Book Review: A SECOND COMING (1900) By Richard Marsh. *** and a 1\2 out of *****

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It is hard to imagine that A Second Coming (1900) by Richard Marsh, a heartfelt, thought-provoking, and haunting novel about the second coming of The Christ, was written by the same man who gave us the forgettable Gothic-Horror of The Beetle (1897). Where The Beetle was bland, tame, and crudely written, A Second Coming is philosophically challenging, often fiery, and even sporadically elegant.

Marsh takes a fascinating concept, the second coming of Jesus Christ in Victorian England, and uses it as a launching pad to tackle - with searing intelligence and compassion - hypocrisy, corruption, injustice, socialism, and the failure of organized religion. Christ, or The Stranger, as Marsh calls him in the book, arrives suddenly and quietly in London, and soon after, begins to perform one miracle after another, quickly gathering a few disciples. But his arrival, like the last time he came to Man, produces shock waves through British society, as The Stranger's actions and words challenge the way things are, highlighting the hypocrisy and cruelty at the heart of the modern world.

Marsh's take is passionate and angry. He takes Victorian society, and modern society in general, to task, showcasing the contradictory way many people view religion; the arrogance of religious hierarchy; and the anger and selfishness at the heart of almost all ideologies, especially socialism and anarchism, which Marsh skewers.

One wonders why this book, with its timeless philosophical musings and its focus on compassion, isn't more well-known. That's not to say that this is a great novel. It's not. Marsh's almost impressionistic descriptions are too sparse for their own good, with the writing often coming off as myopic, and his tendency to focus on dialogue, gives the book a stagy quality that can be unappealing to some readers. But the novel's strength lies in its readability, its passionate heart, and its affecting portrayal of The Stranger/Jesus Christ.

From its captivating opening chapter to its somber final scene, A Second Coming is an unforgettable, well-told tale, and more timely than ever. Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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

Classic Review: THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS by Bram Stoker (1903 edition) *** out of *****

Written by Bram Stoker, and considered one of the most influential supernatural thrillers of all time... No, it's not Dracula. It's The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), a dated and mostly stilted novel, but one which created the template for almost all subsequent stories that dealt with Egyptology and mummies.

The plot, about a band of men and one young woman in Victorian England who embark on an experiment to resurrect Queen Tera, a powerful Egyptian queen with otherworldly powers, is incoherent and at times painfully slow. But Stoker is a master of atmosphere, and his writings always have a fascinating obsession with the supernatural and the tensions between technology and superstition, religion and paganism, or as he describes it in the novel, "Powers, old and new". Despite its stagy nature, its two-dimensional characters, and its stiff dialogue, the story is compelling and has a doom-laden, eerie atmosphere, which culminates in an unforgettable and harrowing finale that was so upsetting to readers and critics upon its initial publication in 1903, that Stoker revised the novel for the 1912 edition, replacing the original finale with a nonsensical and impotent "happy ending".

The novel is now mostly remembered for its meticulous attention to detail in the sections dealing with Egyptology, its original central premise, and its harrowing ending. But it's not an easy read, as it features some of Stoker's most cluttered prose, and many chapters are repetitive and overlong. But for patient readers who like Victorian Gothic fiction and are interested in its development, it is worth the effort.

P.S. Most available editions are of the 1912 version, which should be avoided at all costs.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2020.

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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