Book Review: THE DARK FOREST by Hugh Walpole. *** and a 1\2 out of *****

The Dark Forest is considered by many one of Hugh Walpole’s best novels. On the surface, it’s easy to see why. It deals with the always relevant subject matter of the effects of war on life, society, and the human soul. Walpole, ever the sentimentalist, would seem to be the ideal choice to write a tear-jerker about life in the trenches of battle, in war-torn Russia during the First World War. But Walpole as a person and as an author, was hard to pin down, and his take on the anti-war novel is somewhat different than one would expect.

The book tells the story of John Durward and John Trenchard, two Englishmen who join a company of Russian doctors working on the Russian side of the Eastern Front during World War I. Durward, the narrator, is practical and open-minded, and is arguably a stand-in for Walpole himself, while Trenchard is a dreamy, clumsy, and naïve man, who Durward at first dislikes, then slowly starts to grow fond of, foibles and all.

Part war journal, part love-story between Trenchard and his enigmatic fiancé, Marie Ivanova, part meditation on the nature of friendship and sacrifice, The Dark Forest is one of Walpole’s darkest and least accessible books, at least during its first half, with Walpole indulging himself, with excessive detail and a too deliberate a pace. But once the myriad elements of psychological drama, harrowingly realistic war scenes, and Walpole’s mastery of setting and atmosphere, start to gel, the novel turns into something bordering on the sublime.

Although Walpole proves himself more than capable of depicting the grim reality of war, it’s not his main focus here, as he seems more interested in the psychology of his characters - especially Trenchard - and why they do the things they do. He delves into concepts of valor, motivation, and the effect of love, both romantic and platonic, on the unimaginative man. And as the story builds and the horror mounts, the book slowly transforms into a sort of existential dark dream that ends on a devastating note.

It’s not a perfect book, and, in my humble opinion, not even one of Walpole’s best, with the main character, Durward, coming off as cold and forgettable, and, as usual with Walpole, the psychology can get a little too simplistic and clumsy. But as is also usual with Walpole, there are passages, images, and truths that transcend time and place, and the writing is occasionally so heartfelt, so honest, that one has no option but to surrender to its beauty.

The Dark Forest is a flawed and fascinating book, and one which signaled Walpole’s growing fascination with Russia, about which he would write several books, all fueled by his harrowing experiences as a volunteer for the Russian Red Cross in the First World War.

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Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was 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. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer

THE DARK FANTASTIC'S BEST DISCOVERIES - 2021 EDITION

Books:

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1- THE VOICE OF THE NIGHT By Dean Koontz. : First published in 1980 under the pseudonym Brian Coffey, and later released under his own name in 1991, The Voice of The Night is one of Dean Koontz’s best, yet least known, novels. It is one of his most understated books, and his only coming-of-age tale. Read or listen to the full review here.

Book Review: FORTITUDE By Hugh Walpole. **** out of *****

Reading Hugh Walpole is a strange and wonderful thing. Sometimes he's brilliant (The Prelude to Adventure), sometimes he's good (Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill), and sometimes he's barely passable (Jeremy). Fortitude (1913), Walpole's homage to the works and styles of Dickens and Henry James, is nearer to brilliant on that spectrum.

It follows the life of one Peter Westcott, from his boyhood to the onset of middle-age, tracking his attempt at transcending a hard life, including a disturbed, abusive father, poverty, and, ultimately, succeeding as an author. The plot is layered, sprawling, even meandering at times, but Walpole is at his most ebullient here, driving vigorously onwards through a breakneck narrative, pulling the reader with him.

I guess it would be considered sacrilege to call Fortitude as good, or even better than, a lot of Dickens' coming of age tales, but Walpole comes close. He also attempts to mimic James' psychological mastery, but here, he doesn't really succeed, although his characters are interesting enough, some even fascinating. The protagonist, Peter Westcott is a flawed character if ever there was one, and in the hands of a lesser, and less humane, writer, he would have been thoroughly unlikable, but Walpole makes him not only compelling, but sympathetic as well.

Aside from the sheer storytelling joy of Fortitude, with its twists, turns, and occasional forays into hackneyed melodrama, Walpole is aiming for something more, something higher. Like in this exchange between Westcott, after the successful publication of his first novel, and Henry Galleon, arguably a thinly disguised surrogate for Walpole's idol, Henry James. Galleon says to  the young author: "Against all these temptations, against these voices of the World and the Flesh, against the glory of power and the swinging hammer of success, you, sitting quietly in your room, must remember that a great charge has been given you, that you are here for one thing and one thing only ... to listen..." The whole of Galleon's speech, is sublime, in fact; and sublime is what Walpole, in his own flawed way, achieves with this novel.

Fortitude is unputdownable, moving, sensational, unabashedly melodramatic, somber, and, in the most surprising of ways, uplifting. A great book that deserves to be rescued from the shadows of obscurity.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was 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

Book Review: THE PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE by Hugh Walpole *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Hugh Walpole (1844-1941) was a prolific writer with a readable, compelling style, but whose sensibilities were somewhat limited. Almost all his books feature tortured, alienated characters, Gothic atmospherics, and a cynical, often downbeat undertone.

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

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Book Review: MR. PERRIN AND MR. TRAILL By Hugh Walpole *** and a 1\2 out of *****

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Hugh Walpole's third novel, Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill (1911), considered by many, and by the author himself, to be his best work, is a strange, somber, meandering, and unforgettable piece of literature.

Revolving around a feud between two school masters in a public school in Edwardian England, the book starts out as a slow-burn social drama about the tedium and oppressive nature of everyday life in the public school system, depicting an affecting if not exactly compelling series of incidents that almost outstay their welcome. But then the book's tone shifts to something much darker and much more fascinating, as it focuses on one of the character's headlong dive into regret, rage, and, inevitably, madness. Here, the book, which flirts with Gothic undertones from the beginning, transforms into a disturbing psychological drama, with the screws tightening faster and faster, till the poignant ending.

Walpole's prose ranges from sublime to serviceable. It has been noted by several scholars and students of his work that Walpole was an unfussy writer, to a fault, writing quickly and seldom revising the first draft. The outcome of such a method does the novel a disservice to some extent, with the pacing of the book, especially in the first half, being too unsteady, and the tonal lurches are also a distraction. But by the second half the narrative threads coalesce into a satisfyingly unnerving whole, with scenes of psychological torment so vivid they push the book right to the edge of a Gothic horror story.

The book has two endings, the original one published in Britain, and a revised one for the later American editions. Both endings are interesting, yet each is problematic in its own way. The original ending, though melodramatic, is more effective, more poignant, and much darker. The revised ending is clumsy, heavy-handed, and borderline didactic, but its more hopeful tone might appeal to some readers.

Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill is a flawed piece of psychological fiction, with a cynical bent that can be hard to take at times. But, in the end, it is a novel that has stood the test of time, as there's emotional truth buried within its pages, and its depiction of a middle-aged man undergoing a calamitous transformation is harrowing and memorable. Recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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