Visible and Invisible (1923) by E. F. Benson

Belated notes after the publication centenary

Readers unfamiliar with Visible and Invisible may prefer to read these notes only after reading the collection.

Time is a sort of tunnel through which we are accustomed to believe that we are traveling. There’s a roar in our ears and a darkness in our eyes which makes it seem real to us. But before we came into the tunnel we existed for ever in an infinite sunlight, and after we have got through it we shall exist in an infinite sunlight again. So why should we bother ourselves about the confusion and noise and darkness which only encompass us for a moment?”

“In the Tube” (1922)

"And the Dead Spake..." (1922)

Scientist Sir James Horton develops a device to hear the voices of the dead. The high point of the story, however: the narrator and Sir James comparing notes on Horton's new housekeeper.

            “Apart from the wonderful comfort of having a perfectly appointed and absolutely silent house,” he said, “I regard Mrs. Gabriel as a sort of insurance against my being murdered. If you had been tried for your life, you would take very especial care not to find yourself in suspicious proximity to a murdered body again: no more deaths in your house, if you could help it. Come through to my laboratory, and look at my little instance of life after death.”

“The Outcast” (1922)

Bertha Acres, a wealthy widow, is disliked by men, women, and domestic animals, including horses. Her husband killed himself. Attempting to relaunch herself on new ground, she moves into the Gatehouse, Tarleton.

            [Bertha Acres] turned to Madge.

  “And yet I have heard a ridiculous story that the house is supposed to be haunted,” she said. “If it is, it is surely haunted by delightful, contented spirits.”

  Dinner was over. Madge rose.

  “Come in very soon, Tony,” she said to me, “and let’s get to our bridge.”

  But her eyes said, “Don’t leave me long alone with her.”

  Charles turned briskly round when the door had shut.

  “An extremely interesting woman,” he said.

  “Very handsome,” said I.

  “Is she? I didn’t notice. Her mind, her spirit — that’s what intrigued me. What is she? What’s behind? Why did Fungus turn tail like that? Queer, too, about her finding the atmosphere of the Gate-house so tranquil. The late tenants, I remember, didn’t find that soothing touch about it!”

  “How do you account for that?” I asked.

  “There might be several explanations. You might say that the late tenants were fanciful, imaginative people, and that the present tenant is a sensible, matter-of-fact woman. Certainly she seemed to be.”

  “Or — —” I suggested.

  He laughed.

  “Well, you might say — mind, I don’t say so — but you might say that the — the spiritual tenants of the house find Mrs. Acres a congenial companion, and want to retain her. So they keep quiet, and don’t upset the cook’s nerves!”

In several stories Benson explores the descent of cursed bloodlines: an inherited if not reincarnated taint. Ms. Acres experiences before and after death make this one of his most powerful stories, and a great instance of the use of legitimate coincidence.

“The Horror-Horn” (1922)

Renowned Alpinist professor Ingram recounts to our narrator his chilling encounter with a primitive, monstrous creature on the Ungeheuerhorn. 

[....] next day I asked him why the peak was called the Horror-horn. He put the question off at first, and said that, like the Schreckhorn, its name was due to its precipices and falling stones; but when I pressed him further he acknowledged that there was a legend about it, which his father had told him. There were creatures, so it was supposed, that lived in its caves, things human in shape, and covered, except for the face and hands, with long black hair. They were dwarfs in size, four feet high or thereabouts, but of prodigious strength and agility, remnants of some wild primeval race. It seemed that they were still in an upward stage of evolution, or so I guessed, for the story ran that sometimes girls had been carried off by them, not as prey, and not for any such fate as for those captured by cannibals, but to be bred from. Young men also had been raped by them, to be mated with the females of their tribe. All this looked as if the creatures, as I said, were tending towards humanity. But naturally I did not believe a word of it, as applied to the conditions of the present day….

Ingram learns better. Years later, our narrator, Ingram's cousin, has a similar encounter.

Sexuality and the primitive are never far from the surface in Benson. “The Horror Horn” is a brilliantly articulated race-horror adventure, problematizing borderlines between myth and reality, beast and human..

“Machaon” (1923)

Plot: Our narrator's servant, Parkes, is diagnosed with a terminal illness. A séance with the medium Mrs. Forrest introduces a new control, who suggests a surprising treatment. 

Séances take many forms in E. F. Benson. Some harrow, others mock. Souls are sometimes redeemed, and at other times are found to be irredeemable. In Visible and Invisible we have, in addition to “Machaon,” séances in “The Gardener,” “Mr. Tilly's Séance,” “Inscrutable Decrees,” and “Roderick's Story.” Each occasion illuminates, though illumination and clarity are not 1:1.

“Negotium Perambulans” (1922)

“Negotium Perambulans” is a powerful story of time's passing, the good and dangerous spirits of place. It combines several themes that recur in Benson stories: the coming of age of a sickly boy whose strenuous doctor-imposed regimen is the making of him; the retired professional bachelor returning to beloved scenes of youth and home and discovering his old place is ready for him; the terrifying local legend; and, the artist lost to drink. 

The narrator returns to the isolated West Cornwall village of Polearn, where he spent his childhood. He becomes intrigued by the quarry-house, a place with a dark history, and its current inhabitant, the painter John Evans. 

“At the Farmhouse” (1923)

John Aylsford, consumed by hatred for his alcoholic and witchy wife, plots to kill her and burn down their farmhouse. 

“Inscrutable Decrees” (1923)

Sir Archibald Rorke shares the haunting story of his broken engagement with Sybil, a woman with extraordinary mediumistic powers. A seance suggests some mysteries of the afterlife.

“The Gardener” (1922)

The narrator and his friends experience unsettling events in a rented house, including an invisible presence and cryptic messages via automatic writing. They uncover the tragic story of a gardener who murdered his wife, leading to a chilling confrontation with the supernatural.

“Mr. Tilly's Séance” (1922)

Mr. Tilly, a spiritualist believer, is run over by a traction engine and finds himself on the "spiritual plane." He attends a seance at Mrs. Cumberbatch's, where he discovers her fraudulent practices and attempts to communicate with the living, leading to some droll interactions.

“Mrs. Amworth” (1922)

Mrs. Amworth, a charming widow, arrives in Maxley and becomes a beloved member of the community. But her presence coincides with a mysterious illness affecting the village's young men. “Mrs. Amworth” is an excellent compliment to Benson's non-supernatural Tilling stories.

“In the Tube” (1922)

[....] Time is a sort of tunnel through which we are accustomed to believe that we are traveling. There’s a roar in our ears and a darkness in our eyes which makes it seem real to us. But before we came into the tunnel we existed for ever in an infinite sunlight, and after we have got through it we shall exist in an infinite sunlight again. So why should we bother ourselves about the confusion and noise and darkness which only encompass us for a moment?”

Anthony Carling shares a series of unsettling encounters on the London tube, where he sees the apparition of a man who later commits suicide. The story allegorizes a subjective petty-bourgeois perspective on existence.

“Roderick's Story” (1923)

Roderick Cardew, facing a terminal illness, visits his friend's house, which holds a special significance for him due to a past love. It is a poignant, untypical take on the theme of a house haunted.

*   *   *

Visible and Invisible (1923) by E. F. Benson is a superbly written collection of supernatural stories.

While themes of guilt, remorse, and cross-purposes dominate, story content is nicely varied: from horror to sublimity to droll social comedy. 

Jay

29 July 2024