Book Review #95: The Empty House - Collected by Ruskin Bond

Title: The Empty House

Collected and Compiled by: Ruskin Bond

Author: Various authors

Publishers: Rupa Publications India

Genre: Supernatural/Horror/Children Stories

Pages: 158 (Paperback)

Source: Early review copy from Publishers

Stories that are horror and supernatural are always a fascinating experience. These kinds of books intrigue any reader, and especially the fans of horror stories. The mild horror slowly seeps into your mind and makes you wonder at length. Being a huge fan of horror stories, I definitely enjoyed reading this collection of 11 short stories by Ruskin Bond. Ruskin Bond never fails to amuse his readers. Be it his own stories or collected stories like “The Empty House”.

“The Empty House” is a book of short stories collected and compiled by Ruskin Bond that includes his own story “Gone Fishing”. Among the collected stories, the story of Empty House by Algernon Blackwood adorns the title of this book. The book has other stories like “Mrs. Raeburn’s waxwork” by Lady Eleanor Smith, “Thurnley Abbey” by Perecval London, Chunia Ayah by Alice Perrin and so on.

The book beings by the story of one of my favorite author Rudyard Kipling titled “The Return of Imray”. This is an interesting story that holds the suspense till the end. Imray is disappeared and despite many attempts to find the whereabouts of him, the result was in dismay. After few months, Imray’s bungalow was rented by Strickland of police and the narrator of the story is now inside this bungalow. During the stay in that bungalow, the narrator experiences some strange movements of figures. Even Strickland’s dog is quite disturbed. The very next day, Strickland and the narrator finds a snake up by the corner of ceiling cloth, which is disappearing into the roof space. When Strickland climbs up to see, to his horror, he finds Imray’s dead body up there with its throat cut. Upon interrogating the servant of Imray, the servant confesses to the crime citing the reason for which there is no rational explanation.

The next story that I liked the most is, The Empty House. It’s a story of a supposedly haunted house. The main characters of this story are Jim Shorthouse and his aunt Julia. One day, Shorthouse arrives to see his aunt for a weekend visit. He had received telegram from his aunt only that morning and he arrived soon with excitement and mystery. The moment he embraced her, he felt a surge of electrical shock like condition. Julia, a maniac of psychical research was all excited to visit that Empty House as she got the keys.

As the two enter the old house, Aunt Julia relates a brief history of the brutal crime that initiated the haunting. “’It has to do with a murder committed by a jealous stableman who had some affair with a servant in the house. One night he managed to secrete himself in the cellar, and when everyone was asleep, he crept upstairs to the servants' quarters, chased the girl down to the next landing, and before anyone could come to the rescue threw her bodily over the banisters into the hall below.’"

The tension continues to build as Shorthouse and Julia are certain they hear a man sneeze next to them. Then it happens, with a sudden jolt as powerful as the one that accompanies the first appearance of the old woman in “House on Haunted Hill,” “Facing them, directly in their way between the doorposts, stood the figure of a woman. She had dishevelled hair and wildly staring eyes, and her face was terrified and white as death. “She stood there motionless for the space of a single second. Then the candle flickered and she was gone—gone utterly— and the door framed nothing but empty darkness.”

And the third story that I liked from the collection is, “The white Wolf of the Hartz Mountains” By Frederick Marryat. This is the story of serf’s people. A family of three children and a father. Krantz is the only surviving member of a small Transylvanian family whose history has been marked by violent death. A family whose father murdered the mother, after catching her in an act of infidelity, then fled north to the Hartz Mountains (Germany) of the story’s title. There they live a harsh and lonely existence that settles into routine until, while hunting one day, the father sees and pursues a white she-wolf. Just as he draws a bead on it and is preparing to fire his rifle, however, it mysteriously disappears. On the way back to the family’s cabin, though, he encounters a man and daughter, half-frozen, looking for shelter which he, naturally, offers.

The beautiful young woman becomes an “evil stepmother” to the storyteller and his siblings. The oldest brother begins to note her strange nocturnal disappearances where, upon returning, she invariably goes to wash herself. What could she be doing out there? Many of these nights of her absence are also marked by the howl of a wolf, seemingly just outside the window of the children. Hmm… Slowly, as the evil deeds of this “woman” mount up, young Krantz’s fear of her transforms: “…but I no longer felt afraid of her; my little heart was full of hatred and revenge.”

I would encourage the readers to read the remaining stories from the book. It’s a great collection of horror stories from past. It still holds that suspense and thrilling factors. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

My Rating:

5/5

Note: This book was given to me by the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review