Carnacki the Ghost Finder (Wildside Fantasy)

Rating:
Summary: Your goosebumps will thank you...
Review: I first read Wm. Hope Hodgson in the Ballantine fantasy reprint series edited by Lin Carter in the 1970's. Therein I discovered a brillant mind of the macabre for the first time, with his "House on the Borderland" and "The Night Land" a new master of the fantastic was given to me. I ended up back in those heady gothick days of ordering a British edition of "Carnacki, the Ghost Finder" and adoring every delicious page. Alternating between supernatural & rational explainations for the phenomena in tow, I was in ghost story heaven! A personal literary belief of mine, is that the ghost story is arguably the best expression of the elegance of the English language extant. Contained in "Carnacki" is the "The Whistling Room" my vote for the best ghost story of all time. An award I do not lightly give.

Rating:
Summary: Wow. Excellent classic gothic detective stories.
Review: I read this books first years ago, and only now remembered it is most deserving of a great review. The best description I can give of the stories of Carnacki the Ghost Finder is that he investigates stories with some great, classic gothic set-ups. He's something like a Sherlock Holmes of the supernatural, a concept I absolutely adore.

What's even better is that these stories were written by William Hope Hodgson (much admired by H. P. Lovecraft) in the early part of the 20th century (around 1910), so it still has that incredible Victorian feeling of horror, shrouded in antiquity and mystery, with a fantastic and classically spooky atmosphere. Basically, for gothic gaslight ambience, this is one of the most satisfying books you can read. Since it was actually written so long ago, it has none of the modern contrivances you find in books written today set back in that time.

There are a couple of different versions of Carnacki the Ghost Finder. One has only 5 stories, some have 6, and some have 9. I've read both the 6 story and 9 story version; obviously you should try and procure the 9 story version, which adds The Hog, The Haunted Jarvee, and The Find.

Of the stories, all of them are great reading, but my favorites are "The House Among the Laurels," one of the best haunted house short stories I've ever read, and the very Lovecraftian (though Hodgson pre-dates Lovecraft) "The Whistling Room." Other good stories include "The Gateway of the Monster" in which Carnacki bites off more than he can chew in a demonic encounter; "The Searcher of the End House," a frenetic search for the truth behind a ghost, and the unsettling "The Hog," and the nicely done atmospherics of "The Haunted Jarvee."

But the whole book is great. Check it out if you love that classic gothic atmosphere in your stories.

Rating:
Summary: finding what?
Review: mostly it turns out not to be supernatural. the first story is a beauty. the stories have lousy climaxes, built up sometimes too slow, more unnatural than mysterious.