On the surface, this is a conventional haunted house story: an unsuccessful writer moves into rooms in an otherwise empty house, in the hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend and his sanity are all destroyed in the process. The story can be read as narrating the gradual possession of the protagonist by a mysterious and possessive feminine spirit, or as a realistic description of a psychotic outbreak culminating in catatonia and murder, told from the sufferer's point of view. The precise description of the slow disintegration of the protagonist's mind is terrifying in either case.
Chilling Onions 
"The Beckoning Fair One" has become regarded as a classic 'ghost' story, and very deservedly so. Too many supernatural/ghost/horror stories end up focussing myopically on the details of the horror, which however well delineated still leans toward the boring. To be truly engaging and satisfying a story--even a horror story--needs to be about people. The very horror itself must relate to the human condition in an intelligible way. Oliver Onions knew that, and makes his famous story work precisely because of what it reveals about the dark potentials in seemingly upright people.
Occasionally Onions gets rather too verbose, making some readers rather impatient to get on with it. But I believe that Onions knew exactly what he was doing, and everything in the story serves a distinct and definite purpose. I can say about "The Beckoning Fair One" what I can say about only a few other horror tales I've ever read: that a point came in the story where the hair on the back of my neck literally stood on end, and chills rippled down my back. The fact that he built the mood and then brought in the scare so artfully that I never saw it coming, earns Onions a special place on my list of favorite 'ghostly' authors.
Creepy and Colossal!
I came across this title in David G. Hartwell's 'The Dark Descent' and thought it one of the best stories in that collection. It is the tale of a writer who becomes obsessed with the female ghost haunting the house he rents. He gradually loses contact with the world outside, including a woman who is his friend. The horror is subtle, slowly getting under your skin and building to a shocking climax. This book contains only this story, but for me the purchase was worth it.
beckoning fair, beckoning, fair, one
|
