“A fascinating story of what it might be like to be a ghost, and the longing in us that makes us want them to exist.”—Glasgow Herald, “Books of the Year” Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, séances and spiritualist meetings grew in popularity. One “ghost” appeared more than any other: the Katie King spirit. Blending historical fact and fiction, A Ghost’s Story presents the mysterious spirit writings and biographical outpourings of Katie King, this famous and enigmatic spirit celebrity. A profound and curious consciousness guided into this realm by the faith of true believers, or the cheap trickery of parlor cheats and exploitative swindlers? Katie King is both, and more. This is the tale of a ghost’s quest to understand human faith, loss, and passion. It is also the tale of a contemporary scholar desperate to understand the allure of the spirit world, journeying with Katie from the candle-lit drawing rooms of Victorian London to the Imperial Palaces of Tsars; from the shadiest of gimmicks and tricks, to the most poignant sincerity of the deathbed wish. A Ghost’s Story features a narrator like no other, moving in and out of time and space, obstreperous, witty, and profoundly honest. Above all, this inventive novel is an examination of belief, and a spectacular insight into what lies on the other side. “At turns spooky and comical, Gibb deftly weaves fact with fiction so that each page shimmers ectoplasmically with uncertainty.”—Irish Mail “Compelling...add in a supporting cast of rogues, charlatans and true believers and the theatrical trappings of seances and you are pitched in a world that is rich and strange.”—Sunday Express
The acclaimed New York Times–bestselling biography and “emotionally detailed portrait of the artist as a young man” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) In the first biography of the iconic David Foster Wallace, D.T. Max paints the portrait of a man, self-conscious, obsessive and struggling to find meaning. If Wallace was right when he declared he was “frightfully and thoroughly conventional,” it is only because over the course of his short life and stunning career, he wrestled intimately and relentlessly with the fundamental anxiety of being human. In his characteristic lucid and quick-witted style, Max untangles Wallace’s anxious sense of self, his volatile and sometimes abusive connection with women, and above all, his fraught relationship with fiction as he emerges with his masterpiece Infinite Jest. Written with the cooperation of Wallace’s family and friends and with access to hundreds of unpublished letters, manuscripts and journals, this captivating biography unveils the life of the profoundly complicated man who gave voice to what we thought we could not say.
The Handbook to the Ghost Story sets out to survey and significantly extend a new field of criticism which has been taking shape over recent years, centring on the ghost story and bringing together a vast range of interpretive methods and theoretical perspectives. The main task of the volume is to properly situate the genre within historical and contemporary literary cultures across the globe, and to explore its significance within wider literary contexts as well as those of the supernatural. The Handbook offers the most significant contribution to this new critical field to date, assembling some of its leading scholars to examine the key contexts and issues required for understanding the emergence and development of the ghost story.
Freak. That's what folks are calling Lyric Freeman after a horrific crash kills her best friend and nearly claims Lyric. Her injuries result in the ability to hear the dying speak, and soon she finds she must help deceased slaves find freedom. Not so bad, right? Wrong... STRANGE FRUIT: A Ghost Story is a wild ride through the American Slave Trade to a modern day haunted house and is inspired by the protest poem by Abel Meeropol and the haunting musical versions by Nina Simone and Billie Holliday (and the many others who have done this ode justice). "Totally mesmerizing...." - Sandra Carrington-Smith "I was absolutely gripped with fear and interest from the very beginning!" - Natalie Rae Kimber
"Prepare for a sampling of Japanese ghosts and spirits, from sources that include the worlds oldest novel, the urban legends of contemporary Japanese schoolchildren, movies both classic and modern, anime, manga, and more." For hundreds of years Japan has lived in a reality consisting of the real world and the spirit world; sometimes the wall between the two worlds gets thin enough for spirits to cross over. In such a reality, ghost stories have been popular for centuries. Patrick Drazen, author of "Anime Explosion", looks at these stories: old and new, scary or funny or sad, looking at common themes and the reasons for their popularity. This book uses one Japanese ghost story tradition: the "hyaku monogatari" (hundred stories). In the old tradition, people tell each other one hundred ghost stories in one sitting. These hundred tales run from folklore to cartoons, but all are designed to send chills up the spine ...
Ghost stories are always in conversation with novelistic modes with which they are contemporary. This book examines examples from Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Henry James and Rudyard Kipling, amongst others, to the end of the twentieth century, looking at how they address empire, class, property, history and trauma.
The Big House is about the late 1970’s and a boy who during this era is filled with much spirit and adventure without the rigors of modern day society-a small town boy. He quickly discovers through a traumatic experience that he can be his best ally or worst enemy and that faith comes from within. He battles internal demons and fear and every time he conquers one another one comes. This kid learns more in one experience than most people learn in a lifetime. And more than that, this boy, Andy Miller realizes his gifts with or without his newfound superhuman powers. Andy Miller is intended to be a role model for kids in today’s modern world as he shares his fears, tears and passion with the audience in order to make the reader reaffirm that we all go through life’s pitfalls and we are never alone in our struggles. We are all connected on some level. THE BIG HOUSE is now available online here at ROBERTVASVARY.COM in a print version, or ebook/pdf version. There are approximately 30 illustrations and the book is intended for the tween market, though test readings are indicating many adults will grow to love Andy Miller, the books protagonist. According to the illustrator, Charlie Read, Creative Director for Firewater Creative, the inspiration and enthusiasm on this project was two fold for him, as he incorporated his photography and family photos to populate the characters and backdrops of each illustration,to create the world of Andy Miller. Robert Vasvary’s The Big House Available now for purchase in Print, PDF & EPUB! Everything is pitch black. The tunnel walls feel soft and slimy. A chill runs down his spine, rising panic stuck in his throat. The walls are breathing. Plunged into a world where the boundaries between fantasy and reality have disappeared, Andy’s thirst for adventure leads him to precious treasure, true love and unspeakable horror. In a bid to escape the terrifying realm of the undead and find the truth, there is only one way out: an epic showdown between good and evil that challenges everything he knows about himself and the world.
.0000000000In another infinitesimal flash he had taken it in. Pale, dusky skin, covering nothing but bones and tendons of appalling strength; coarse black hairs, longer than ever grew on a human hand; nails rising from the ends of the fingers and curving sharply down and forward, grey horny and wrinkled. He flew out of his chair with deadly inconceivable terror at his heart.The art of telling a ghost story is a refined one and Montague Rhodes James was a master of it. With gentle cunning, he draws the reader into a narrative that at first seems innocuous but which by gentle turns becomes darker and darker until he transfixes you with his prose, creating the most unforgettable, alarming and frightening images. This volume contains all his timeless masterpieces from the four collections of his eerie tales: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925)."With an Afterword by David Stuart Davies.