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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 5, Winter 1944-1945
Page 98
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98 FANTASY COMMENTATOR BARBEY D'AUREVILLY, Jules Amedee Bewitched New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1928, 276pp. 18cm. $2 (6/-). Further information: As L'ensorcelee, this novel was first published in France in 1854; included in the first edition was also an unrelated short story. Since then the novel has passed through several French editions, being reprinted in 1858, 1913, 1916, 1922 and 1932, as well as in the 1873 and 1889 sets of the author's collected works. In 1912 there appeared a de luxe edition, this being limited to 130 numbered copies and including M. Ray's water-color illustrations. Synoptic review: In Bewitched, a lone traveler is forced to cross a vast and lonely moor after nightfall. He first stops at a solitary inn at the moor's edge, meeting there a sinister personage who insists on accompanying him so that he will not lost his way traversing the trackless wastes. Gradually a dense fog closes around them, and the two seem almost to be in a world by themselves. The guide, a garrulous fellow, is particularly willing to talk about bandits of the region, and about robbery and murder in general. The traveler becomes more and more uneasy, and his suspicions are aroused when the guide's horse suddenly goes lame for no apparent reason. The fog becomes ever thicker, and finally the guide confesses that he has lost the way. The two wander about, until suddenly the stillness is broken by the sound of a clock striking midnight; this is followed by the measured tolling of a church bell. The traveler inquires fearfully what this bell is, and his guide, in reply, says it is that of the ruined church of Blanchelande, which had been destroyed during the revolution. For what mass can they be ringing? Why, a mass of the dead, in which all participants have been long deceased. And who conducts the mass? Why, the dead Abbe de la Croix-Jugan. Who is he? Why, he is one damned and plunged up to his middle in hell! These startling and matter-of-fact answers force the traveler to beg his guide to tell him the complete story of the evil abbe. Thereupon he unfolds a frightening and bloody tale of the civil war of the Chouans; of evil and diabolism; of the demoniac possession of beautiful Jeanne Le Hardouey and her uncontrollable lust for the Abbe de la Croix-Jugan. The novel reaches its powerful climax in the horrible fate of Jeanne, who is lynched by the enraged populace of the village. The abbe himself suffers grievous maiming---being shot at the altar by Jeanne's jealous husband---and is singled out finally for eternal damnation. Ever after, too, his spectre is doomed to celebrate at intervals his mass of the dead in the ruined church of Blanchelande. The atmosphere of evil in Bewitched is well maintained, and as a whole, the novel is vivid and highly dramatic. It is possibly even a trifle too dark in mood and too serious of purpose to please the average fantasy reader. However, to those who have perused a good deal of bizarre literature it will appear, I think, both distinctive and entertaining. Barbey d'Aurevilly is undoubtedly a writer of exceptional brilliance in the métier of the somber and blasphemous. He has been called the Walter Scott of Normandy, but I find him far more passionate in his phraseology than the great Sir Walter. There are intimations of Scott, to be sure, and also vague resemblances to the dark moods and descriptions of Thomas Hardy. However, the author is inescapably Galic in his style and outlook, and must be judged in that light. Frenchmen seem to have the unusual ablity to fuse the melodramatic elements of sex and violence---lust and blood---with the more outre aspects of diabolism and the supernatural. The result in Bewitched is a living, highly-colored amalgam that terrifies because of its striking reality and vitality. ---Matthew H. Onderdonk
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98 FANTASY COMMENTATOR BARBEY D'AUREVILLY, Jules Amedee Bewitched New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1928, 276pp. 18cm. $2 (6/-). Further information: As L'ensorcelee, this novel was first published in France in 1854; included in the first edition was also an unrelated short story. Since then the novel has passed through several French editions, being reprinted in 1858, 1913, 1916, 1922 and 1932, as well as in the 1873 and 1889 sets of the author's collected works. In 1912 there appeared a de luxe edition, this being limited to 130 numbered copies and including M. Ray's water-color illustrations. Synoptic review: In Bewitched, a lone traveler is forced to cross a vast and lonely moor after nightfall. He first stops at a solitary inn at the moor's edge, meeting there a sinister personage who insists on accompanying him so that he will not lost his way traversing the trackless wastes. Gradually a dense fog closes around them, and the two seem almost to be in a world by themselves. The guide, a garrulous fellow, is particularly willing to talk about bandits of the region, and about robbery and murder in general. The traveler becomes more and more uneasy, and his suspicions are aroused when the guide's horse suddenly goes lame for no apparent reason. The fog becomes ever thicker, and finally the guide confesses that he has lost the way. The two wander about, until suddenly the stillness is broken by the sound of a clock striking midnight; this is followed by the measured tolling of a church bell. The traveler inquires fearfully what this bell is, and his guide, in reply, says it is that of the ruined church of Blanchelande, which had been destroyed during the revolution. For what mass can they be ringing? Why, a mass of the dead, in which all participants have been long deceased. And who conducts the mass? Why, the dead Abbe de la Croix-Jugan. Who is he? Why, he is one damned and plunged up to his middle in hell! These startling and matter-of-fact answers force the traveler to beg his guide to tell him the complete story of the evil abbe. Thereupon he unfolds a frightening and bloody tale of the civil war of the Chouans; of evil and diabolism; of the demoniac possession of beautiful Jeanne Le Hardouey and her uncontrollable lust for the Abbe de la Croix-Jugan. The novel reaches its powerful climax in the horrible fate of Jeanne, who is lynched by the enraged populace of the village. The abbe himself suffers grievous maiming---being shot at the altar by Jeanne's jealous husband---and is singled out finally for eternal damnation. Ever after, too, his spectre is doomed to celebrate at intervals his mass of the dead in the ruined church of Blanchelande. The atmosphere of evil in Bewitched is well maintained, and as a whole, the novel is vivid and highly dramatic. It is possibly even a trifle too dark in mood and too serious of purpose to please the average fantasy reader. However, to those who have perused a good deal of bizarre literature it will appear, I think, both distinctive and entertaining. Barbey d'Aurevilly is undoubtedly a writer of exceptional brilliance in the métier of the somber and blasphemous. He has been called the Walter Scott of Normandy, but I find him far more passionate in his phraseology than the great Sir Walter. There are intimations of Scott, to be sure, and also vague resemblances to the dark moods and descriptions of Thomas Hardy. However, the author is inescapably Galic in his style and outlook, and must be judged in that light. Frenchmen seem to have the unusual ablity to fuse the melodramatic elements of sex and violence---lust and blood---with the more outre aspects of diabolism and the supernatural. The result in Bewitched is a living, highly-colored amalgam that terrifies because of its striking reality and vitality. ---Matthew H. Onderdonk
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