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b"Amelia B EdwardsBorn in 1831 in London and died in 1892 aged 60 in Weston Supermare at the seaside near Bristol. She was a novelist, traveller and enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist. Her mother was Irish and her father had been an officer in the British Army and then became a banker.\\xa0 She was married, but her emotional attachments were with women and she lived with and was apparently in love with Ellen Braysher, widow, and Ellen Byrne a school inspector\\u2019s wife.A Night on The Borders of the Black Forest was recommended by Nadia Astorga in May 2022This is the third story by Amelia B we\\u2019ve done, the other\\u2019s being The Phantom Coach and Salome. This is the first of hers that is less a ghost story (if fact not a ghost story at all) and more an adventure.\\xa0 The collection of stories is also entitled A Night On The Borders of the Black Forests and was published in 1890.For comparison Le Fanu\\u2019s Carmilla set in Styria in Austria was published in 1872 and Stoker\\u2019s Dracula was published in 1897. Elizabeth Gaskell\\u2019s The Grey Woman was published in 1861. It reminded me most of The Grey Woman because it is set in the border area of France and Germany at about the same period and there are brigands in the woods in both.It\\u2019s a definite nod to the Gothic but also a right rollicking adventure story and so reminds of The Grey Woman but also the Scottish set\\xa0 A Journey of Little Profit by John Buchan from 1896, because it is also a tale of wanderings on foot and George Borrow\\u2019s Wild Wales was published in 1862, which deals with supposedly true wanderings in the Wild.Mary Braddon\\u2019s The Cold Embrace and Hoffman\\u2019s The Sandman also have people tramping all over Germany and venturing into France and the Netherlands. It must have been busy on the roads.\\xa0Wordsworth had an edition of the Prelude out in 1850. This thrilling love for mountainous wild places titillated the middle class urban readers on a trivial level while Wordsworth was aiming for the spiritual, but each to their own indeed.The story structure: Neat. Enjoying the milieu as much as anything. The tramping over the countryside. On his own, meets up with Gustav, on to the village, the coach trip, wandering at night, the inn, suspicions mount.\\xa0 The innkeeper won\\u2019t drink the wine. It tastes bad. It smells funny as does the coffee.Burned! Why not set the dogs on them? Why not just poison them dead rather than drug them with a soporific?\\xa0 I think that\\u2019s a plot hole. And if they don\\u2019t sell the stuff they steal (it\\u2019s in the granary) what\\u2019s the point of murdering strangers? But a good read and nicely written, easy to narrate. A sprinkling of German terms for colour. Gustav shows too much interest in the slow-witted peasant girl Annchen for my liking. After all, he\\u2019s got a madchen at home.\\xa0 She won\\u2019t drink the wine either. The beer seems fine though. The landlord checks how much Gustav as drunk.\\xa0If You Appreciate The Work I\\u2019ve Put In HereYou could buy me a coffee\\xa0https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker (https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker)Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/barcud (https://www.patreon.com/barcud)And you can join my mailing list and get a\\xa0 free audiobook:\\xa0https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire (https://bit.ly/dalstonvampire)Music By The Heartwood Institutehttps://bit.ly/somecomeback*** (https://bit.ly/somecomeback***)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\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"