2 h 43 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if love refuses to stay buried, and a quiet cottage offers no shelter from the dead?
In Grim Tales, E. Nesbit brings ordinary people close to something terribly wrong. These seven short ghost and Gothic horror stories move through churches, old houses and lonely roads. The voice stays calm, the language stays plain, and familiar places become grounds for supernatural dread.
In Man-Size in Marble, newly married Laura settles into a country cottage while Mrs Pascoe fears a local church-tomb legend. John Charrington's Wedding brings May Forrest toward marriage with her proud, jealous fiancé. The Ebony Frame explores an object that holds the past. Across these tales, love and loss raise an uneasy question: what do the living owe the dead?
What you’ll discover
- A cottage under shadow Follow Laura into a quiet country home where Mrs Pascoe knows a troubling local legend.
- Love facing the uncanny Meet May Forrest and John Charrington as their bond faces a disturbing test.
- The past held close Explore The Ebony Frame, where an object carries the weight of old desires.
- A calm, creeping chill Discover how plain words and ordinary lives make room for dread without piled-up gore.
- Questions beyond the grave Consider what love owes the dead when loss refuses to remain safely in the past.
Who will love it
For readers who love short ghost stories, Victorian atmosphere and dark love tales, and anyone who knows Nesbit only from her children's books.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A children's author writes for the dark
- A stone knight and a quiet cottage
- A bridegroom who is not quite himself
- Haunted objects and old desires
- Love, loss and the dead who return
- How Nesbit builds a chill
Who’s who
- LauraA young newly married wife in Man-Size in Marble, cheerful and sensible, who moves with her husband into a cheap country cottage.
- Mrs PascoeThe housekeeper of the cottage in Man-Size in Marble, who knows the local legend of the church tomb and is uneasy as a certain night nears.
- May ForrestThe young bride in John Charrington's Wedding, who loves her passionate fiance and looks forward to their marriage.
- John CharringtonMay's proud and jealous fiance in John Charrington's Wedding, a man of strong feeling whose bond with her is put to a hard test.
Formats and delivery
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 43 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Contes sinistres
by E. Nesbit · 1893
A young married couple moves into a country cottage near a church where a legend of two marble knights stirs dread.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A children's author writes for the dark
E. Nesbit was a working writer who turned her hand to many kinds of story. In the early 1890s she was writing for magazines and needed to earn a living, and the ghost story sold well. Grim Tales gathers her tales of fear into one volume. They show a side of her that readers of her later children's classics may not expect.
The book belongs to a long English habit. Victorian readers loved to be frightened in comfort. Magazines printed ghost stories at Christmas, and families read them aloud. Nesbit knows this setting and writes for it. Her tales often open as if a friend were telling you something that really happened.
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What is Grim Tales by E. Nesbit about?
It is a collection of short ghost and horror stories first published in 1893. The tales deal with haunted places, returning dead, old legends and doomed love, all told in a plain, calm Victorian voice.
Is Grim Tales the same E. Nesbit who wrote The Railway Children?
Yes. Edith Nesbit is best known for children's books, but she also wrote adult fiction, including these ghost stories. The tone is much darker, though her clear and lively storytelling is the same.
What is the most famous story in Grim Tales?
Man-Size in Marble is the tale most often singled out. It tells of a young married couple in a country cottage and a local legend about two marble knights in a nearby church.
The author
E. Nesbit
1858–1924 · English children's writer and poet
Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) was an English author and poet who published as E. Nesbit. She was born in London and later lived in Kent. Her children’s books include The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Railway Children (1906).
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