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Showing posts with the label The Woman in Black

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

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This is a book outside my comfort zone. I don't read a lot of scary book, and this is said to be a classical, scary Victorian style, ghost story. What made me take it? A reference at the back to indicate that this book has been compared to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw . That is really all I need. Arthur Kipps, is a young lawyer who travels to a village in the middle of nowhere, to take care of the estate of recently deceased Alice Drablow. Her house is situated outside the village, on an island which is only accessible via a small bridge, or road, during low tide. It is a monstrous house, with a life of its own. Already during the funeral, he sees a peculiarly dressed woman in black. Everyone seem reluctant to even talk about the lady, and he gets no answers to his question on who she is. While staying in the old house, he is haunted by sounds, locked doors, wind, fog and rain. He hears things which sounds real, but are they? This is a traditional ghost story wit...