The horror book Ghost Story was written by American author Peter Straub. It was released on January 1st, 1979, by Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan, and it was turned into a 1981 horror movie without Lewis Benedict, the novel’s fifth protagonist. Being a national bestseller and solidifying Straub’s fame was a turning point in his career. In the terror-stricken village of Milburn, New York, four elderly men are being haunted by a youthful mistake they made. They are going to find out what happens to people who think they can cover up their crimes and get away with them.
1. “You know how when a woman gets angry, really angry, she can reach way back into herself and find rage enough to blow any man to pieces.” -Peter Straub
The author discusses the strength of a woman in this quote. People frequently underestimate women’s strength and how they can accomplish everything they set their minds to. However, women are not weak, and when they are angry, they are capable of doing anything, including tearing a man to pieces, to demonstrate their might.
2. “It didn’t have a real ending. It just slipped backward when other things happened.”-Peter Straub
The incident just slipped backward as other things started to happen, but it was not the end; it was just a break from the incident. However, fate does not forget the actions one has committed, it never pardons anyone, and it teaches a lesson to everyone. This quote is about the four men who taught that the incident ended when the murder happened as they moved on, but little did they know that the outcome was yet to come.
3. “The mind was a trap–it was a cage that slammed down over you.”-Peter Straub
The most-deadly trap is the one we build for ourselves minds. The mind was a trap. Sometimes you are in control of your thoughts, and other times they are in control of you. This is a terrible trap from which it is difficult to escape. It is similar to a cage from which it is very challenging to escape because we go so deeply into it that it is challenging to cope. Life is like a game of the mind, and you must know what game to play with it to prevent it from controlling you and enable you to triumph. There is no room to really experience life when one is confined by the mental framework.
4. “…nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.”-Peter Straub
This quote claims that no one can shield anyone from evil or the suffering they must endure because each person who enters this world bears responsibility for their own deeds. However, what you can do is be strong and not let these kinds of things affect you; instead, fight them and take lessons from them so that they do not happen again.
5. “In a Sufi fable, the elephant fell in love with a firefly and imagined that it shone for no other creature but he; and when it flew long distances away, he was confident that at the center of its light was the image of an elephant.”-Peter Straub
This quote talks about a Sufi story in which the elephant fell in love with a firefly and believed that it glowed only for him. When the firefly went far away, the elephant was certain that the elephant’s image was at the heart of the light. The quotation demonstrates the elephant’s desire that the firefly was in love with him. Even as it flew away, he hoped that the firefly would make a light that would reveal an image of the elephant. This demonstrates the trust and love that an elephant possesses as well as its belief in the power of love. It also demonstrates how the elephant believes that even when two people are separated by great distances, their love remains strong and does not fade away.
6. “Despite all this talk about imagination, we are implacably real.”-Peter Straub
This quotation shows that, despite the language about fantasy, even if we talk a lot about imagination and the things that are not real, we are real, and the things that occur in our lives are also real and not made up. The capacity for imagination is limitless. Even if our ability to experience some things is restricted by the organs we have, those organs do have some degree of plasticity. Opportunity will alter their focus and perhaps their range of operations. The imagination can occasionally be compared to an ostrich’s wigs. He was able to run but not fly, thanks to it. Because information is constrained, but imagination encompasses the entire world, imagination is regarded as being more valuable than knowledge.
7. “Inexplicable music that should have sounded joyful but was instead wound full of the darkness emotions, you know.”-Peter Straub
This quotation refers to the memories of the past that the four men in the story reflect upon, as well as the music of the past. The men felt that the music of the past should have sounded joyful, but instead, it was full of old memories filled with pain and wounds that bring darkness with the emotions of all the bad experiences they have faced in the past. When something bad occurs, everything begins to feel bad, filled with pain and hurt, so even the melodious music sounds depressing.
8. “It was the unhappy perception at the center of every ghost story.”-Peter Straub
According to this quote, every ghost story has a sorrowful central theme because something unexpectedly tragic is happening. Despite the title, there are no actual ghosts in Straub’s book. No, not in the sense that people typically use the word. No ethereal forms of the dearly departed are rattling chains or slipping through barriers. However, the characters are troubled. They are now haunted by recollections of a woman they knew fifty years ago—a beautiful, seductive, terrifying woman with whom they were all just a little bit in love. They thought they killed a woman accidentally. Unusual woman with human features. a lady who will seek vengeance and never show them mercy.
9. “He was particularly disgruntled to see what he had taken for a bundle of old rags on the tracks outside was a human body. He did not say “Not again” (what he said was “Shit on this”), but “Not again” was what he meant.”-Peter Straub
This quote describes when the men found out about the human body. Peter Barnes, a young man whose mother was murdered by these aliens’ servants. Formerly ordinary humans who have been given new life and powers. Joins Donald, Ricky, and Sears in their war. The survivors learn that Gregory and Fenny are helping Eva. In her endeavors after Sears is ambushed and killed in his car. They also learn that Gregory is the same as Greg Benton. The drug dealer Donald met in Berkeley. And that Fenny is Greg Benton’s disabled brother. Gregory is also the same as Robert Mobley’s New Orleans acquaintance Gregorio. Gregory reveals to them that Florence de Peyser assisted in his resurrection. And that Eva serves the de Peyser woman as well.
10. “It seemed that if you listened to that snow hissing long enough, you wouldn’t just hear it is telling you that it was waiting for you, you’d hear some terrible secret—a secret to turn your life black.”-Peter Straub
This quotation refers to “secrets from the snow,”. Which implies that the speaker is saying that in order to hear the deep, hidden secrets. One must first hear the hissing sound of the snow. Not only that, but it was yearning or waiting for you to arrive. Which implies that one must pay attention to the deep, dark secrets of the snow. And that when it snows, everyone is indoors. That snowfall also denotes the perilous. When it snows, the air is so calm that you can hear your own breathing. While listening to the hissing sound. You only truly realize you are living at that moment in time.
11. “And I found a statement by Hawthorne which helped to explain his method: “I have sometimes produced a singular and not unpleasing effect, so far as my own mind was concerned, by imagining a train of incidents in which the spiritual mechanism of the faery legend should be combined with the characters and manners of everyday life.”-Peter Straub
According to the quote, Christianity was characterized by its adherents’ urge. Toward nightmares and almost desire for them. This is the nightmarish example that was given. There is a quotation from Nathaniel Hawthorne. That described how he approached writing. Which states that I have sometimes produced a singular. And not unpleasing effect. So far as my own mind was concerned. By imagining a train of incidents in which the spiritual mechanism. Of the faery legend should be combined. With the characters and manners of everyday life.
12. “The day was a long bolt of gray cloth; endless.”-Peter Straub
A day is compared to a bolt of cloth in this quote. which refers to an endless day that is like a bolt of cloth. That seems endless and does not easily end. The narrator refers to the day as long. As the bolt of cloth and the color grey stands for something deep and dark. Something that is full of secrets. And that also seems endless and exhausting and does not easily end.