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A review by joecam79
The Haunted House by Charles Dickens
3.0
Charles Dickens is often credited with having “invented” Christmas as we know it. This claim might be exaggerated (as is argued here), but one can hardly contest the fact that his “Christmas novels” are a major contribution not only to the literature of this feast, but also to what might be termed its “social iconography”. Works such as “A Christmas Carol” or “The Chimes” both fed and met the expectations of the periodical-reading public whilst tapping into the tradition of telling ghost stories during long December nights.
“The Haunted House” dates from 1859 and was published in Dickens’s weekly periodical 'All the Year Round'. It is a collective effort featuring contributions from several of Dickens’s friends and regular collaborators. Dickens himself acts as master of ceremonies and provides the frame-story, about a group of acquaintances who spend Christmas at an allegedly haunted house, with an agreement that they recount their experiences on Twelfth Night. Given the title and premise, one would be forgiven for expecting a supernatural work or even a prototype “Haunting of Hill House”. Alas, this is nothing of the sort. Many of the contributors either interpret “haunting” in a metaphorical sense or else merely use the ghost as a “prop” for a totally different sort of tale. Just to give an example, [a:Hesba Stretton|66559|Hesba Stretton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1386205566p2/66559.jpg] writes a moralistic love story whilst [a:George Augustus Sala|964877|George Augustus Sala|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1389721210p2/964877.jpg]’s narrator claims to have been visited by “the Ghost of the Ague”, prompting a rather tiresome slapstick piece about a wretch with an uncontrollable tremor.
This Hesperus Press edition includes a foreword by novelist and Dickens biographer [a:Peter Ackroyd|16881|Peter Ackroyd|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1232835556p2/16881.jpg]. He is decidedly lukewarm in his praise for this work, singling out only Dickens’s contributions for their quality. Even about these, he has some serious reservations which are, frankly, justified. Indeed, apart from the background narrative, Dickens contributes a strange and rather uncomfortable story about a group of infants at a school who decide to set up a harem. It is likely that Dickens meant to satirise a contemporary fad for “Orientalism”, but to a modern reader, his tale raises disturbing spectres of both paedophilia and (although Ackroyd does not specifically mention this) racism.
Ackroyd still considers the remaining chapters as inferior, and here I beg to differ. I must confess that, except when I’m in the mood for him, I tend to find Dickens’s prose heavy and his humour smug. In The Haunted House, for instance, I much preferred his friend [a:Wilkie Collins|4012|Wilkie Collins|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192222099p2/4012.jpg]’s rollicking seafaring tale or, despite its streak of melodrama, [a:Elizabeth Gaskell|1413437|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223499865p2/1413437.jpg]’s domestic tragedy about a son who disappoints his simple parents’ expectations. And yes, [a:Adelaide Ann Procter|14667489|Adelaide Ann Procter|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s “sacred legend in verse” (featuring a nun visited by the Virgin Mary) is over-written at times, but its Medieval setting and deliberate archaisms give it pleasant Pre-Raphaelite and Gothic overtones, not unlike Flaubert’s [b:The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller|6450340|The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller|Gustave Flaubert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348094971l/6450340._SY75_.jpg|3214483].
Still, a few ghostly scares would not have been amiss...
Visit: https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2019/12/The-haunted-house-Charles-Dickens.html
“The Haunted House” dates from 1859 and was published in Dickens’s weekly periodical 'All the Year Round'. It is a collective effort featuring contributions from several of Dickens’s friends and regular collaborators. Dickens himself acts as master of ceremonies and provides the frame-story, about a group of acquaintances who spend Christmas at an allegedly haunted house, with an agreement that they recount their experiences on Twelfth Night. Given the title and premise, one would be forgiven for expecting a supernatural work or even a prototype “Haunting of Hill House”. Alas, this is nothing of the sort. Many of the contributors either interpret “haunting” in a metaphorical sense or else merely use the ghost as a “prop” for a totally different sort of tale. Just to give an example, [a:Hesba Stretton|66559|Hesba Stretton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1386205566p2/66559.jpg] writes a moralistic love story whilst [a:George Augustus Sala|964877|George Augustus Sala|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1389721210p2/964877.jpg]’s narrator claims to have been visited by “the Ghost of the Ague”, prompting a rather tiresome slapstick piece about a wretch with an uncontrollable tremor.
This Hesperus Press edition includes a foreword by novelist and Dickens biographer [a:Peter Ackroyd|16881|Peter Ackroyd|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1232835556p2/16881.jpg]. He is decidedly lukewarm in his praise for this work, singling out only Dickens’s contributions for their quality. Even about these, he has some serious reservations which are, frankly, justified. Indeed, apart from the background narrative, Dickens contributes a strange and rather uncomfortable story about a group of infants at a school who decide to set up a harem. It is likely that Dickens meant to satirise a contemporary fad for “Orientalism”, but to a modern reader, his tale raises disturbing spectres of both paedophilia and (although Ackroyd does not specifically mention this) racism.
Ackroyd still considers the remaining chapters as inferior, and here I beg to differ. I must confess that, except when I’m in the mood for him, I tend to find Dickens’s prose heavy and his humour smug. In The Haunted House, for instance, I much preferred his friend [a:Wilkie Collins|4012|Wilkie Collins|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192222099p2/4012.jpg]’s rollicking seafaring tale or, despite its streak of melodrama, [a:Elizabeth Gaskell|1413437|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223499865p2/1413437.jpg]’s domestic tragedy about a son who disappoints his simple parents’ expectations. And yes, [a:Adelaide Ann Procter|14667489|Adelaide Ann Procter|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s “sacred legend in verse” (featuring a nun visited by the Virgin Mary) is over-written at times, but its Medieval setting and deliberate archaisms give it pleasant Pre-Raphaelite and Gothic overtones, not unlike Flaubert’s [b:The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller|6450340|The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller|Gustave Flaubert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348094971l/6450340._SY75_.jpg|3214483].
Still, a few ghostly scares would not have been amiss...
Visit: https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2019/12/The-haunted-house-Charles-Dickens.html