From the Abyss
Weird Fiction, 1907-1945
Published on 9. August 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
290 pages
978-1-912766-56-7 (ISBN)
Description
D K Broster was one of the great British historical novelists of the twentieth century, but her Weird fiction has long been forgotten. She wrote some of the most impressive supernatural short stories to be published between the wars. Melissa Edmundson, editor of Women's Weird, Women's Weird 2, Elinor Mordaunt's The Villa and The Vortex and Helen Simpson's The Outcast and The Rite, all published by Handheld, has curated a selection of Broster's best and most terrifying work. From the Abyss contains eleven stories, including:
'The Window', in which a deserted chateau takes revenge on anyone who opens one particular window.
'The Pavement', in which the protectress of a Roman mosaic cannot bear to let it go.
'Clairvoyance', in which the spirit of a vengeful Japanese swordmaster enters an adolescent girl.
'From the Abyss', in which the survivor of a car crash is followed out of the gorge by her doppelganger.
'The Window', in which a deserted chateau takes revenge on anyone who opens one particular window.
'The Pavement', in which the protectress of a Roman mosaic cannot bear to let it go.
'Clairvoyance', in which the spirit of a vengeful Japanese swordmaster enters an adolescent girl.
'From the Abyss', in which the survivor of a car crash is followed out of the gorge by her doppelganger.
More details
Persons
Dorothy Kathleen Broster was born in 1877 near Liverpool. She earned a degree in Modern History at Oxford, and volunteered as a nurse in the First World War. Her name as a novelist was made by her bestselling Jacobite trilogy, The Flight of the Heron (1925), The Gleam in the North (1927), and The Dark Mile (1929). Most of her supernatural fiction appeared in two collections: A Fire of Driftwood (1932) and Couching at the Door (1942). She died in 1950.
Content
Contents
Introduction, by Melissa Edmundson
Acknowledgements
1 All Souls Day (1907)
2 Fils D Emigre (1913)
3 The Window (1929)
4 Clairvoyance (1932)
5 The Promised Land (1932)
6 The Pestering (1932)
7 Couching at the Door (1933)
8 Juggernaut (1935)
9 The Pavement (1938)
10 From the Abyss (1940)
11 The Taste of Pomegranates (1945)
Notes on the stories, by Kate Macdonald
Introduction, by Melissa Edmundson
Acknowledgements
1 All Souls Day (1907)
2 Fils D Emigre (1913)
3 The Window (1929)
4 Clairvoyance (1932)
5 The Promised Land (1932)
6 The Pestering (1932)
7 Couching at the Door (1933)
8 Juggernaut (1935)
9 The Pavement (1938)
10 From the Abyss (1940)
11 The Taste of Pomegranates (1945)
Notes on the stories, by Kate Macdonald