'and the man saw that she had no eyes or nose or mouth - and
he screamed.'
Lafcadio Hearn's fascinating and unsettling ghost stories are a
reinterpretation of oriental legends, and folktales. They are a
potent blend of weird beauty and horror.
Hearn, who referred to his narratives as 'stories and studies of
strange things', believed that the spectral world was part of the
oriental landscape. Lakes, mountains, ruined castles and terraced
fields were the natural locale of ghostly spirits, and their
intervention in human affairs was part of the natural order of
things. Hearn's apparitions are not a violent intrusion upon
everyday reality; they are already a part of that reality,
co-existing with the living.
This collection contains the best of the work of this neglected
master of the supernatural tale. Prepare to be charmed and chilled
in equal measure.