Yesterday I provided a link to Richard Harris Barham's Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris, Doctor in Divinity and flagged it as the 35th best horror short story from 1800-1849 in my countdown of the Top 40. The Top 13 of which will be published in a book I edited that should be available in late March 2010.
The horror story was first published anonymously in Vol 29 of the 1831 edition of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Barham wrote in his diary: "My wife goes to bed at ten to rise at eight, and look after the children, and other matrimonial duties; I sit up till three in the morning working at rubbish for Blackwood -- she is the slave of the ring, and I of the lamp." A "Singular Passage" is not, however, rubbish. It is told by "Rev. T. S.," the friend and executor of Henry Harris's estate and contains a number of chilling passages. Consider the following passage when Mary begins to have supernatural experiences:
Turning hastily at the sound, she perceived Mary deadly pale, grasping, as it were convulsively, each arm of the chair which supported her, and bending forward in the attitude of listening : her lips were trembling and bloodless, cold drops of perspiration stood upon her forehead, and in an instant after, exclaiming in a piercing tone, ' Hark ! they are calling me again ! it is—it is the same voice ! Oh no ! no!—Oh my God! save me, Betsy, —hold me—save me !' she fell forwards upon the floor.
A surgeon rushes in and begins bloodletting, yet none will flow. Later Mary recovers, a victim of her lover's practice in the dark arts. Her recovery will not last for long.
Given one of the first instances of transmutation in a horror short story, a high level of writing and compelling plot, a "Singular Passage" is justly deserved as one of the best horror short stories from 1800-1849. It was later collected in The Ingoldsby Legends by Barham. I hope you enjoyed it and have a great Thanksgiving to readers in the U.S.
No comments:
Post a Comment