![]() “Aickman was a master of the ‘strange story’ whose nearly unclassifiable output relies neither on ghosts nor creaking castles. All I know is that he did it beautifully.” “Reading Robert Aickman is like watching a magician work, and very often I’m not even sure what the trick was. His territory of the strange, of the “void behind the face of order,” is a surreal region that grotesquely mimics the quotidian: Is that river the Thames, or is it even a river? What does it mean when a prospective lover removes one dress, and then another-and then another? Does a herd of cows in a peaceful churchyard contain the souls of jilted women preparing to trample a cruel lover to death? Published for the first time under one cover, the stories in this collection offer an unequaled introduction to a profoundly original modern master of the uncanny. These superbly written tales terrify not with standard thrills and gore but through a radical overturning of the laws of nature and everyday life. Robert Aickman’s self-described “strange stories” are confoundingly and uniquely his own. Edited and with an introduction by Victoria Nelson. ![]()
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