Bird of Ill Omen: The Gothic Tales of Catherine Crowe

When morning broke, the ravages of this strange visitant were but too visible—graves had been opened, and the remains of the dead, frightfully torn and mutilated, lay scattered upon the earth.' A village is driven to a murderous frenzy by the wolf walking among them. In the moonlit chill of a monastery, a knife-wielding sleepwalker re-enacts a past tragedy. In Paris, officers edge towards a monstrous truth while investigating a spate of grisly grave-robbings. During the Victorian era, Catherine Crowe became a household name on par with Dickens for her innovative retellings of “true” ghost stories, in which she treated readers to glimpses of the “night side of nature”—until her reputation was tarnished following a public breakdown. Seeking to restore Crowe’s place in the canon of strange and ghostly fiction, Ruth Heholt presents some of her best tales of “real” phenomena, alongside her darker Gothic stories. Together, they demonstrate Crowe’s singular gifts as a master storyteller.