The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly

Descripción:

Mulholland, Rosa. The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly, and Other Stories. London: Hutchinson and Co., n.d. [1891]. First edition. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1] 2-304 [305-312: publisher's ads, paginated as (1-2) 2-6]. Illustrated with a line drawing opposite title page. Original light brown pictorial boards, front and spine panels elaborately stamped in gold, black, white, green, blue, yellow and red, with shaded coloring in places, cream-colored coated endpapers. School prize gift inscription (dated 1896) in ink on verso of front free endpaper. Inner hinges cracked and discreetly strengthened, else a very good copy of this lovely book. #1719. $450. This collection of ten stories includes four supernatural tales that warn us about passion unmoored from religious faith. The title story, which has been anthologized, is the best of the bunch. It describes a curse laid on a blasphemous organist and on the organ itself, the musician being compelled to play until stopped by death -- and even afterwards. The details are vivid, the mood strong, and the theme resonant with the suspicions voiced by many supernatural tales concerning the ambiguous power of music and other arts. Mulholland (1841-1921), later Lady Gilbert, was encouraged by Dickens, who published her early stories in his magazines (Household Words and All the Year Round). She was a staunch, but not intolerant, Catholic, as well as an Irish patriot and suffragette. Her husband, Sir John Gilbert, was a noted Celtic scholar. According to an entry by Richard Dalby (Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 294), most of her ghost stories were written in the 1860s during this period of association with Dickens. Dalby also notes that supernatural elements are found in some of her other collections and novels. Her story, "Not to Be Taken at Bed-Time", was selected by Montague Summers for his influential anthology, The Supernatural Omnibus (1931), which did much to start the rehabilitation of Victorian fiction. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 371-2. Loeber and Loeber M619, noting that Yeats had included several of her stories, including one in the present volume, for his 1891 anthology, Representative Irish Tales. N° de ref. del artículo 1719

Denunciar este artículo

Detalles bibliográficos

Título: The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly
Editorial: Hutchinson and Co
Año de publicación: 1891
Encuadernación: Hardcover
Condición: Very Good
Edición: 1st Edition