NOVELS.
THE EMPTY HOUSE.*
THE art of writing ghost stories, if it cannot be called a lost art, is at least one in regard to which the present generation are hardly in a position to utter the familiar Homeric vaunt at the expense of their predecessors. Judged by the test of Christmas numbers and magazines, the exploits of mid- Victorian authors need fear no comparison with modern exponents of the macabre and the cadaverous, with one or two exceptions, notably the late R. L. Stevenson and Mr. Machen, a writer whose command of diablerie is altogether unusual. Mr. W. W. Jacobs, again, to illustrate the truth of the proverb about extremes meeting, has diversified his addiction to mirth-provoking farce with occasional excursions into the realm of the supernatural, and given us in "The Monkey's Paw" a masterpiece in the genre of the uncanny. But when all is said and done, there has been no marked improvement in this branch of fiction since the days of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Joseph Sheridan Lefanu, in spite of the increasing zest with which investigations into psychical phenomena are now carried on. Perhaps the decline in the output and in the quality of ghost stories may be due to the very fact that these phenomena are now studied in a more scientific and serious manner, to the consequent prejudice of their purely artistic treatment. Anyhow, the result is that modern writers, when they do exploit the supernatural, are wont to force the note, and to rely unduly on horrible and grisly details, instead of diffusing an atmosphere of suspense and expectancy, which, as the best stories of Lefanu prove, is by far the most effective method of horrifying the reader. The name of Lefanu suggests a fact already illus- trated by the parallel case of Mr. Jacobs,—that a gift of humour, so far from proving a drawback, powerfully reinforces the equipment of the writer of ghost stories. Some of the very best examples of Lefanu's powers in this line are to be found in the miscellany called The Purcell Papers, alter- nating with such riotous extravaganzas as "Billy Malovrney's Taste of Love and Glory." Gloom is enhanced by the relief and contrast of an occasional gleam of sunshine, and the lack Of such relief is the chief drawback in this volume of weird tales which Mr. Algernon Blackwood has named after the first of the collection. There is plenty of variety in the surroundings, which range from a lonely island on one of the Canadian lakes to a seaside town on the South Coast of England, but the atmosphere is too uniformly sombre. Apparitions at the moment of death, the practice of necro- mancy, the re-enactment of murders by revenants, form the subject-matter of Mr. Blackwood's strictly " ghosty " stories, none of which are lacking in a certain scalp-raising suggestiveness. ' The horror of loneliness is well brought 'out in the tale of the haunted island, and the experiences of the inquisitive spinster who, in the interests of psychical research,
• The Empty House, and other Ghost Siories. By Algernon Blackwood- London: Eveleigh Nash. [6s.]
induced her nephew to keep vigil with her in a deserted house are not calculated to inspire imitation. Perhaps the most ingenious story is that called "A Suspicious Gift," in which a hideous nightmare is narrated so circumstantially that the awakening of the narrator is at once a surprise and a relief. As an essay in the horrific, "The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York" is the most blood- curdling thing in the book; but here Mr. Blackwood descends from the psychic plane, and relies unduly, to our way of thinking, on repulsive details. With two further criticisms we may conclude this notice of a book Which can be cordially commended to those who may wish for once in a way to sup full of horrors. The first is that the character of Shorthouse, who is the central figure in several of the stories, is a most unconvincing medley of strength and weakness; and the second, that it is hardly in accordance with the facts of life to represent almost all those who undergo the weird experiences related in these pages as going half way, or something more, to meet them.
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