"Tom gazed at the chair; and suddenly as he looked at it, a most extraordinary change seemed to come over it. The carving of the back gradually assumed the lineaments and expression of an old shrivelled human face, the damask cushion became an antique, flapped waistcoat; the round knobs grew into a couple of feet, encased in red cloth slippers; and the old chair looked like a very ugly old man of the previous century, with arms akimbo". 'The Queer Chair'.
This collection of seventeen short stories and three novellas, including 'A Christmas Carol', 'The Haunted House', and 'The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain', magically blend Dickens' sense of humour with the suspense and thrills of invisible, haunting figures and their spells. As with most short stories, I found that I was better dipping in and out of this book, reading one or two tales before taking a break and returning for more; although it was nice to be able to read a different length of Dickens' work than that found in the weighty tomes I am reading for my Masters dissertation!
Best story: 'The Ghosts of the Mail' because it is based in Edinburgh, where I live, and I can picture exactly where the supernatural scene the narrator sees is played out. Least favourite story: the novella 'The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain' - where Redlaw takes on a similarity to Scrooge, and Milly is the typical Dickens "model woman". I had to re-read sections of this novella in order to try and re-gain my sense of direction with where I was with it - maybe a second reading would make it clearer.
So, in all, I would give this four-and-a-half stars out of five. A brilliant read for dark winter nights (most of the tales take place around Christmas time), but not right before bed!
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