Prolific editor Ashley (The Mammoth Book of Fantasy
) does his usual fine job in selecting and introducing the 11 entries in a reprint anthology sure to appeal to fans of both Victorian fiction and ghost stories. Well-known mainstream writers of the day include Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Emily Brontë (represented by a brief allegorical tale, “The Palace of Death”). Children's author Edith Nesbit shows a deft hand for horror in the science-fictional “The Third Drug,” in which a man flees thugs in Paris only to end up in the clutches of a mad scientist. One of the best stories and the longest is Charlotte Ridell's “Nut Bush Farm,” in which a new farm tenant tries to uncover the truth about his vanished predecessor. Also notable is Mary Wilkins Freeman's “Luella Miller,” in which a woman's unreasonable demands on her servants appear to have fatal consequences. (Jan.)
