Review: THE GHOST, A MODERN FANTASY by Arnold Bennett

Original Publication Date: 1907

Genre: Gothic

Topics: Love, opera, coming of age, ghosts















 
Review by heidenkind:

Newly minted doctor of medicine, Carl Foster, visits a long-lost cousin who just happens to be friends with the owner of an opera house. While Carl and his cousin and his cousin's wife are enjoying an opera starring two of the greatest opera singers in the world–Signor Alresca and Rosetta Rosa–the primo uomo, Alresca, suffers a mysterious accident on stage and Carl is called on to care for him. As Alresca recovers, it becomes apparent that his malady is tied somehow to Rosa. Will Carl be able to save Alresca–and himself, now that he's fallen in love with Rosa?

The Ghost is another random Librivox find. It's a bit like Phantom of the Opera Lite: it's not as fun and delicious with the drama, but it's in the same wheelhouse. As a pure entertainment read, it was enjoyable, although the ending with the "ghost" part was seriously anticlimactic.

Our narrator, Carl, is a tough character not to like. When the story starts he's not very confident and, as we're reminded frequently, very young. The latter's an important point because it's the excuse for every stupid thing he does during the course of the novel. He's not TSTL, but after awhile one does start to notice a pattern with these things. Even so, he's smart enough and not judgmental or egotistical. Plus, he doesn't go into freak out mode when confronted with the strange and unusual–a useful skill to have in this book.

Then there's the glamorous world of the opera, which Arnold Bennett uses to infuse the story with a sense of mystery and danger. Opera also provides a great excuse for Carl to travel all over Europe, from Bruges to Paris to London to Italy. I think the traveling around and opera scenes were my favorite part of the book.

As for the female characters, I found them well-drawn with their own motivations. Not that The Ghost would pass the Bechdel Test or anything, but there is more than one female character. Huzzah! Naturally the star of the show (both literally and figuratively) is Rosa, who OF COURSE is a gorgeous, misunderstood prima donna with a captivating voice. I actually didn't find her that annoying, but the woman is obviously Bad News. Trouble follows her around like the worst cold in the history of mankind. First Alresca tumbles off the stage, then there's his long-running illness, train accidents, boat accidents, poisonings, etc. Danger, danger Will Robinson.

I also thought Rosa falling in love with Carl was a little too convenient–I mean, I get why Carl, an opera fanboi, would fall for a beautiful opera singer with the voice of an angel, but what's the appeal for her? She's used to hanging out with international men of mystery, which Carl is definitely not. Their relationship was the most obvious deus ex machina in the book.

Aside from that, though, I was really enjoying The Ghost until the last couple of chapters, when the eponymous ghost finally came to the forefront of the story instead of just lurking in the background menacingly. I wanted–and expected–something super creepy and scary. I didn't get it. The ghost, its so-called powers, and the manner in which it was got rid of were really lame and predictable. The conversation at the very end between Carl and Rosa was just odd.

That being said, for the most part I did like The Ghost. I'm glad I read it, even though I'll probably never reread it. Definitely a book for people who enjoy pulpy, vaguely gothic, old-timey novels with a bit of romance.




Download The Ghost, A Modern Fantasy by Arnold Bennett at Project Gutenberg|Librivox

Review: CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER by William Hope Hodgson

Original Publication Date: 1914 for the original collection; between 1910 and '12 for the individual short stories.

Genre: mystery

Topics: ghosts, supernatural
















Review:

Thomas Carnacki is a ghost expert--think Van Helsing, but with ghosts instead of vampires. Occasionally he shows up at a pub and tells this group of blokes about a particularly interesting--quote unquote--adventure, and then sends them on their way and they're like, "Wow, do we know that guy?" (Haha, I'm kidding. They do seem to know who he is. The framing was just got to me after a while.)

There are six short stories in this collection, and honestly the first three weren't that interesting to me. Carnacki isn't a particularly compelling character, and the ghost stories weren't creepy at all.

Also, when someone goes somewhere to investigate a haunting, and then it turns out to BE a haunting (!), that doesn't provide a lot of narrative tension or surprise. The stories in Carnacki the Ghost Finder reminded a bit of Hound of the Baskervilles (of which I am not a fan) but with less personality and no logical explanation. What are the rules of these spirits? What makes Carnacki more capable of getting of them than anyone else? I was considering bailing on this collection, but decided to stick with it for one more story. I'm glad I did because the second half of Carnacki the Ghost Finder was much better than the first.

My favorite story in the collection was "The Horse of the Invisible," which is a terrible title (all the titles are terrible). There were a lot of elements that made this particular story stand out to me: for one, the haunting itself was really interesting. It's tied to a family curse where every first-born female of the Higgins family is haunted and eventually killed by an invisible horse between the time she starts courting and the time she's married. Because there hasn't been a first-born daughter for seven generations, the Higginses consider the story merely a legend; but with their daughter Mary being tormented by "gobbling horse's neighs" in the night (which definitely sounds annoying), they're prepared to take it more seriously and call in Carnacki to help. Another thing I loved about "The Horse of the Invisible" is that this is the first story where Carnacki uses photography to help him solve the mystery. I have this thing about ghost photography; I find it fascinating even when it's clearly a hoax. William Hope Hodgson does a great job of describing the photographs Carnacki takes so that you can imagine exactly how creepy they are. And finally, the solution to this particular mystery isn't entirely supernatural. I approve of this.

I also really liked "The Searcher of the End House," because it was all about Carnacki living with his mom. Amazingly enough, it turns out Carnacki's house is haunted! But he didn't figure this out until his mom start bugging him. Detective, investigate thyself. This haunting was super-complicated and the solution was totally random--and also not entirely supernatural.

Carnacki the Ghost Finder isn't the greatest short story collection ever, but it has its moments. In the end I felt like it was worth listening to because of the strong finish.



You might also be interested in:
"Thomas Carnacki, King of the Supernatural Detectives," at The Guardian

Download Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson at Project Gutenberg|Librivox

Review: THE LOST STRADIVARIUS by John Meade Falkner

Original Publication Date: 1895

Genre: Gothic, epistolary

Topics: ghosts, evil, temptation

Proposed alternate title: The Devil Went Down to Oxford











Review:

John Maltravers is a respectable student at Oxford, until one day he and his V E R Y close friend, Mr. Gaskell, decide to play a Gagliarda, whatever that is. The melody calls up the ghost of a man who is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, and who just happened to have occupied John's rooms a century ago. When the ghost passes on his Stradivarius violin, John sells his soul to the devil to become the greatest fiddle player in all the land, and is soon ignoring his fiancee, familial responsibilities, growing out his hair, acting like a dick rock star, traipsing off to Naples at the drop of a hat, smoking the pot, and spending way too much quality time with nubile Italian boys.

The only reason I downloaded The Lost Stradivarius from Librivox was because a good portion of it is narrated by my man Ralph Snelson, whom I am stalking (only on Librivox, though, don't worry). As always, he does an excellent job. There was one chapter where I started crying because he conveyed the emotions of the narrator so well.

The story itself is narrated, not by Maltravers, but by his sister Sophia, in a letter to his son. Overall I thought John Meade Falkner did a really good job both in choosing Sophia as the narrator and fleshing out her character believably (even though I did have to wonder how she knew so many details about what went on in her brother's life when he was away from home). We need her to be the narrator because Maltravers becomes increasingly unsympathetic as the book goes on, and the story she tells is a thinly veiled metaphor about how she lost her brother to addiction. That's why I don't think of this as a "ghost story"--the ghost in question really has only a minimal amount to do with the central narrative. When Maltravers moves to Italy, the book takes on an unexpectedly Gothic flavor, with abandoned castles, skeletons, and murders mysterious.

SO WHAT, I'm still a rock star, I got my rock moves, and I don't neeeed youuuuu!

I was actually thinking The Lost Stradivarius was pretty good until the final chapter, which is an addendum by Mr. Gaskell, the "very intimate" university friend of Maltravers. There was some ethnocentrism, and paranoia about the undue influence of pagan (read: classical, read: homosexual) Italian culture on Our Susceptible Young People earlier in the book; but in Gaskell's note it was so over-the-top that I was literally LOLing. Falkner also added a bunch of extraneous plot elements in the final chapter, I have no idea why. Am I supposed to care about the ghost's murder and missing pages from his diary? BECAUSE I DON'T.

Still, even though I found the last chapter ridiculous and annoying, it's very zeitgeist-y in that it reflects the Symbolists' concern with art and beauty and overindulgence. I just wish it had been more subtle and not so much with the xenophobia.

The Lost Stradivarius is an interesting mixture of ghost story, Symbolist writing, and Gothic novel, and for the most part it works. I think it would be a great read around Halloween or for the RIP Challenge.


Find The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner on Project Gutenberg|Librivox|Gaslight