Sunday, September 2, 2007

The Lamp by Agatha Christie

I'm delighted to have started reading for the R.I.P. II Challenge
yesterday by picking up House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, and even more delighted that it's already Sunday, so I could read an eerie short story for Short Story Sunday!

My first pick for this part of the challenge was "The Lamp" by Agatha Christie. To my knowledge, I've never read an Agatha Christie (short story or otherwise), so when I saw a selection by her in Witches' Brew I decided to give her a try. "The Lamp" is truly a short story, in that it is only 9 pages long and is a very quick read. My memories of reading short stories is that there is often hidden meaning and, while short, they are often quite complex. I found "The Lamp" to be simple and rather sweet. In the story, a very practical woman, Mrs. Lancaster ("...tall, with much dark brown hair just tinged with gray and rather cold blue eyes"), purchases a long-empty house said to be haunted by the ghost of a little boy who is often heard crying. Mrs. Lancaster moves into the home with her father and young son, and while Mrs. Lancaster is closed to the possibility of a haunting, her father and son are aware of the young ghost's presence and want to help him. I won't give any more away!

5 comments:

Carl V. Anderson said...

Sounds deliciously R.I.P.ping! I have yet to read Agatha Christie, although I love many of the characters in tv series based on her books. I think all the Lovecraft short stories I read yesterday were as short as this one of yours. No matter, you can get creepy stuff out of 9 pages quite easily!

Looking forward to your review of House of Leaves. I picked up a copy last year but have not been ambitious enough to start reading it.

Somer said...

I really hope I manage to finish House of Leaves during the challenge. It is not easy reading, by any means! So far, I'm finding it intriguing, though.

Marina said...

Didn't realize that Christie did "spooky" (even of the cozy flavor). Nice review!

Bookfool said...

Oh, that sounds so cool! And, I don't even like Agatha Christie (but it sounds different from her usual fare). I'll have to look for The Lamp. Thanks!

gautami tripathy said...

Hey, that was one book which is very different from her writings. I loved the stories. Any time!

Time to refresh it!