The other seven tales-most involving outsiders of one kind or another-are not really supernatural at all, although they do contain a few agreeable moments of unpleasantness or horror. The expatriate American writer who is the protagonist of 'The Bell and the Fog' is not only a 'master' of fiction but also the 'master' of the tale's haunted British castle, a man who appropriates and attempts to 'master' both the narrative of a girl-child ghost in his house and the destiny of a real girl who uncannily resembles her.įor those interested in feminist criticism, in Henry James, or-for that matter-in the ethical implications of fiction in general, there is much in this story of interest-in addition to the much more important fact that it is a superb story in itself. well, 'The Bell in the Fog' is in a class by itself.ĭedicated to 'the master' Henry James, this ambiguous ghostly tale is not only an homage to him, but also a fictionalized spiritual biography and an implied criticism. 'Death and the Countess' tells an atmospheric tale of an obscure ancient Breton cemetery whose inhabitants have become restless due to the proximity of a recently added railroad line, 'The Striding Place' delivers a brief brutal shock of horror surprising in an early 20th century story, and 'The Bell in the Fog'. Gertrude Atherton-a protegee of Bierce-is a very good writer, and the three supernatural stories included in this collection of ten-'Death and the Countess,' The Striding Place' and'The Bell in the Fog'-are fine examples of the genre. Is she a reincarnation of her ancestor? And will she turn out as unangelic in adulthood as that distant ancestor turned out before her?

And in The Bell in the Fog (reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw, and dedicated to Henry James) the supernatural and psychological combine to brilliant effect: an angelic child bears a striking resemblance to an old portrait. Elsewhere, The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number, The Tragedy of a Snob, and A Monarch of a Small Survey the psychological takes precedence over the supernatural. The Striding Place was rejected by one editor as 'far too gruesome', but was in Atherton's view 'the best short story I ever wrote'. She eloped at the age of nineteen, took up writing against her husband's wishes, and after his death became a protegee of Ambrose Bierce, whose influence can be seen here in those stories, The Dead and the Countess, Death and the Woman and The Striding Place, which have an overtly supernatural element. Gertrude Atherton was born in San Francisco in 1857, and died in 1948.

Gertrude atherton the striding place