“I could positively declare my heart did cease beating as I listened, looking out into the night with the shadow of that darkness projecting itself upon my mind” – The Uninhabited House (1875)
Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906)—who often published as “Mrs. J.H. Riddell”—was born in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. In 1855 she moved to London and began producing numerous popular novels, most of which are now out of print. However, it is for her Christmas ghost stories that she is still widely read. Many of her best ghostly fictions were collected in the landmark volume Weird Stories (1882), while her uncollected tales remain a staple of supernatural anthologies to this day. Though she experienced financial hardships later in life, Riddell was still well-regarded and received a pension from the Royal Literary Fund from 1900 until her passing six years later.
Novels and Collections
The Uninhabited House (1875)
The Haunted River (1877)
Weird Stories (1882)
Short Stories
“The Banshee’s Warning” (1867)
“A Strange Christmas Game” (1868)
“The Old House in Vauxhall Walk” (1882)
“Walnut-Tree House” (1882)
Find out more about Irish Writers of the Fantastic.
If you’re interested in learning more about Charlotte Riddell, you might like to check out Issue 9 of our journal, The Green Book. In “Hauntings and Haunted: Charlotte Riddell’s Weird Stories”, Mike Barrett gives a wonderful overview of Riddell’s supernatural writings. Supplementing Barrett’s essay is an indispensable checklist of Riddell’s ghostly fiction.
In the same issue, you’ll also find articles about Elizabeth Bowen, Shirley Jackson, Rosa Mulholland, Dorothy Macardle, and Caitlin R. Kiernan.
No Comments yet!