1950–)

Our university professor book club usually chooses short story collections we can read together so members who miss a discussion don't feel "behind" when the next meeting rolls around. We began reading this in the spring semester, but we postponed many sessions, resulting in a continuation into the fall semester.

This Gothic short story collection gave us a feel for the development of the genre. Our leader is an English professor who asks great questions that provide a lot of discussion. One professor wrote his dissertation on the Gothic. Many members like the Gothic but each prefers a different style or element. This collection provided at least one or two stories each of us enjoyed at a surface reading, but the discussions made us understand and enjoy most of the rest.

The collection includes:
"Sir Bertrand: A Fragment" by Anna Letitia Aikin
"Captive of the Banditti" by Nathan Drake and an Anonymous Hand
"Extracts from Gosschen's Diary: No. 1" by Anonymous
"The Parricide's Tale" by Charles Robert Maturin
"The Spectre Bride" by Anonymous
"The Tapestried Chamber" by Sir Walter Scott
"Berenice" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Madman's Manuscript" by Charles Dickens
"Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" by J. S. le Fanu
"Ethan Brand: A Chapter from an Abortive Romance" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell
"The Body-Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Stetson
"The Death of Halpin Frayser" by Ambrose Bierce
"Canon Alberic's Scrapbook" by M. R. James
"No. 252 Rue M. le Prince [1]" by Ralph Adams Cram
"The Lame Priest" by S. Carleton
"Luella Miller" by Mary Wilkins Freeman
"The Bird in the Garden" by Richard Middleton
"The Room in the Tower" by E. F. Benson

My favorite was "The Yellow Wallpaper," mainly because of the interesting discussion it generated, and my least favorite was "The Bird in the Garden," which was short and seemingly less Gothic than most.… (more)