Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales Review

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Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales ReviewRussell Kirk was not only an exceptional historian, moralist, cultural critic, and man of letters. He was also a superb prose stylist, as anyone who has read The Conservative Mind or The Sword of the Imagination knows. In Ancestral Shadows, a collection of ghostly tales written over a period of roughly twenty-five years, Dr. Kirk displays his mastery of the English language as he weaves startling and often stirring "tales of the preternatural." Eerdmans Publishing has done the reading public a real service in bringing out this handsome volume.
As Vigen Guroian notes in his helpful introduction, Dr. Kirk is widely regarded as having developed the gothic genre by imbuing it with a distinctive moral and metaphysical character. In "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," included in this volume, Dr. Kirk himself writes: "Alarming though (I hope) readers may find these tales, I do not write them to impose meaningless terror upon the innocent...What I have attempted, rather, are experiments in the moral imagination." In this he succeeds admirably. The reader of his ghost stories is treated not only to terror and suspense, but to an occasional, delicious glimpse of the eternal order underlying our own.
The heart of the book is found in "A Long, Long Trail A-Winding" and "Watchers at the Straight Gate," a pair of tales about Frank Sarsfield, whose character is modeled after that of Dr. Kirk's hobo friend Clinton Wallace. These stories are eery and beautiful; I confess I never expected to feel uplifted by a ghost story. Other favorites of mine include the early "Ex Tenebris," which conveys, delightfully and gruesomely, Dr. Kirk's contempt for the modern bureaucrat, and "An Encounter by Mortstone Pond," a poignant reflection on the mystery of human existence.
As a native Michigander, I took a special delight in reading Dr. Kirk's descriptions of the region's land and people, especially in the part of the state he calls "stump country." He perfectly captures the essence of the place, both in its native richness and in the desiccation brought upon it by modernity.
Ancestral Shadows is a treasure. I commend it to lovers of gothic tales, admirers of Russell Kirk, and anyone who perceives, or has forgotten how to perceive, the supernatural character of human life.Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales OverviewForeword by Vigen GuroianWidely regarded as the founder of the modern conservative movement, Russell Kirk was a noted man of letters whose prodigious literary career included a syndicated newspaper column and a regular page in National Review. This volume demonstrates another compelling side of Kirk — the imaginative author who could communicate his powerful vision through the dramatic genre of the ghost story.Ancestral Shadows collects nineteen of Kirk's best ghostly tales from periodicals and anthologies published throughout his life. In the tradition of Defoe, Stevenson, Hawthorne, Coleridge, Poe, and other master writers, these frightful stories conjure the creaks and shadows of the very places where they came to life through Kirk's pen: haunted St. Andrews, the Isle of Eigg, Kellie Castle, Balcarres House, Durie House ("which has the most persistent of all country-house specters"), and Kirk's own ancestral spooky house in Mecosta, Michigan.The volume ends with "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," an incisive piece in which Kirk reflects on why he writes such stories." All important literature has some ethical end," Kirk says, "and the tale of the preternatural — as written by George Macdonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and other masters — can be an instrument for the recovery of moral order."Masterfully crafted, Kirk's Ancestral Shadows will enthrall and delight all lovers of ghost stories.

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