The Hand ♦ By Guy de Maupassant ♦ Supernatural Horror ♦ Full Audiobook

The Hand ♦ By Guy de Maupassant ♦ Supernatural Horror ♦ Full Audiobook



Title:  The Hand



Author:  Guy de Maupassant



Genre(s): Horror & Supernatural Fiction



Language: English



Read By:  Tony Scheinman



Librivox Recording



The Weird Circle (1943-45) aired "The Hand" on December 19, 1943 as the 17th of its 78 episodes. Weird Circle was produced and transcribed in the New York City studios of RCA with enough scripts for two seasons. According to Golden Age Radio historian Karl Schadow: "There were a total of 78 episodes but these were produced in blocks of 13 after the initial group of 26 episodes. Thus, there were not two distinct 39-episode seasons [editor's note: as some websites proclaim]. There were no 'seasons' for The Weird Circle as it was a transcribed series. It was licensed to individual sponsors, stations and ad agencies but not networks." It was then licensed for syndication to markets across the country and in Canada, to air at a time of each station's choosing. Thus, it has been almost impossible to trace the very first-ever airing of any given episode (and many were re-aired into the 1950s). This particular episode aired from WGN in Chicago, one of the Mutual Broadcasting System's powerhouse stations. Weird Circle is considered a fine example of the paranormal and supernatural horror genres. Most of the radio scripts were adapted from the works of Poe, de Balzac, Wilkie Collins, Goethe, Hawthorne, Charlotte Bronte, Daniel DeFoe and many others.



"The Hand" is a short story by French author Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893, photo top right). It is a rewrite of his 1875 story "The Flayed Hand" (written under the pseudonym of Joseph Prunier) and was first published in the December 23, 1883 issue of the French magazine Le Gaulois. Taking place on the Mediterranean island of Corsica (located south of France and west of Italy), it tells the skin-crawling story of one Sir John Rowell, an Englishman, who enjoys showing visitors to his home his trophy room, especially a certain mummified hand chained to one of the room's walls. He explains that it belonged to his worst enemy and that it is still alive and as long as it remains so, so will he remain alive. Visitors scoff at his statement that the hand is still alive...until they see it begin to move, straining against the chain holding it to the wall. The story, mostly by brief hint and innuendo, slides in black magic and East Indian influences to help set the creepy atmosphere, and the fine acting brings it all home. A suitably scary tale well adapted to radio, "The Hand" is another of the many fine tales wrought by the troubled De Maupassant. In January of 1892 he tried to kill himself by cutting his throat and was institutionalized, where he died in July of the following year, presumably from the dementia/madness brought on by the syphilis he contracted as a youth. Summary by Dave Truesdale



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