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Saturday, September 1, 2018

More elements of a ghost story: The Woman in Black

More elements of a ghost story, as found in Susan Hill's The Woman in Black: Frame narrative prefereably in which people gather ina a remote setting to tell ghost stories; narrator who "doesn't believe in ghosts" but has his own story to tell; hint of tragedy and sorrow resulting from encounter w/ the supernatural; flashback to when narrator was young and naive and the beginning of the tale; narrator sent on a mission in which he will prove himself to his employer; ominous setting - thick, malicious fog enshrouds London; long journey in stages to an ever-more-remote destination; when he tells other travelers about his destination, they mysteriously fall silent; things look great upon arrival at his destination - e.g., nice accommodations, good food , friendly locals - but things turn for the worse; extreme difficulty in getting to the house where he must review legal papers, and it seems he will be stuck there overnight; observation of a strange woman - others either don't see her or won't talk about her; 2nd encounter w/ strange woman - who does not look like his expectation of a ghost - she looks like a troubled person from a past era; narrator ventures forth from the house and gets lost and confused; strange, inexplicable noises - like a child in terror; things look better in the a.m., of course, he narrator becomes over-confident - he can handle this situation on his own! Can he? There's still a lot to explain, to tie together, and a lot of convincing to do - but it's a powerful and fun narrative with. surprisingly, real literary style: The narrative voice is strong and confident, and there are terrific topographical and atmospheric descriptions throughout - she real cares about character and setting, as well as plot. Would that more practitioners of literary fiction did so.

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