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A series of tales about the darker side of human nature.

List of tales:

The Old Nurse's Story
The Squire's Story
The Poor Clare
The Doom of the Griffiths
The Crooked Branch
Curious, if True
The Grey Woman

For people with nostalgia, the past acquires a rosy glow; for others, that rosy glow is merely the imaginary light cast by the nostalgics, and they themselves can see only dirt, grime, and suffering. As it turns out, the latter group tends to be the more accurate of the two.

These are stories written from that darker turn of mind. If they're a bit long in the paragraph at times, they're still readable and enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised with how good they were: chalk it up to another case of good writers being dismissed as second-rate in favor of the ones in the "canon."

A couple of stories were pleasant to read but not all that memorable. Others stuck more in mind. "The Old Nurse's Story" is about a frozen child who tries to lure another child to her death, and feels very much like The Turn of the Screw (and may in fact be referenced in that later story, I can't remember now). "Lois the Witch" is the tale of an outsider in Salem, surrounded by "family" who have to take her in after the death of her mother. I think my favorite was "The Poor Clare," about a woman whose curse turns against her progeny. I've read "The Crooked Branch" before in mystery anthologies as well.

Recommend this for readers of gothic horror fiction, those looking for early tales of crime, mystery, and suspense, and readers digging into early feminist works.