The Triumph of Death by H Russell Wakefield

The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast

Tony Walker

Science Fiction, Fiction, Drama

4.9 • 835 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is for Terry Illikainen. No commentar.y As an experiment, I will do the commentary as a separate post. In a sombre Elizabethan pile above Lake Windermere, the air is thick with more than just decay. Miss Prunella Pendleham, the last of a long line, watches her companion, Amelia, wither into a gaunt and listless shadow. Amelia is the sixth companion; three before her never left these walls alive. Amidst the rattle of mountain rain, thin, high screams echo through the stone-vaulted halls. Is it the onset of madness, or is the house reclaiming a brutal, hidden history? As the light fades, the only certainty is the tightening grip of a terror that will have its say. The Triumph of Death first appeared in The Arkham Sampler, Autumn 1949. It was later collected in Strayers from Sheol (1961) and The Best Ghost Stories of H. Russell Wakefield (1978). H. Russell Wakefield (1888--1964) was an English writer best known for his unsettling ghost stories. Drawing on clerical, military, and publishing-world experience, he brought a sharp psychological edge to the classic British supernatural tale. 📚 Buy my paperbacks here: https://books.by/tony-walker-books 🎙️ Buy my ebooks and audiobooks here: payhip.com/TheClassicGhostStoriesPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:59.0	The triumph of death by H. Russell Wakefield. This story is for Terry Illykinen.
1:10.0	Amelia, said Miss Prunella Pendleham,
1:12.8	I've received a most impertinent letter this morning.
1:16.3	Yes, Miss Pendleham, it's from some society,
1:21.0	and it has the insolence to suggest that this house is haunted by ghosts.
1:26.0	Now, you know that to be false, utterly false. Yes,
1:31.0	Miss Pendleham, said Amelia listlessly. Do I detect a hesitant note in your tone? You mean what you say,
1:39.1	I trust. Oh, yes, Miss Pendleham. Very well. Now, this society actually wished to send down an investigator to examine report on the house.
	...

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