To T.C.
Because Halloween weekend is very nearly upon us, National Review Online contributor John J. Miller recommends a few of his preferred ghost stories, one of them being Nabokov's "The Vane Sisters." Quoth Miller: "The ending is fiendishly clever. It's also a trick. I missed it completely and discovered its true meaning by reading around the interwebs." Yeah, I bet he did. One rather feels like sucking one's gums a bit before launching into a diatribe of what it was like to read Nabokov before there were any interwebs, non?
Later on Miller's list: A yarn by Andrew Klavan. Lunch at Tour d'Argent, dinner at KFC.
I have to read “The Vane Sisters”. I just haven’t gotten around to many of his short stories yet. I have LAUGHTER IN THE DARK pegged as the next VN novel I read, and that one’s looming. I’m still high off of reading DESPAIR earlier this year.
Bill, if you have not yet read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, I would suggest it next in place of Laughter in the Dark. The latter is fine, but the former is a real beaut.
The short stories are such gems. “A Visit to a Museum.” “An Affair of Honour.” (incredible) “Signs and Symbols.” “Cloud, Castle, Lake.” And so on.
Brian, I have read SEBASTIAN KNIGHT, but it’s been so long, and, to my chagrin, I barely remember it. The only thing I can remember at all is a line about people who read mystery novels having pure souls. But I do know I liked it a lot, and it’s marked for a re-read. I have to get through some Nabokov I’ve never cracked yet, though.
PS – What would it take, I wonder, to turn this thread into one about favorite horror stories?
I read “The Vane Sisters” last night, and I’m not sure what Miller didn’t get. Who reads a ghost story in which an ominous reference is made to another short story whose last paragraph was an acrostic and doesn’t think “Oh, I’m so doing that out when I finish THIS story.”
I’m kind of impressed that Miller has seemingly got his hands on a early edition of Tyrants Destroyed since the Vintage Collected Stories includes an author’s note on “The Vane Sisters” /that explains what the last paragraph says/.
“Because Halloween weekend is very nearly upon us” made me laugh out loud.