The Empty House

Empty House
One of my friends, who is also a fan of the horror genre, recommended checking out Algernon Blackwood's works. I've not read any of his works thus far but was assured that his works would delight a true fan of the genre. I bet my friend probably intended for me to check out one of his more famous novels but, for now, I managed to find a collection of short stories containing a number of his works. So far, so good. That's how I ended up reading The Empty House.

I came across this particular story in the short story collection called The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories. Since it is quite an old collection, it is hard to find the print versions of this book. On the plus side, it has passed into the Public Domain and thus, should be available on many online sites (e.g. Project Gutenberg).

Where plot is concerned, I must say the overall story was rather predictable. It is the tale of a young man and his aunt exploring an empty house. They do this in the hopes of confirming rumors about it being haunted. That's the basis of the entire plot and it ends with them discovering something rather unpleasant about the house. It was more a case of a horrid suspicion being confirmed as opposed to a Sixth Sense style revelation.

Having said that, I should add that the true appeal of the story is in Blackwood's writing style. I suspect that he is quite like Robert Rankin (or should I say it is vice versa?) where he can transform the most cliché or ordinary idea into something truly bizarre. Alright, so in Rankin's case, he adds in weird little tidbits and crazy ideas that create a new type of Alice in Wonderland.

Unlike him, Blackwood focuses on the storytelling tactics, Thus, he takes pains to create a scary atmosphere as well as setting a quiet pace for unfolding the plot. It is for this reason that a rather typical story about the weird little haunted house turned into a memorable read. In fact, I love the way he develops the mood throughout the story. Thus, the brave explorers feel like all houses are watching them as they trotted up to the empty house, a feeling that adds to their sense of fear. And then, as they wander around in the house, Blackwood starts to personify various objects in different rooms, making it seem as if they harbored malevolent feelings towards the intruders. It is this feeling of alienation coupled with a fear of making an ugly discovery that Blackwood banks on and promotes throughout the book. And he does this rather well as you end up, not so much curious about what they will find, but more fretting how they will deal with any such discovery.

Where characters are concerned, he spent more time developing the aunt's personality than the main protagonist. At first glance, this seems weird as you'd expect more attention to be paid to the latter. However, the focus on the aunt is a useful gimmick as she acts as a fear gauge of sorts. Thus, I kept thinking that the house can't be that bad as long as the little old lady is still making it through. Furthermore, I was relieved that she held out as long as she did because the nephew couldn't exactly flee the house with such a frail companion by his side. In this way, you felt a certain amount of tension, worrying a bit about her part in this exploration.