Inspired by Francis Thompson's haunting poem "The Hound of Heaven", The Prelude to Adventure (1912) features all of Walpole's signature ingredients, but what sets it apart is that, here, Walpole's main character is not lost, but found. Here, his lead character, a college student by the name of Olva Dune, a man who commits a murder in a moment of rage and then hears the voice of God calling him, is a man who has always felt out of step with the world until the moment of his crime, when he finds God, or rather, when God finds him. From there, the story focuses on Dune's struggle with that revelation, as well as his guilt and his fear of being unmasked as the killer. It's an unputdownable book written with surprising urgency by Walpole, who usually takes his time setting things up. It's also a successful cross-genre novel if ever there was one. It's a detective story, a Gothic tale, a spiritual meditation, and a love story all in one.
What makes the novel's effectiveness all the more surprising, is that its flaws are so apparent. Other than Dune and another character (Bunning, a lost soul who idolizes Dune), the rest of the cast are little more than sketches, and the plot progression and psychology are often clumsy. But work the novel does. It's a spellbinding book which aches with spiritual longing and the struggle to understand one's own darkness. No wonder Carl Jung praised it. It's a unique, fast-paced, moving story that ends on just the right note. Highly recommended.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.
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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer
