Review of The Shape of Fear and Other Ghostly Tales
Print Version:
Rev. of The Shape of Fear and Other Ghostly Tales by Elia W. Peattie
Atlantic Monthly 83
(Feb. 1899): 287-288
Page 287
Very different [from Annie Trumbull Slosson's tales in
Dumb Foxglove and Other Stories] are the qualities of
mysticism and of method which characterize The Shape of Fear and
Other Ghostly Tales, by Mrs. Elia W. Peattie. Apart from any
contrast with diffuseness, these
Page 288
really short stories are to an uncommon degree incisive and to the point. The supernatural element, instead of taking on the religious tinge of Mrs. Slosson's mysticism, is of the purely ghostly order, and the communing is frequently with evil rather than good spirits. Of the mundane relations described in one of her stories Mrs. Peattie says: "Fate was annoyed at this perfect friendship. It didn't give her enough to do, and fate is a restless thing, with a horrible appetite for variety." It is usually to aid the gratification of this appetite that the unseen influences play their part in these tales. That they possess a certain distinction is due to the author's variety of imagination, and to an effective directness of telling which amounts to a positive quality of style. It would be unfair to leave the impression that the writer's skill is concerned wholly with gruesome materials, for there is abundant pathos in the stories of Their Dear Little Ghost and From the Loom of the Dead; and in A Grammatical Ghost a refreshing leavening of humor is apparent. It will be interesting to observe what larger and more ambitious work will come from this same author, who has now put forth three books of short stories.
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