The Dark Places

Gothic, hauntology, folk horror, preternatural, supernatural, Fortean, weird, uncanny alternative visions of the world

[retroreverbs]

The Panther Book of Horror (1968 edition) Edited by Anthony Rampton Cover photograph by Dennis Rolfe

[charnel-grounds]

Edward Gorey (1925–2000)

frontispiece from “The Vengeance of the Witch-finder” by John Bellairs, 1993

source

[retroreverbs]

Prediction Magazine (January 1987).

[illustratus]

Landscape in Moonlight by Knud Baade

[flaxmanlow]

EDWARD V AND THE DUKE OF YORK IN THE TOWER (1831)

By PAUL DELAROCHE (1797-1856)

Oil on Canvas, copy of larger canvas in the Louvre

The Wallace Collection, London

It is 1483. Two boys huddle together on a bed, reading a book of prayers. To the left, at the foot of the door, a shadow falls. The dog goes to see who is coming, but the children seem to sense they are in danger. The boy with auburn hair looks in fear towards the door, but his fair sickly brother gazes out of the canvas uncomprehendingly. The dog by the door is listening. Perhaps their killers are already approaching. The mood is ominous

He is the boy king Edward V, and he and his brother are the famous Princes in the Tower. Their uncle, who will become King Richard III, has placed them in the Tower of London. Although it is not known what happened to them, it is presumed that they were murdered, and this is certainly the interpretation placed on their disappearance in Shakespeare’s play Richard III. This was probably the inspiration for the French artist Paul Delaroche, who painted this picture

[flaxmanlow]

A RIVER SCENE BY MOONLIGHT

Manner of Aert van der NEER (1603/4-1677)

Oil on canvas

The Wallace Collection, London

[charnel-grounds]

“Ghost Stories and Other Horrid Tales”

selected and illustrated by Charles W. Stewart, 1997

source

[illustratus]

A Lighthouse on Fire at Night by Joseph Wright of Derby

[flaxmanlow]

Jane was aware of a great swaying of flowers, of cowled figures—and she was one of them—moving between giant blossoms toward the pale and helpless victim

Illustration for Call Him Demon by Henry Kuttner (as Keith Hammond) (1914-1958)

Weird Tales, 1946

Illustrator unknown

[illustratus]

Moonlit View of the River Elbe at Dresden by Johan Christian Dahl

[flaxmanlow]

... moving slowly, like figures in some monstrous and appalling dance ... 1923

Illustration by Jean de Bosschère (1878-1953)

from Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO.

[oldpaintings]

The Nun, c.1866 by William Quiller Orchardson (Scottish, 1832-1910)

[charnel-grounds]

Hugo Simberg (1873–1917), “The Black Death in Finland 1350”

oil painting, 1906

[illustratus]

Rinaldo, travelling through a Great Forest in Scotland, approaches an Abbey (Orlando Furioso) by Gustave Doré

[oldpaintings]

Cathédrale et décombres nocturnes by Gustave Fraipont (Belgian-born French, 1849--1923) 

[charnel-grounds]

Skeleton of the Witch Ursula Kemp (c. 1525–1582) : “spikes had been driven through her body to hold her down in the grave, and to prevent her from haunting the parish.”

from ‘Supernatural in Cornwall’ by Michael Williams 1979

source

[retroreverbs]

The Ghost Hunter's Road Book by John Harries (1974 edition).