For example, some of his stories feature domineering women or women who, for no apparent reason, were the perpetuators of evil Joan Aiken's foreward explains that Benson had an 'underlying fear and dislike of. None of these tales are your garden variety ghost story - many, as Richard Dalby states in his introduction, have an 'autobiographical thread' that runs through them, an important notion to consider as you read. At 672 pages, this book became my leisurely go-to, late-night, under-the-covers read to be enjoyed once the house was quiet rather than a one-sitting kind of thing, and thinking back on it, I see a great deal of merit in approaching the book this way.There are 54 stories in this collection that encompass ghostly visitations, physical manifestations of evil, devil worship, revenge, vampires, spiritualism, and my perpetual favorite category in ghost stories, haunted houses.

Psalm 91(**) has some extra context around the quote in verse 5-7.ĥ You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day,Ħ Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.ħ A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.The blurb on the back of my copy of this book states that this edition is 'one book that no fan of Benson or of good storytelling can afford to miss.' Since this is a book of ghost stories, I'll add that this volume is a definite no-miss if you are a fan of the well-told, classic ghostly tale. It was more deadly to the soul than any pestilence that can only kill the body: it was the Thing, the Creature, the Business that trafficked in the outer Darkness, a minister of God’s wrath on the unrighteous. We should find it translated there, “ the pestilence that walketh in darkness,” which but feebly rendered the Latin. Below ran the legend “ Negotium perambulans in tenebris” from the ninety-first Psalm. That, so ran my uncle’s interpretation, was some evil agency, such as he had spoken about to us children, of almost infinite malignity and power, which could alone be combated by firm faith and a pure heart. In the entry stood the figure of a robed priest holding up a Cross, with which he faced a terrible creature like a gigantic slug, that reared itself up in front of him.

This fourth panel (he came down from his pulpit to trace its time-worn features) represented the lych-gate of the church-yard at Polearn itself, and indeed the resemblance when thus pointed out was remarkable. The title of this short story comes from a mistranslation(*) of part of Psalm 91.

Negotium Perambulans by E.F. Benson