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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946

Page 214

214
FANTASY COMMENTATOR

FARRERE, Claude, pseud. (Charles Bargone) (1876-    )

The House of the Secret

New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. 234pp. 22 cm. $3.50

Further information: This novel was originally published in France in 1911 under the title La Maison des Hommes Vivants. The American first edition was limited to 1500 copies; it is an authorized translation by Arthur Livingston.

Synoptic review: Claude Farrere, well known in his native country for his prose writings, has but three of his exciting novels published in the United States. These are: Thomas the Lambkin, a tale of piracy; Useless Hands, a pseudoscientific romance of the future; and The House of the Secret, which we are at present concerned with. In addition to these, several of his short stories have been translated and published in America in the magazine Weird Tales.

In this novel, a young French officer, Captain Andre Narcy, becomes lost, while on an official mission, in the lonely uninhabited heath surrounding a chain of mountains east of Toulon. During the course of his blind wanderings he stumbles upon a lone house in the hidden recesses of a narrow ravine. In this house are three incredibly aged men who insist that he accept their hospitality until the next day. However, Captain Narcy soon discovers that it is not their intention to allow him to leave. He is told, amid an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere, of the fearful secret of the old men and of their unscrupulous devotion to the perpetuation of that secret.

This knowledge is revealed to Narcy in order to explain why his being permitted to reach the outside world would endanger the well-laid plans of many years. He resigns himself to death, but his captors are averse to murder. They prefer, instead, to hold him prisoner. But, knowing that a search would be made for the young officer, and fearing the discovery of their existence, they utilize their vast scientific knowledge to create an exact, synthetic likeness of Captain Narcy. This they send to its end by ordering it to commit suicide.

Here the story reaches its climax, for as the synthetic duplicate lies decomposing in the stream where it has drowned itself, certain flaws in the experiment, due either to accident or design, reveal themselves with terrific consequences to Narcy. The story ends soon after in a scene where pity and revulsion, pathos and horror, play equal roles.

An extraordinary and inventive plot such as this is enough to recommend The House of the Secret to all readers of horror and imaginative fiction. However, there are many other qualities in its favor.

The air of weirdness and terror is well and evenly maintained.

The method of narration, while perhaps awkward---that of a dying man setting down, during the last few hours of his life, the story of his experiences to warn mankind of a lurking menace---is yet very effective.

The book is compactly written. M. Farrere evidently realizes that endless detail and ramifications of plot in a horror story can have only a detrimental effect. At no point does the author deviate from the narrative thread and turn the reader's interest away from the central purpose---which is the creation of a mood of horror.

Altogether there are few adverse criticisms to be made of this novel. The only factor that materially detracts from the total effect is a tendency towards excessive melodrama and over-intensification of emotion. This trait---frequently present in French novels of the genre---is nevertheless not sufficiently in evidence to lower the quality of the book. It serves only to annoy the reader on occasion. A minor fault that might also be noted is an overabundance of coincidence in the early chapters.

---Maynard Soloman.

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214 FANTASY COMMENTATOR FARRERE, Claude, pseud. (Charles Bargone) (1876- ) The House of the Secret New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. 234pp. 22 cm. $3.50 Further information: This novel was originally published in France in 1911 under the title La Maison des Hommes Vivants. The American first edition was limited to 1500 copies; it is an authorized translation by Arthur Livingston. Synoptic review: Claude Farrere, well known in his native country for his prose writings, has but three of his exciting novels published in the United States. These are: Thomas the Lambkin, a tale of piracy; Useless Hands, a pseudoscientific romance of the future; and The House of the Secret, which we are at present concerned with. In addition to these, several of his short stories have been translated and published in America in the magazine Weird Tales. In this novel, a young French officer, Captain Andre Narcy, becomes lost, while on an official mission, in the lonely uninhabited heath surrounding a chain of mountains east of Toulon. During the course of his blind wanderings he stumbles upon a lone house in the hidden recesses of a narrow ravine. In this house are three incredibly aged men who insist that he accept their hospitality until the next day. However, Captain Narcy soon discovers that it is not their intention to allow him to leave. He is told, amid an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere, of the fearful secret of the old men and of their unscrupulous devotion to the perpetuation of that secret. This knowledge is revealed to Narcy in order to explain why his being permitted to reach the outside world would endanger the well-laid plans of many years. He resigns himself to death, but his captors are averse to murder. They prefer, instead, to hold him prisoner. But, knowing that a search would be made for the young officer, and fearing the discovery of their existence, they utilize their vast scientific knowledge to create an exact, synthetic likeness of Captain Narcy. This they send to its end by ordering it to commit suicide. Here the story reaches its climax, for as the synthetic duplicate lies decomposing in the stream where it has drowned itself, certain flaws in the experiment, due either to accident or design, reveal themselves with terrific consequences to Narcy. The story ends soon after in a scene where pity and revulsion, pathos and horror, play equal roles. An extraordinary and inventive plot such as this is enough to recommend The House of the Secret to all readers of horror and imaginative fiction. However, there are many other qualities in its favor. The air of weirdness and terror is well and evenly maintained. The method of narration, while perhaps awkward---that of a dying man setting down, during the last few hours of his life, the story of his experiences to warn mankind of a lurking menace---is yet very effective. The book is compactly written. M. Farrere evidently realizes that endless detail and ramifications of plot in a horror story can have only a detrimental effect. At no point does the author deviate from the narrative thread and turn the reader's interest away from the central purpose---which is the creation of a mood of horror. Altogether there are few adverse criticisms to be made of this novel. The only factor that materially detracts from the total effect is a tendency towards excessive melodrama and over-intensification of emotion. This trait---frequently present in French novels of the genre---is nevertheless not sufficiently in evidence to lower the quality of the book. It serves only to annoy the reader on occasion. A minor fault that might also be noted is an overabundance of coincidence in the early chapters. ---Maynard Soloman.