the emily bronte alone makes it worth it. ( )

An interesting, if somewhat mixed, collection of stories. Most of them are atmospheric and engaging; one is the most dreadful piece of writing I have ever forced myself to read!

My favourite was Luella Miller by Mary Wilkins Freeman, a story of evil that is totally unaware of and unconcerned with the devastation it causes.

The Shadow in the Corner by Mary E. Braddon is a more "conventional" ghost story, but the most chilling and poignant of the collection.

Elizabeth Gaskell's The Old Nurse's Story is the most engaging in terms of the narrative voice and, again, very effective.

The worst of the bunch, and the most cloyingly self-indulgent and mawkish piece of prose I have had the misfortune of enduring, is the final tale, The Presence by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. These final 10 pages lost the book a star from my rating! Why the editor included it with the other excellent stories he chose baffles me.

The omission by the book's editor of the publications and dates when the stories first appeared is odd and something that could easily have been included.

All-in-all, a well-worth-reading, if slightly flawed, collection. ( )