Shadows on the Wall: Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (Tales of the Weird)

Introducing an influential American author to the series, offering a view of how weird fiction developed in the U.S. alongside the works of British authors. It includes two stories missed by the ‘complete’ strange story anthologies which have been assembled thanks to Mike Ashley’s expertise.

Suddenly he began hastening hither and thither about the room. He moved the furniture with fierce jerks, turning ever to see the effect upon the shadow on the wall. Not a line of its terrible outlines wavered.

The disquieting tales of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman explore a world of contrast, where the supernatural erupts out of authentically drawn portraits of New England life. This is a world of witchcraft, secrecy, domestic spaces turned uncanny and ancestral vengeance inflicted upon the unfortunates of the present.

Collecting the best of the author’s strange tales – including ‘The White Shawl’, which was unpublished during her lifetime – this volume casts a light on an underappreciated contributor to weird fiction and the shadowy corners of a dark imagination.