The Phantom Coach (1864)

                                 

                         A ghost story by  Amelia B Edwards (1831- 1892) 

 Born in London in  1831,Amelia B (Blandford) Edwards was a novelist, musician,journalist,poet, travel writer and a leading Egyptologist.  Her contribution in the latter field was particularly noteworthy, being a founder of The Egypt Exploration Society in 1882. Miss Edwards travelled in to Upper Egypt, and her book of  observations and illustrations were first  published as A Thousand Miles Up The Nile in 1877- and republished in 1982 and 1986. Her account of travels in The Dolomites - Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys (1872)  is not quite so highly regarded, but still highlighted a region that her readership was unlikely to have visited.

Miss Edwards was also a member of The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Knowledge and The Biblical Archaeology Society, and joined one of the first Women's Suffrage Societies. Once Miss Edwards settled in the Bristol area, she became a supporter of local Anti-Vivisection society. The 2022 biography looks at the diverse aspects of Miss Edwards' life with a helpful timeline JONES .For a more condensed biography please see LESKO .Miss Edwards also had several lesbian relationships which are acknowledged in these two sources and also in the Bristol Ourstories link below. 

Amelia B Edwards' novels have largely fallen out of favour though were relatively popular at the end of 19th century OLIPHANT. Other articles appear in prestigious magazines of the time. A bibliography can be found in LESKO . I am  a subscriber to Simon Stanhope's Bite Sized Audio Youtube Channel which has a fabulous range of short stories, largely crime or ghost related dating from Victorian/Edwardian times. Famous authors such as Dickens, Conan-Doyle, Chesterton, are featured, along with now 'forgotten' writers, such as Amelia B Edwards. 'Bite Sized Audio' has all six of her ghost stories available.

The Phantom Coach was published  by Charles Dickens in his capacity as editor of 'All The Year Round' magazine in 1864 for the Christmas issue : Miss Edwards was already a regular contributor to this magazine and several others. The Phantom Coach is suitably seasonal. Set twenty years previously one December, the tale concerns  a young chap, newly married, who has got himself lost 'on a bleak wide moor' in the north of England. Darkness was falling, and so was the snow. The narrator manages to cadge some supper at an isolated house owned by a bitter failed philosopher  with a surly servant, and prone to bouts of manic mysticism which mutates into occultism. The host advises that there is a mail coach due which would take him across the winter wilderness.... the miserable minion takes our man towards a crossroads. And informed him that nine years before a mail coach had tumbled from a road with some fatalities. The narrator successfully waves the coach down and boards it. Neither the driver or any of the occupants speak. He slowly becomes aware of the fact that the coach is reeking of decay and falling apart. Our man tries to engage with one of them :

"He moved his head slowly, and looked me in the face, without speaking a word. I shall never forget that look while I live. I turned cold at heart under it. I turn cold at heart even now when I recall it. His eyes glowed with a fiery unnatural lustre. His face was livid as the face of a corpse. His bloodless lips were drawn back as if in the agony of death, and showed the gleaming teeth between." 

The narrator realises that he is trapped in a speeding carriage that is about to crash, surrounded by those who had died already. The plot isn't unique when looking at the ghost story genre by any means but the tension is astonishing. And always interesting to note how whilst  the mid 19th century, generally viewed to be an age of progress and technology, could be haunted by the ghosts of the age it was leaving behind.

Other ghost stories from Miss Edwards that I can recommend include The Story of Salome. Set in Venice and is largely centred round Jewish-Christian relationships. Interesting subject in itself. The Four-Fifteen Express is part of the growing number of ghost stories relating to the new railway network. The idea of ghosts and/or timeslips somehow taking possession of the new technology emerges,which is a strong contrast to The Phantom Coach where it is a more archaic technology that is haunted. The Four-Fifteen Express can also be read as crime fiction. 

Picture acknowledgement 'Winter Landscape'  (1811)  Caspar David Friedrich , in the public domain, courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Links

Bite Sized Audio  The Phantom Coach read by Simon Stanhope. 

Bite Sized Audio Youtube channel   All six Amelia B Edwards Ghost Stories , read by Simon Stanhope 

The Phantom Coach  Published on line by Gutenberg 

Biography 

The only biography I can find is 'The Adventurous Life of Amelia B. Edwards: Egyptologist, Novelist, Activist' by Margaret C Jones, (Bloomsbury,2022) , also available via Kindle.

Texts 

Women Novelists by Mrs Oliphant   online via Gutenberg Project (Original title 'Woman Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign- A Book of Appreciations' )  contributions from Mrs. Alexander,E. Lynn Linton,Edna Lyall,Katharine S. Macquoid,Emma Marshall,Mrs. Oliphant,Louisa Parr,Adeline Sergeant,Charlotte M. Yonge    Originally published 1897, 

BREAKING GROUND-Women in Old World Archaelology  which links to Amelia Blandford Edwards 1831- 1892 by Barbara S. Lesko 

Amelia Edwards 1831- 1892 Bristol Ourstories blogpost 

A Thousand Miles Up the Nile  full text on line. via 'Gutenberg'. 

Other blogs

A Burnt Ship   17th century war and literature 

World War 2 poetry  Not been updated for a little for a while . 

For update news about this blog and related research, please consider following mrbleak5

Thank you to all visitors to this blog for your interest. 

Mr Bleak

Brighton, England, 23rd September 2023.