Reviews
“Wailing Well” (1928)
Creators |
M. R. James (writer). |
Extent |
Read in 2017. |
Categorization |
Comedy horror. |
Subject |
An aside on the Scouts’ life-saving competition at Eton:
|
Commentary |
Pretty funny, and the only time that James actually bothers to illustrate how a villain–albeit a boy—actually behaves. The author otherwise keeps his notion of evil at such a remove that the inherent cartoonishness of it is less apparent. James’s final sentence gives it an amusing twist:
To top it off, this story is one of those where James gets into worldbuilding: It is established that the ghost/monster population of the Well keeps growing, that this is observable, that local authorities are aware of the problem, and that a motivated adult armed with axe and tinder can do no harm to the Well or its grove. |