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John Silence: The Classic of Supernatural Horror by Algernon Blackwood
01/02/2005 . Source: G.W. Thomas 
pub: Renaissance E-Books. 400 page e-book 22k. Price: $ 4.00 (US). ISBN: 1-58873-417-X. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.ebookad.com/eb.php3?ebookid=19660
Renaissance E-Books has a nice collection of older genre fiction including the recently re-issued tales of 'John Silence, Physician Extraordinaire'. Written in 1908 by the 'Ghost Man', Algernon Blackwood, 'John Silence' was an important milestone in the horror sub-genre of occult detectives. Despite that, it's still a fun read.
Occult detectives began in 1871 when J. Sheridan Le Fanu published his final and best collection of horror tales, 'In A Glass Darkly'. Le Fanu created a framing devise for the book of unrelated tales using a doctor who deals with weird cases. Dr. Martian Hesselius barely appears in the book but it started a craze.
John Silence wasn't the next occult detective but he was certainly one of the best-remembered. Blackwood took a leaf from Le Fanu's book. He had a collection of unrelated stories and wanted to connect them in some way. This he does by creating the odd doctor and investigator who leads in some of the stories but often shows up part way through others. Blackwood was a firm believer in spiritualism and based some of the story ideas on his own ghost-chasing.
'A Psychical Invasion' concerns a humour writer who is plagued by a ghost that makes him too gloomy to write. This story is perhaps Silence's most 'traditional' ghost-breaking episode. Like Flaxman Low, an earlier detective, Silence traces the solution to a haunted house and exorcises the troublesome spirit.
'Ancient Sorceries' is more typical of the rest of the book, a tale in which Silence appears at the end and rescues the narrator. Arthur Vezin stays a night in a strange French town where the inhabitants turn into cats. There is a great scene at the climax of the tale in which the narrator escapes.
'The Nemesis Of Fire' is a longish tale of an ancient Egyptian power that causes fires to spring up mysteriously on the estate of Colonel Wragge. This tale lags more than most of Blackwood's other tales because he includes too much background material, a vice a non-believer in spiritualism would not do. Like Arthur Conan Doyle at his worst with 'The Land Of Misr', believing in the spirits of horror fiction doesn't always improve it.
'Secret Worship' is a darkly funny tale about a visitor to the Black Forest who mistakenly gets caught up with a cult of devil worshippers. Of course, Silence is there at the end to rescue the tourist. The setting for this story is similar to that of Blackwood's classic 'The Willows', garnered from the author's extensive travels in Europe.
'Camp Of The Dog' is set in the Canadian woods, a place Blackwood knew a bit about. Though English, he spent much of his youth in the forests of Eastern Canada. Like his classic story 'The Wendigo', he uses the setting to great effect. In 'Camp Of The Dog', he employs a belief amongst spiritualist that werewolves were actually man afflicted by ectoplasmic energy. Silence shows up at the end of this one and saves the life of the French Canadian, Sangree. Manly Wade Wellman would use a similar idea in his Silver John novel, 'The Hanging Stones'.
The original collection John Silence contained six stories. Blackwood wrote one further adventure of the amazing doctor, 'A Victim Of Higher Space' (1914), perhaps his best tale. Unlike the earlier tales, Blackwood shows us Silence's inner sanctum and his assistant, Barker. The plot follows Silence's attempts to rescue a man named Mudge who has transcended dimensions. This tale has been added to this book, making it a complete John Silence collection.
This book is one of Blackwood's more readable. Some of the stories drag, especially 'Nemesis Of Fire' but Victorian fiction has a different pace than post-Pulp fiction. Blackwood, despite his Victorian stuffiness, does produce some genuine chills in these tales, but as M.R. James pointed out in his introduction to 'Madam Crowl's Ghost', the occult detective is at a disadvantage in this department. You know the detective will not die because he will be back in the next story. The fact that Blackwood can thrill us at all is a testament to his power as a horror writer.
G.W. Thomas
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