Marley was dead, to begin with…

What better on a cold evening than to curl up with a classic tale of mystery and horror? Even the most cheerful holiday songs tell us “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories…” Spooky tales by the fire have been a winter’s tradition for time in memoriam, beginning as a Pagan tradition.  Over the centuries, the tradition has continued in many manifestations. Dickens visited upon Ebenezer Scrooge three spirits, the ghost of Hamlet’s father haunted the ramparts during Christmastide, J.M. Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson both spun ghostly winter yarns, and Poe – of course – sat his lonely characters before the fire on a midnight dreary. To continue this haunting tradition and as a nod to the on-going London Calling: Victorian Paintings from the Royal Holloway Collection, the Art/Books, Wine/Cheese Book Club will be reading the spine-tingling classic A House to Let by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter. Please join us on Wednesday December 15 at 6:30pm to discuss the novella. Busy that evening? Drop by the Jean Outland Chrysler Library Wednesday through Friday and leaf through favorite tales –scary and otherwise – by Charles Dickens, J. M. Barrie, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne and many more. Happy reading!

- SMR