THEY RETURN AT EVENING eBook Herbert Russell Wakefield Barbara Roden
Download As PDF : THEY RETURN AT EVENING eBook Herbert Russell Wakefield Barbara Roden 
The decomposing ghost of a murdered wife; the spectre of a dog, which answers to the most terrifying of whistles; evil in the tradition of M. R. James's 'Casting the Runes', as a lawyer seeks to avenge the death of a friend . . . These, and many more, are the ghosts which H. R. Wakefield has set to haunt us in his first book of supernatural stories—a landmark collection first published in 1928.
Wakefield's ghost stories have been compared to those of M. R. James, but this is an over-simplification. Wakefield's particular brand of terror is unique. But Wakefield agreed with James as to the need for malevolence, as shown by this wording from the dust-wrapper of the book's first edition 'The Author of "The Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" in the preface to one of his books expressed his lively distaste for benevolent ghosts, and ghosts with nice minds. The author profoundly agrees with this sentiment of the master, and, furthermore, he abominates the "natural" explanation, a poisonous anti-climax. So this much can be said for his tales, that those Who Return therein are animated by undiluted malevolence, and no iconoclastic materialist has been allowed to cast a doubt on their credentials as genuine apparitions.'
THEY RETURN AT EVENING eBook Herbert Russell Wakefield Barbara Roden
As other reviews and blurbs have said Wakefield is reminescent of M.R. James but (as a previous reviewer noted) a little harsher. He's a bit more contemporary with his own times so some of the references went over my head a bit. Like mentions of songs and other things of that nature. They don't usually have to do with the story proper so they do not detract from the great, creepy stories. My two particular favorites were 'The Red Lodge' and the Duncaster Hole one. I am surprised that I have not read any of them before. The introduction says that a few have been anthologized quite often and since I love horror anthologies (I love the variety in them) and own many I was surprised that none of them seemed familiar. The first I had heard about it was in Lovecraft's 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' essay. I'm so glad I did though.Much has been made about the misogyny of the author and apparent in his books but I found it to be no worse than much more modern works. So, unless you're EXTREMELY thin-skinned about remarks like that I find no reason to not enjoy them whole-heartedly. And if you are, well, I guess you'll be missing out on some great ghost stories.
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THEY RETURN AT EVENING eBook Herbert Russell Wakefield Barbara Roden Reviews
According to the poet-critic, John Betjeman "M. R. James is the greatest master of the ghost story. Henry James, Sheridan Le Fanu and H. Russell Wakefield are equal seconds." The supernatural creatures glimpsed in the pages of this book are quite equal in malevolence to any apparition haunting the works of M.R. James (MRJ). Barbara Roden, who has edited and introduced five volumes of H. R. Wakefield's supernatural fiction for Ash-Tree Press, says of this title "It is not, I think, an understatement to claim that H. R. Wakefield's 1928 collection "They Return at Evening" is one of the cornerstone works of supernatural fiction."
Readers may be offended by Wakefield's sometimes vicious misogyny and his casual jingoism, but his stories are still worth reading for the atavistic shivers that creep across our skin in the presence of pure supernatural evil.
The ten stories in this book
"That Dieth Not"--A baronet grows tired of his socialite wife and murders her. After a few happy weeks with his new bride, his first wife returns with a vengeance.
"Or Persons Unknown"--A butler who is suspected of killing his former employer tells a strange story of a hound that returns from the dead.
"'He Cometh and He Passeth By!'"--Wakefield based this story on MRJ's "Casting the Runes.' A rather weak young man dies a supernatural death after receiving a painted paper pattern, and his barrister friend vows revenge.
"Professor Pownall's Oversight"--Two brilliant students vie for the top prizes at school, then at Oxford. The more charming and physically perfect boy always comes in first. They meet again as adults in a chess match that will determine who is to be sent to Budapest to represent Great Britain in the championship games. In a sense, both of them go--or neither--depending on how you interpret the end of this story.
"The Third Coach"--A reverend in an insane asylum fantasizes about a train wreck that never happened.
"The Red Lodge"-- A family rents a summer house by a river and then learns that it is already inhabited by something that leaves patches of green slime on the floor, and in one memorable scene, on the narrator's face.
"'And He Shall Sing...'"--A printer is about to publish a book of poems when he learns of the real author.
"The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster"--Evidently Druids don't care for golfers.
"A Peg On Which To Hang--"--A hotel room is haunted by a suicide.
"An Echo"--A psychic witnesses a murder fifteen years past, and the question of whodunit is finally put to rest. More of a murder mystery than a ghost story.
Met my expectations
For a snobby, alcoholic misogynist (and he was undoubtedly all three) Wakefield wrote some damn fine stories...and quite a few of them are in this book. Granted that "He Cometh and He Passeth By" was a little disappointing after all the build up I'd read from others (It's an okay pastiche/homage of the superior "Casting The Runes"), most of the stories in this book are still well above average...and two of them...
"The Red Lodge" was genuinely and honestly creepy. Sitting on my porch and reading this one in the fading daylight had me jumping at every unexplained noise. A VERY evocative tale. And "The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster" came at me from out of the blue. I'd heard nothing about this story (The secretary of the Duncaster Golf Club begins to realize that cutting down those trees to alter the course of the 17th hole...was a bad idea.), and was very pleased with the chills it gave me. All in all...this was an excellent collection.
H. Russell Wakefield stands tall among the writers of the literary ghost story. His tales have something of M. R. James' influence in them, but they are grittier than James' stories; the entities and antagonists even more disturbing.
Most of Wakefield's output had been out of print for decades until Ash-Tree Press reprinted his work in the late `90s and early `00s in the form of exceptionally fine hardcover editions. Unfortunately, these were limited to small print runs, and most are now hard to find. Enter the eBook!
The edition of They Return at Evening works well. A table of contents links to the individual stories, and the original cover art from the Ash-Tree reprint is included.
If you appreciate creepy tales of vengeful ghosts and demons, They Return at Evening likely has something you'll (shudderingly) enjoy.
I absolutely enjoyed reading this book.
H.R. Wakefield was one of the best writers right up there with Sheridan LeFanu,
Algernoon Blackwood, Vincent O'Sullivan and A.M. Burrage.
It's too bad that when this great author that died of cancer in the late 1980's not even a word was said in the newspapers about his death & his invaluable contributions.
He deserved then, deserves now and for centuries to come the highest honor as one of the best writers whose stories ,any of us has the honor and pleasure to read.
Another forgotten author was the great Vincent O'Sullivan that at the end of his life in the 1940's died in obscurity in Paris , in extreme, extreme poverty and going hungry most of the time.
How sad! that these great writers were not given the place in literary history that they certainly deserved during their life time.
We should give them finally now their place .
As other reviews and blurbs have said Wakefield is reminescent of M.R. James but (as a previous reviewer noted) a little harsher. He's a bit more contemporary with his own times so some of the references went over my head a bit. Like mentions of songs and other things of that nature. They don't usually have to do with the story proper so they do not detract from the great, creepy stories. My two particular favorites were 'The Red Lodge' and the Duncaster Hole one. I am surprised that I have not read any of them before. The introduction says that a few have been anthologized quite often and since I love horror anthologies (I love the variety in them) and own many I was surprised that none of them seemed familiar. The first I had heard about it was in Lovecraft's 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' essay. I'm so glad I did though.
Much has been made about the misogyny of the author and apparent in his books but I found it to be no worse than much more modern works. So, unless you're EXTREMELY thin-skinned about remarks like that I find no reason to not enjoy them whole-heartedly. And if you are, well, I guess you'll be missing out on some great ghost stories.
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