This month Rebecca of Bookish Beck is hosting Short Story September. There are lots of short story collections I would like to read but I knew I would probably only have time for one this month, so I chose one that I would be almost guaranteed to enjoy. I loved Celia Fremlin’s 1970 short story collection Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark, which I read a few years ago, and By Horror Haunted, originally published in 1974, sounded very similar.
The title is slightly misleading, I think, as most of the stories can only very loosely be described as horror. Some are quite eerie and unsettling, one or two include ghosts, but most are concerned with the ‘horrors’ of everyday life. One story deals with a fear of flying, for example, and another features a man struggling to come to terms with blindness – both of which Fremlin describes convincingly and realistically. There are fifteen stories in the book and most are short enough to read in just a few minutes; although I would have liked some of them to have been developed further, they are all satisfying and each one has a clever twist at the end – my favourite kind of short story!
Of all the stories, the only one that did really scare me was The Savage Heart, in which a zoologist decides to keep a lion cub as a pet and raise it along with his little girl, Rosalie. This causes a sensation, with newspaper reporters descending on the house to take photos of Rosalie and Leo playing together. As the lion grows bigger and stronger, however, Rosalie starts to feel more and more uneasy around him. I read this story with a growing sense of dread, as I’m sure you can imagine!
The first story, Her Number on It, was another that stood out. A middle-aged woman finds that she can’t stop stealing dresses from a London department store, much to her husband’s embarrassment, as he’s the one who has to keep speaking to the manager and promising she won’t do it again. But what he doesn’t know is that something even stranger is happening to his wife – she has discovered a tube station that acts as a portal to a different time. I also enjoyed The Intruder, in which a young woman listens to noises upstairs in the night, convinced that there’s a burglar in the house. This is one of those stories with such a surprising twist it makes you want to go straight back to the beginning to read it again!
Fremlin writes from a variety of different perspectives, ranging from a ninety-year-old woman who, in Ephemerida, compares herself to the mayfly which lives for just one day, to the teenage girl in Barry Findlater, who tries to keep her mother happy by inventing a boyfriend – with disastrous results. Most of the stories, though, deal with people struggling with marital tensions or the challenges of parenthood. I loved The Sunday Outing, where a husband decides to pretend he was in a train accident to give himself some time away from his wife, and An Unsuspected Talent, which follows a wife who, frustrated with her husband’s lack of ambition, takes matters into her own hands – literally.
If I had to pick a favourite story it would definitely be Don’t Tell Cissie. Cissie is one of those people for whom if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. If anyone is likely to get lost and miss the bus, to fall in a pond and catch pneumonia, or drop a kettle full of boiling water and scald herself, it’s Cissie. As her friend, Lois, observes:
She was like that at school, and now, when we’re all coming up towards retirement, she’s like it still. You know the kind of person I mean? Friendly, goodhearted, and desperately anxious to be in on everything, and yet with this mysterious knack of ruining things – of bringing every project grinding to a halt, simply by being there.
So when Lois and another friend, Rosemary, decide to visit Rosemary’s new weekend cottage in the marshes, which is said to be haunted, it seems sensible to leave Cissie behind. Cissie, of course, has other ideas and isn’t about to miss out on the fun! I really enjoyed this one. It has the sort of humour I loved in Fremlin’s Uncle Paul and the ending is perfect.
Although I thought Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark was slightly stronger overall, this is another great collection and reminded me how much I love Celia Fremlin’s writing. I’ve only read two of her longer novels so far (Uncle Paul and The Long Shadow) so I still have a lot to look forward to!
I like the sound of some of these, I think, haha, I really enjoyed your review, anyway, it’s great to hear about all your experiences and favourite parts. I tried to read The Long Shadow but I couldn’t get into it, perhaps I will enjoy these short stories more. 😀
I enjoyed The Long Shadow, but maybe you’ll get on better with these short stories. There’s a good variety and I found most of them entertaining.
Thank you. 😀 I had a look for it at the library but I could not find it. I shall keep looking. xxx
They have a copy of it at the library!! Hurrah! 😀
Great!
I do like the sound of this!
I love Fremlin’s writing and this is a great collection!
I’ve only read one of Fremlin’s novels, Appointment with Yesterday, which was more of a domestic suspense/thriller type story than horror (it had some unexpected & very funny touches of humor as well). I absolutely loved it and immediately started building my own little Celia Fremlin shelf, which now includes Uncle Paul & Don’t Go To Sleep In The Dark. I’m saving both for one of those lazy days when I can just lie on the porch, drink something nice and read, read, read!
I still have Appointment with Yesterday to look forward to, but it sounds like a similar sort of book to Uncle Paul and The Long Shadow, which are also domestic thrillers and very funny at times! I hope you enjoy reading more Fremlin – that lazy day you describe sounds very appealing!
This sounds good, I’d love to find a portal!
So would I – though maybe not to the particular time and place this one is leading to!
This sounds good! I’ve only read one of her novels and I would say domestic noir would be a good description of her work. It’s very unsettling without being graphic, and so cleverly done!
Yes, I think everything I’ve read by Fremlin so far falls into the domestic noir category. I love her books and am looking forward to reading more of them.
The title of this one instantly caught my eye and I appreciate the heads up that its a very different kind of horror than I’d have envisioned. It sounds like quite an interesting mix of stories and I’m almost afraid to discover how The Savage Heart ends. I’ll probably check out the collection that you preferred first but I’ll add this to my TBR too for later 😊
Looking at other reviews, I think a lot of people were expecting more conventional horror stories, so it’s best to know in advance that they’re actually something a bit different. The lion story did scare me, though!
I might have to try some of her short stories. 😀
They’re great – dark and unsettling, but often very funny too.
Sounds good! I love that she brings out the ‘horror’ in everyday things – always more unsettling to me than ghosties and ghoulies!
Yes, I love the kind of domestic horror she writes – she does it so effectively and with a lot of humour as well! I’m looking forward to reading more of her books.
I love Celia Fremlin. I didn’t know she had any short story collections out, though. I just keep hoping that the publisher who has been reissuing her books will keep going.
I enjoyed both of the short story collections I’ve read and I think there’s a third one being reissued soon. I need to catch up on her novels, though, as I’ve only read two of them so far.
I think six are out now. I have read four and have more in the pile.
Fantastic – a wonderful taster of a review, introducing me to a title and an author whose work I like the sound of!
This is a great collection of stories which manage to be both funny and unsettling at the same time. I think you would enjoy them!