This Hallowe’en episode of Backlisted focusses on the collection of ‘uncanny’ stories by Henry James, first gathered together under the title The Altar of the Dead and Other Tales to form the seventeenth volume of the New York Edition of his Collected Works in 1917. We are joined, as ever, by our resident spook-master Andrew Male, and by acclaimed novelist and Henry James aficionado, Tessa Hadley. We each choose a story to present and read from - these are tackled in chronological order to better trace the evolution of James’s famously dense and challenging late style . Before that Andy confesses his admiration for I Used to Live Here Once, Miranda Seymour’s new biography of Jean Rhys and reads a short Jean Rhys ghost story, while John revisits Giving Up the Ghost, Hilary Mantel’s haunting (and haunted) memoir.

For avoidance of doubt, the ten stories collected in The Altar of the Dead & Other Stories are: ‘The Altar of the Dead’, ‘The Beast in the Jungle’, ‘The Birthplace’, ‘The Private Life’, ‘Owen Wingrave’, ‘The Friends of the Friends’, ‘Sir Edmund Orme’, ‘The Real Right Thing’, ‘The Jolly Corner’, ‘Julia Bride’. All but “Sir Edmund Orme’ are contained in volume two of the Everyman Classics edition of the Collected Stories.

Books mentioned:

Henry James - The Altar of the Dead & Other Tales (ebook); The Altar of the Dead & Other Tales (Online); Collected Stories (vol 2); The Turn of the Screw & Other Stories; What Maisie Knew; The Ambassadors; The Wings of a Dove; The Golden Bowl
Tessa Hadley - Henry James and the Imagination of Pleasure
Mirand Seymour - I Used to Live Here Once
Hilary Mantel - Giving Up the Ghost