The Shadow by E Nesbit | Classic Edwardian Weird Tale for a Sleepless Night | Mini Audiobook

E Nesbit ghost stories, like E Nesbit books for children, still captivate their readers over a century after they first flew off the printing presses. Her output continues to enjoy an enduring appeal. The narrative drive of her work, exemplified in "The Railway Children" and "The Phoenix and the Carpet," is infinitely adaptable for both the big and small screen. And I fondly remember watching Jenny Agutter and Bernard Cribbins in the 1970 film of the former when I was a child.
Of course, I focus more on her darker, "grim" tales on this channel. And I will eventually perform the rest of her creepy and weird back catalogue in the upcoming months.
Edith Nesbit was born in the London borough of Kennington in 1858. She became a prolific and best-selling writer of over sixty books. But her own life, punctuated by tragedy and scandal, made a rollicking yarn in itself!
She was a hugely unorthodox and independently-minded "modern" woman who rolled and smoked her own cigarettes through a holder. Way ahead of her time, it seems to me that she didn't really belong in the Victorian or Edwardian period.
For much of E Nesbit's life, she was known as Mrs Bland. Quite the misnomer, to be sure! Her husband was Hubert Bland, a writer, political commentator, and rabid philanderer. The couple were close friends of George Bernard Shaw, whom Edith clearly fell in love with and Hubert liked to spar with.
Edith was certainly the breadwinner in the family for much of their marriage. Bland wasn't at all good with money, and Nesbit supported the family by writing and creating greeting cards. Indeed, many of the characters in her books are hard-working mums struggling in the back story to keep their families afloat.
Perhaps her exciting, albeit chaotic, private life is a factor in why she wrote such idiosyncratic fiction for children and grown-ups alike. Her ghost stories, in particular, are delectably creepy and nuanced.
"This is not an artistically rounded-off ghost story," the narrator of "The Shadow" says, "and nothing is explained in it, and there seems to be no reason why any of it should have happened."
The explanation for this story is undoubtedly illusive, as is why it happened:
Is Miss Eastwich herself the origin of the shadow? Is she the one unconsciously responsible for the weird happenings in that gloomy house twenty - or more - years ago?
Darkness lurks in the corners! A shadowy, disturbing, callous darkness.😱
I hope you enjoy it, and thank you, as always, for watching/listening.
We'll catch up soon on the next one.

[@jenford7078]

Well narrated! I have always loved this tale.

[@scarystoriesbythefireside]

Thank you! 🤗 I've always liked this one too. Most of her stories are intriguing and have hidden depths.

[@d.deckert6634]

This is an amazing tale .. had me in the edge of my seat and bitting my nails.. amazing. Thank you for the amazing narrative.

[@scarystoriesbythefireside]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it and thank you for saying so! I've always loved this story. There is so much lying beneath the surface in Nesbit's short tales.

[@jez6208]

Say Berkeley again.

[@scarystoriesbythefireside]

🤣 You got me. Well spotted.😀I agonized over whether to correct the pronunciation or not, wondering if it would be noticed and because I'd heard it pronounced that way in other recordings...I should have done a retake for sure.

[@jez6208]

@scarystoriesbythefireside I just feel like so many on TH-cam pander to Americans. God forbid they may have to think? Sorry but of it's a British channel, it should be pronounced in the British way. Who's language is it anyway? 😄😄😄

[@scarystoriesbythefireside]

Yes indeed, this is an English story, set in England and told by Edwardian English Ladies. Berkeley Square is and should be pronounced "bɑhrkli"😁. It's my mistake. I should have sought to correct it before uploading. I'm getting a bit lazy in my old age. 😀

[@beebee8018]

Sorry, but with these women’s voices this is absolutely not scary. It is bland. There is no build up of tension. I have read this work and can say by heart that it is ruined by these narraters. They project no feeling whatsoever, no proper dialogue of tension nor gripping emotion. Totally feelingless.

[@scarystoriesbythefireside]

Hi @beebee8018 , hope all is good with you and yours by the sea🌊😊 My apologies, this one was a bit a bit experimental but it doesn't seem to have worked. I tried narrating it myself but that just didn't seem right either.