Description

Bending to Earth: Strange Stories by Irish Women edited by Maria Giakaniki and Brian J. Showers

Trade Paperback – Swan River Press – Oct 2021 – 184 pages

“He called to it and said, ‘Tell me what you are?’” — “The Unquiet Dead”

Irish women have long produced literature of the gothic, uncanny, and supernatural. Bending to Earth draws together twelve such tales. While none of the authors herein were considered primarily writers of fantastical fiction during their lifetimes, they each wandered at some point in their careers into more speculative realms — some only briefly, others for lengthier stays.

Names such as Charlotte Riddell and Rosa Mulholland will already be familiar to aficionados of the eerie, while Katharine Tynan and Clotilde Graves are sure to gain new admirers. From a ghost story in the Swiss Alps to a premonition of death in the West of Ireland to strange rites in a South Pacific jungle, Bending to Earth showcases a diverse range of imaginative writing which spans the better part of a century.

Contents

“Introduction”
Maria Giakaniki and Brian J. Showers

“The Dark Lady”
Anna Maria Hall

“The Child’s Dream”
Lady Wilde

“The Unquiet Dead”
Lady Gregory

“The Woman with the Hood”
L. T. Meade

“The Wee Gray Woman”
Ethna Carbery

“The Blanket Fiend”
Beatrice Grimshaw

“The First Wife”
Katharine Tynan

“Transmigration”
Dora Sigerson Shorter

“Not to Be Taken at Bed-Time”
Rosa Mulholland

“The Red Woollen Necktie”
B. M. Croker

“The De Grabrooke Monument”
Charlotte Riddell

“A Vanished Hand”
Clotilde Graves