SMALL SHADOWS CREEP

Another visitation of those insular but poised late 19th century English ghosts, but a distinguished gathering of its kind — featuring a simultaneously witty and terrifying confrontation with twin baby ghosts in E.F. Benson's "How Fear Departed From The Long Gallery," a truly nasty rural ritual in H.R. Wakefield's "The First Sheaf," and the farcical fidelity/betrayal of Eleanor Farjeon's "Faithful Jenny Dove." Perhaps these gentle shades and cerebral ghost layings will seem tame to the Exorcist generation, but as always the trappings — rare books, country houses — are magnificent and Norton's nose for suspense has led her to some first class examples of the genre.