Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird: 33 (British Library Tales of the Weird) - Softcover

Burz-Labrande (ed.), Manon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712354174 ISBN 13: 9780712354172

Publisher: British Library Publishing, 2022

Synopsis

Darkness now was around me – and sound. I seemed to stand in the centre of some yelling planet, the row resembling the resounding of many thousands of cannon, punctuated by strange crashing.

The violent peals of a disconnected bell in the night; a trudging footfall in the hush of an abandoned manor; the whisper of a deathly voice in the ear: uncanny sounds remain the most frightening heralds of danger and terror in supernatural fiction. Gathered here are fourteen tales which resonate with the unique note of fear struck by weird happenings experienced through the aural sense.

Divided into four sections exploring noises from invisible presences, ghostly voices, possessed technology and the power of extreme levels of sound or silence, this collection pulses with pioneering pieces from B. M. Croker, Algernon Blackwood, Edith Wharton and M. P. Shiel alongside haunting obscurities from the British Library collections.

About this title

About the Author

MANON BURZ-LABRANDE is a researcher based at the University of Vienna who specialises in the content, history and literary influence of penny bloods and penny dreadfuls. Throughout her research she has pursued an interest in the role and significance of sound in Gothic and strange fiction.

From the Back Cover

From the ringing of a disconnected bell to footsteps in the halls of an abandoned house and the whisper of an unexplained voice in the ear, uncanny sounds are often the heralds of danger and terror in Gothic and supernatural fiction. Yet, when examining the range of stories which best manipulate our aural sense it is clear that there is more room to explore how significant sound is to our experience of fear.

This new collection presents tales in which ghosts interact with the corporeal world through noise, bodiless voices wander through the ether, and the objects whose sounds we trust, like the telephone, betray us. Featuring obscure pieces alongside some of the pioneers of the weird including B M Croker, Algernon Blackwood, H D Everett and Sheridan Le Fanu.

Edition details

• Publisher: British Library Publishing
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0712354174
• ISBN 13: 9780712354172
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320