| Author | Message | ||
     John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
I know there's at least one fan of this author on RCMB (Hi Ally!). I'm currently working my way through the Tartarus Press collection of her supernatural work 'The Triumph of Night', and I was wondering: Can anyone enlighten me as to the ending of her story 'The Lady's Maid's Bell'? I've read it twice now and I still have no idea what was meant to be going on. I've asked others who have read it in The Ninth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories but no-one seems to be any the wiser. So, can any of the more literary horror-minded individuals on here help out? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.15.37 |
It's easy. The psycho chops the guy's head off with a chainsaw and then licks the stump. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 80.4.12.3 |
And while you're at it, I'd be extremely grateful if you could explain to me the meaning of Shirley Jackson's story 'The Intoxicated'...? It's the first story in her recently republished collection The Lottery and Other Stories (Penguin Modern Classics) and it appears to be meaningless drivel. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 80.4.12.3 |
And what's so shocking or surprising about the story 'The Lottery' anyway? The ending was obvious from the opening paragraph. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.15.37 |
Sometimes the inevitable is shocking because it's inevitable. Guy de Maupassant showed us that quite a lot. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 80.4.12.3 |
Fair enough, Gary. But that's not really the kind of writing I like -- I prefer to be wrongfooted by the author. When I buy a book that's what I'm paying for -- to be outsmarted. Who was it who said that Guy de Maupassant was a realist who happened to be a lunatic (rather than a sane writer who wrote fantasy)? Anyway, this has nothing to do with Edith Wharton and I apologise for that... | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.170.165 |
Edith Wharton . . . I have a collection of her ghost stories I have not touched. Shame on me. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.167.70 |
Thomas, do touch the collection – but only appropriately. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.167.70 |
Rhys, I think the angry reactions to 'The Lottery' when it was published shows that many readers didn't see the ending coming. It's not always easy for polemical stories to 'outsmart' the reader, as the main goal is to make the reader connect the story to its basis in experience. I'm happier with directly polemical fiction than you are, I think. 'The Intoxicated' has to be read in context: I believe it was new to the collection when the latter first appeared (1949). It's about the impact of the Bomb on the younger generation. But in addition, the title is significant: the protagonist is drunk on alcohol, the girl is drunk on anxiety. There's the implication that she may become mentally ill, that her visions of future ruins will become an addiction that ruins her life. Jackson's great theme as a writer is female madness. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 80.4.12.3 |
Joel, I wish to thank you for that explanation of 'The Intoxicated'. What you say does actually give sense to a story I didn't "get" at all... | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
No answer to the Edith Wharton, then? | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.170.165 |
Joel: I shall wash my hands and wear soft white gloves like a character in "The Age of Innocence." | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Edith Wharton should be as venerated as M.R. James in the annals of supernatural fiction imho. Every one of her ghost stories, and I have all 18 of them, are perfectly flawless masterpieces of subtle, haunting terror that demand many repeat readings to get all their nuances. She was famously terrified of ghosts in real life and wrote the stories as a kind of mental exorcism... if she preempted the scariest scenarios happening by writing them out in black and white, then they couldn't possibly happen to her, could they? | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.5.235 |
John: I just re-read the story, and while I can't pretend to say authoritatively 'this is what's happening', here are a few thoughts: (CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD) I think that the ghost of Emma Saxon is still in the house, and still protecting/looking out for the mistress she loved, and who loved her (perhaps shades of a Rebecca/Mrs Danvers thing going on here?). Ranford and Mrs Brympton are, if not lovers, inclining that way. The note that Hartley takes to Ranford - that her mistress is so secretive about - is warning him to keep away because her husband has come home unexpectedly. When the ghost leads Hartley to Ranford's house, I believe that she is meaning for Hartley to pass along a message to him, warning him not to come to the house that night; or she is hoping that Ranford will remember the last time Hartley came to the house, and what the message was, and will take the hint. Mrs Brympton doesn't ring the bell anymore, when she wants the maid, because that summons Saxon, who was her devoted maid for twenty years, and who she knows is still looking out for her. On the two occasions when the bell does ring, I believe it's supernatural, and done because both times Mrs Brympton is under threat, and Saxon senses this; she means for the bell to be heard because while Saxon can make herself visible when necessary, that's all she can do, while Hartley can speak and physically interpose. The first time it rings Mr Brympton was in his wife's room, and I think was planning on being physically and/or sexually abusive (he also obviously saw Saxon, because he says to Hartley 'How many of you are there?'). The second time it happens, I believe that what was happening was that Mrs Brympton had an assignation with Ranford (she was still dressed, even though it was late; and earlier she had told Hartley that she would not be needing her for the rest of the evening). Her husband is supposed to be far away, sailing, but he has come home unexpectedly, possibly because he suspects something and is hoping to surprise his wife and catch her in the act. When he goes past his wife to the dressing-room and says 'I have to see a friend', the implication is that Ranford is in there, and Brympton knows it, and that it is only Emma Saxon's appearance in the doorway that prevents the husband going in and finding Ranford. At the end, when it is mention that Ranford is leaning on a stick when he walks, I believe the implication is that he had to leave the house in the dark and make his way home (a walk of two miles; he would not have risked bringing a carriage), and that he injured himself in the course of the walk. Hope this helps. . . . | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.205 |
What if ghosts can only see us and not each other? What if they're alone? What if - ulp! - they can't even see us? I'm scared of ghosts, too. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.104.142.59 |
I've been away in Manchester, John. I'll read the story again when I get a chance. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
Barbara that's very helpful - thank you! (I might actually have picked up on that if I'd been reading the stories in order in the Tartarus book as the one before it, 'The Duchess at Prayer', is a more subtle, but no less unpleasant, tale of an affair in the style of Honore de Balzac's La Grande Breteche and I may have been 'primed' for more extramartial shenanigans!) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Barbara, part of me wants to give you a big kiss for finally (sort of) explaining the central mystery of 'The Lady's Maid's Bell' and part of me is very upset with you for de-mystifying (sort of) one of my all-time favourite ghost stories.  | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.5.235 |
John: Glad I could help! Stevie: thanks! I think. . . . | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
It was a compliment lol. I'm about to re-read it, yet again, with your brilliant analysis in mind. Thanks. |