Review of “The Captain of the Polestar” (1883)

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Arthur Conan Doyle (writer).

Read in 2017.

A decently subtle ghost story. I particularly like the incidental detail that Anglican services aboard are tolerated because the mostly-Scottish crew is mixed Catholic and Presbyterian, so that everyone is equally disadvantaged. The portrayal of the captain himself as a Byronic hero in relative control is pretty good.

References here: “Supernatural Horror in Literature” (1927).

text fiction