Towards the end of his life, the eccentric archaeologist, historian, architect, and collector Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) channeled his antiquarian interests and his love of Gothic literature into "November Night Tales" (1928), a volume of highly imaginative weird tales in the mode of M.R. James.
In "Castle Valley," unexpected consequences ensue when an artist gazes into an old crystal and sees visions of a Gothic castle. In "The Blackbirds," a flock of vultures may portend an ominous fate for a young man who has been warned that calamity will befall him on his birthday. "The Dolls'...