Name: The Beckoning Fair One
ISBN: 9780486436470

Oliver Onions

"Miles ahead of the average ghost-story" — Sunday Times. A novelist retreats to an abandoned house in the heart of London, where he becomes enthralled by an 18th-century spirit — and where his contact with the outside world gradually diminishes. Acclaimed by such masters as Lovecraft as one of the best ghost stories in the English language.

The Beckoning Fair One

The Beckoning Fair One is sometimes called the greatest ghost story in the English language; it may well be. Certainly it is one of the questest and most beautiful supernatural tales ever written. It reminds the reader of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" -- and that is huge praise indeed. The story tells of British novelist Paul Oleron, who lives restlessly in cramped quarters, looking -- as writers do -- for some way not to work on the project at hand. That is when he sees a vast and beautiful old house for rent. He takes the first floor and moves in. When his friend Elsie Benbough comes to visit, weirdness begins. The house, it seems, does not like Elsie and begins to inflict minor but mean-spirited injuries upon her. Feeling the presence of something evil, she warns Oleron that he will never be able to work there. But Oleron is entranced . . . and then in love . . . and soon obsessed. . . .