The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-04-16

and history rank ABOUT IN
- this order: Terror, Crime.
Sacrifice, Sin, Death, Love. Hap
piness and sadness are not included:
a narrative dealing with either or
both of these may have interest and
charm, but it requires something
more stirring than these undramatic
emotions to produce a big story.
For narrative use, Death and Love.
being common to all, are less valu-
able than Terror. Crime. Sacrifice,
Sin. Because Death can be linked so
dramatically with these four themes,
it has more value than Love. Pro-
found Terror is rarer than Crime,
Crime than Sacrifice. and Sacrifice
is rarer than Sin. AS in the ghost
story two. three or all six of the big
themes may be interviewer, and as
the writer's imagination is unlimited
by the bounds of even the possible,
the author has no wider field for his
creative powers. But he must ex-
press his creation with a talented
pen. else disappointment is sure to
follow.
In this article the stories dis
cussed will be gagged largely by the
one standard: Is the tale convinc-
ing? To use the formula of the dar-
ky preacher, ghost stories may be
divided into three classes: the Grim
or Horror, the Pleasant ghost-which
should be called the Spirit story
and the Humorous ghost. This lat
ter class will not be dealt with here.
Strangely enough. one of the older
ghost stories is seldom considered a
ghost story at all: in no book OF
ghost stories have found it listed.
Yet what could be more ghostly than
Washington Irving's crew of de-
parted mariners, with their kegs of
rum, their long pipes, rolling ten
pins up in the Kaaterskill Noun
tains. and putting the lovable Rip
Van Wrinkle to sleep for twenty
years! Though this story is liter
airy classic and more convincing than
other ghost stories of the period, it
gives place in collections OF the SUI
pernatural to his Spectre Bride
groom"
In any volume of ghost stories
having Great or Famous or Classic
affixed to the title, one is sure to find
Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia." At the
risk of being called an iconoclast.
say frankly that in my opinion this
Is not good story. No writer ever
gave the Importance to his stage
setting as did Poe (witness the OPEN
ing paragraphs OF that masterpiece
''The Fall of the House of fishery,
but in "Ligeia'' his effects are pro-
duced only after very apparent labor.
Besides this, the story is marred by
sentimentality. Describing Ligeia,
he uses:
I would in vain attempt to
portray the majesty. the quiet
ease of her demeanor, or the in
comprehensive lightness and
the elasticity of her football,
= the dear music Of her
low, sweet voice, as she placed
her marble hand upon my shoul-
der. examined the contour
of the lofty and pale forehead
it was faultless. the skin rival
ing the purest ivory. Here was
indeed the triumph Of all things
heavenly. the magnificent turn
OF the short upper lip. the soft,
voiuptuous slumber of the I'M
der, the teeth cleaning.
every ray of the holy light which
fell from them In her serene
and placid yet most exultingly
radiant of all smiles.
There is more, so much more in
this strain that it wearies by its ex-
trayagance But this is not the
greatest fault. When the soul of
Ligeia enters the body OF his dead
second wife and again and again
brings signs of life back to it you
simply don't believe it. Even so
great an artist as Poe has failed to
make the high spot of his story
convincing.
III.