Episode 7: Man Sized in Marble by Edith Nesbit

The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast

Tony Walker

Science Fiction, Fiction, Drama

4.9 • 835 Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2019

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Edith NesbitEdith Nesbit was an English novelist born in 1858 in Kennington, which was then Surrey and is now part of London. She died in 1924 in the next county from where she was born.Nesbit is most famous for her children’s books and her most famous work The Railway Children is well beloved. I loved her Five Children and It stories which I read in a Victorian house all decked out for Christmas one year. That was splendid as the owner of the house had a great sense of interior decoration (though she was also rather too fond of a drink as I found out when I grew up)Like most Victorian novelists she had a dabble in ghost stories. They sold well at the time. This one, Man Sized in Marble appears in a lot of anthologies.It’s a story that is more impressive on the second reading (or hearing). The first time through you don’t pick up on all the little hints and foreshadowings that something dreadful is going to happen. In fact, Laura’s death wasn’t foreseen by me, which is the sign of a good story.There is a lot of nice Gothic description of the woods and the moon and the church as well as the house lit by candles and tallow tapers. I was going to do The Nurse’s Tale this week, but this took precedence. I am going to do The Phantom Coach next week, but I’m itching to do something American again to perfect my accent. I appreciate it may take more than one story to do that.So, I’m thinking Ambrose Bierce. Any suggestions welcome.My new book is out. Hard copies arrived today. Very exciting. I’m still doing voiceover and narration work if you need any of that done. I find most people don’t.As ever, still spending more on the podcast than I earn, so if you fancy helping me out, check outTo show your appreciation, why not subscribe to Substack. Free gets all the free stuff and $5 a month gets you all the exclusive stories and episodes.https://tonywalker.substack.com/ (Subscribe)Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-classic-ghost-stories-podcast--7002956/support.

*To buy my paperback books:* https://books.by/tony-walker-books

The Classic Ghost Stories Newsletter — short essays on the genre, odd discoveries, and recommendations. Free, fortnightly. Subscribe: https://www.classicghost.com/#/portal

To buy my ebooks and audiobooks: payhip.com/TheClassicGhostStoriesPodcast

Or, if you'd just like to make a one-off gesture of thanks for my work https://buymeacoffee.com/10mn8sk

*Intro and Outro Music by The Heartwood Institute* 🎼 https://bit.ly/somecomeback

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Man-sized in marble
0:26.9	by Edith Nesbit
0:29.4	Although every word of this story is as true as despair, I do not expect people to believe it.
0:37.7	Nowadays a rational explanation is required before belief is possible.
0:42.5	Let me then at once offer the rational explanation which finds most favour among those
0:47.2	who have heard the tale of my life's tragedy.
0:49.8	It is held that we were under a delusion, Laura and I on that 31st of October, and that
0:55.5	this supposition places the whole matter on a satisfactory and believable basis.
1:01.5	The reader can judge when he too has heard my story how far this is an explanation, and
1:07.6	in what sense it is rational.
1:10.3	There were three who took part in this, Laura and I and another man.
1:15.1	The other man still lives and can speak to the truth of the least credible part of my story.
1:21.1	I never in my life knew what it was to have as much money as I required to supply the most ordinary needs,
1:27.2	good colours, books,
1:28.4	and cab fares. And when we were married, we knew quite well that we should only be able
1:33.5	to live at all by strict punctuality and attention to business. I used to paint in those days,
1:40.8	and Laurie used to write, and we felt sure we could keep the pot at least simmering.
1:46.0	Living in town was out of the question, so we went to look for a cottage in the country,
1:50.5	which should be at once sanitary and picturesque.
1:54.4	So rarely do these two qualities meet in one cottage that our search was for some time
1:59.5	quite fruitless.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tony Walker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tony Walker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.