Reviews
“A View from a Hill” (1925)
Creators |
M. R. James (writer). |
Extent |
Read in 2017. |
Subject |
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Commentary |
The landscape focus of “A Neighbour’s Landmark” (1925) is combined here with a plot almost in the vein of “Herbert West—Reanimator” (1922) but less grotesque. Baxter with his alchemy and his “Borgia box” is practically a Lovecraft villain. A quick reference to Yog-Sothoth would not have looked out of place. Incidentally it is James’s best work. As in “The Picture in the House” (1921), there’s even a bicycle playing a role, although the implication that ghosts attack it is over the top. A bigger problem for the cosmicist reader is how entering a church breaks the looking glass; there’s a disappointing smugness in that superstition. Contrast “The Haunted Dolls’ House” (1925) where a conspicuously privileged point of view is produced from a miniature rather than a hill, and likewise haunted. |
References here: “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (1927). |
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