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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 11, Summer 1946
Page 281
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 281 bed. And all the while the clock's ticking echoes louder and louder through the musty stillness. Can she brave the queer feeling in her throat, run back down the dim corridors to the hall below, and fumble for the front - door latch in the darkness? As the fear that she cannot assumes sickening certainty, a noise is heard.... It was very faint at first, and seemed to be coming from the stairs. It was a curious noise---not the noise of anyone climbing the stairs, but...of something hopping up...like a very big bird would hop. I heard it on the landing; it stopped. Then there was a curious scratching noise against one of the bedroom doors, the sort of noise you can make with the nail of your little finger scratching polished wood. Whatever it was, was coming slowly down the corridor, scratching at the doors as it went. Unable to bear the suspense, the woman opens the window, throws back the shutters, and manages to leap down tot he outside lawn unhurt. After running to the road she looks back, suddenly realizing that she has left the sash open behind her. But a single glance shows that it is now shut.... The chilly feeling that this imparts to the reader is exactly as potent as the ones produced by "The Bad Lands" of John Metcalfe and H. R. Wakefield's "Blind Man's Buff," as well as Harvey's own finest tale which will be cited later in detail. V The three stories to be found in the next group are more straightforward and conventional. In each case the ghost is actually seen, and plays an important role. One is aware of him from the outset in both "The Beast with Five Fingers" and "The Devil's Bridge"; in "Across the Moors" the revelation of his identity constitutes the tale's climax. "The Beast with Five Fingers" is probably too well known to require any paraphrasing here. It deals, of course, with the theme of a supernaturally animated hand which has been severed from the body of a dead man. Such subject-matter is by no means new: one can trace it back with certainty to La Main Enchantee (1855) of Gerard de Nerval, who claimed to have found the story in Bellefoust's Tragic Histories, considered one of the sources of Hamlet. Although Harvey's work lacks the sardonic humor which de Nerval employed so well, it is nevertheless more integrated and artistically finished than was his French predecessor's. Its main fault, perhaps, lies in the somewhat bland reaction this horrible entity inspires in those who view it; the characters in "The Beast with Five Fingers" never seem sufficiently awed by what to them, as materialists, should be a stark violation of the world's natural order. Apart from this, the tale warrents little criticism; it is well constructed, logically developed, and provides one with a pleasantly gruesome climax. So closely does "Across the Moors" follow the prosaic course of a Gothic ghost story that not even a surprise ending can rescue it from the limbo of the ordinary. The plot is simple: Returning home one evening by a lonely moor path, a governess meets a clergyman who is walking in her direction, and, glad of a travelling companion in the gathering darkness, accompanies him. In the ensuing conversation he tells her of an experience he once had in similar circumstances. While meditating upon a coming sermon, he met a ragged stranger who asked him the time; he answered, "Five to nine," seeing too late by the man's expression that the request had been a ruse.... "...without a word of warning he was upon me. I felt nothing. A flash of lightning ran down my spine.... For a minute I lay
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 281 bed. And all the while the clock's ticking echoes louder and louder through the musty stillness. Can she brave the queer feeling in her throat, run back down the dim corridors to the hall below, and fumble for the front - door latch in the darkness? As the fear that she cannot assumes sickening certainty, a noise is heard.... It was very faint at first, and seemed to be coming from the stairs. It was a curious noise---not the noise of anyone climbing the stairs, but...of something hopping up...like a very big bird would hop. I heard it on the landing; it stopped. Then there was a curious scratching noise against one of the bedroom doors, the sort of noise you can make with the nail of your little finger scratching polished wood. Whatever it was, was coming slowly down the corridor, scratching at the doors as it went. Unable to bear the suspense, the woman opens the window, throws back the shutters, and manages to leap down tot he outside lawn unhurt. After running to the road she looks back, suddenly realizing that she has left the sash open behind her. But a single glance shows that it is now shut.... The chilly feeling that this imparts to the reader is exactly as potent as the ones produced by "The Bad Lands" of John Metcalfe and H. R. Wakefield's "Blind Man's Buff," as well as Harvey's own finest tale which will be cited later in detail. V The three stories to be found in the next group are more straightforward and conventional. In each case the ghost is actually seen, and plays an important role. One is aware of him from the outset in both "The Beast with Five Fingers" and "The Devil's Bridge"; in "Across the Moors" the revelation of his identity constitutes the tale's climax. "The Beast with Five Fingers" is probably too well known to require any paraphrasing here. It deals, of course, with the theme of a supernaturally animated hand which has been severed from the body of a dead man. Such subject-matter is by no means new: one can trace it back with certainty to La Main Enchantee (1855) of Gerard de Nerval, who claimed to have found the story in Bellefoust's Tragic Histories, considered one of the sources of Hamlet. Although Harvey's work lacks the sardonic humor which de Nerval employed so well, it is nevertheless more integrated and artistically finished than was his French predecessor's. Its main fault, perhaps, lies in the somewhat bland reaction this horrible entity inspires in those who view it; the characters in "The Beast with Five Fingers" never seem sufficiently awed by what to them, as materialists, should be a stark violation of the world's natural order. Apart from this, the tale warrents little criticism; it is well constructed, logically developed, and provides one with a pleasantly gruesome climax. So closely does "Across the Moors" follow the prosaic course of a Gothic ghost story that not even a surprise ending can rescue it from the limbo of the ordinary. The plot is simple: Returning home one evening by a lonely moor path, a governess meets a clergyman who is walking in her direction, and, glad of a travelling companion in the gathering darkness, accompanies him. In the ensuing conversation he tells her of an experience he once had in similar circumstances. While meditating upon a coming sermon, he met a ragged stranger who asked him the time; he answered, "Five to nine," seeing too late by the man's expression that the request had been a ruse.... "...without a word of warning he was upon me. I felt nothing. A flash of lightning ran down my spine.... For a minute I lay
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