Sibling rivalry can be a means of support but can also erupt into competitive traits of winners and losers.
In this literary instance dear listener, YOU are undoubtedly the recipient of this rivalry. Having said that these are not the usual stories to be told in polite company, no, extinguish that idea immediately. These three brothers (their sister seems far too nice to be in a volume such as this), seem to dwell with dark thoughts, in shadowed recesses and with literary creations that linger in the mind for more than a while. Curious then that these authors are not only brothers but sons of the Bishop of Canterbury, whose 4 surviving children, never married.
Edward Frederic, better known as E F Benson, a Cambridge alumni, was one of the most popular and coveted of the turn of the century authors, with a glorious way of creating soul-searing mayhem in the span of a few pages of a short story, as well as being a novelist, biographer, memoirist and archaeologist.
His brother, Arthur Christopher, also a Cambridge graduate, and better known perhaps as A C Benson in the essay, poetry and academic circles was as accomplished and fiendish.
The third Cambridge attending brother, Robert Hugh, and yes, better known as R H Benson, was a novelist across several genres and a short story writer who was also a Catholic priest. Perhaps that gave him an edge. Although not as well-known as his brothers it may be that the shadows he inhabited were a grand place to meet reprobates that are better known as the subject of scurrilous conversation rather than in the flesh.
Taken together this band of brothers have the literary chops to rise above most others in the ghost and horror veins of fictional literature. Well, we assume its fictional, don’t we?
01 - The Bensons - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction
02 - Mrs Amworth by E F Benson
03 - The Blood Eagle by R H Benson
04 - The Room in the Tower by E F Benson
05 - The Closed Window by A C Benson
06 - Caterpillars by E F Benson
(Tags : The Bensons - A Short Story Collection: An anthology from three heralded brothers who rose to literary prominence around the turn of the century. E. F. Benson Audiobook, E. F. Benson Audio CD )
