AT THE GHOST HOUR: 3 vols 1894 VAMPIRES WEIRD GHOST STORIES
At the Ghost Hour-Three Volume Set
The Fair Abigail, The Forest Laugh and The House of the Unbelieving Thomas
By Paul Heyse
Translated by Frances A Van Santford
Book Design and Illustrations by Alice C Morse
First edition, first printing published 1894, Dodd Mead and Co, New York.
Description: Three volumes, 96, 60 + 72pp. Slender finely bound volumes, publishers original oatmeal illustrated cloth with semi-translucent paper layer as issued. Corners are bumped, light scuffing to the spine tips, two volumes have light chipping along hinge lengths, with very minimal loss to the transparent paper layer. All three volumes have the previous owners name inscribed to the ffep, pages are very clean and tightly bound.
*The bindings of ‘At the Ghost Hour’ were all designed by eminent New York designer Alice Cordelia Morse (1863-1961), with ornate designed title pages and dozens of spooky and macabre vignette designs, chapter headers and tailpieces also designed by Morse. The volumes are in the collection of the MET in New York who have written a wonderful piece on Morse who designed these books with the translucent layer affixed to the boards to accentuate the ghostly subject of the stories within, the interior nouveau stylised designs are specific to each supernatural story contained within which were written by Nobel winning author Paul Heyse. Exceptionally rare volumes, rarer still to find three together and in the original bindings with fragile translucent paper layers, these are very desirable on so many levels, excellent supernatural tales, especially the Vampire story The Fair Abigail, beautifully illustrated and bound.
The Fair Abigail: Is an exceptional Vampire tale. During the Franco Prussian War a man (the narrator) becomes engaged to the fair but cold Abigail, the relationship is very tepid and he receives no response to his letters during the conflict and soon forgets her to marry another woman. Ten years later he hears word of Abigail who mysteriously appears one day in his hotel room, she acts weirdly but he is bewitched by her once more following her to the iron fence and cemetery on the outskirts of town.
The Forest Laugh: Set in rural Germany, a Weird tale about a young boy who haunts a section of woodland where he was killed, when odd occurrences start to happen to anyone who passes that area of Forest, mocking laughter can be heard from the treetops.
House of the Unbelieving Thomas: In the ancient castle of a north German village, a Czech man and his family are considered to be witches by the xenophobic neighbours. After the beautiful youngest daughter Gundelchen falls in love with a local student who she nurses back to health after an accident near their home, trouble starts to occur for the family, but the villagers are only part of that problem, the house is also haunted.
Listed in Bleiler ‘Guide to Supernatural Fiction’ (801, 802 and 803)
