What Was It ♦ By Fitz-James O'Brien ♦ Supernatural Horror ♦ Full Audiobook

What Was It ♦ By Fitz-James O'Brien ♦ Supernatural Horror ♦ Full Audiobook



Famous Modern Ghost Stories



Title:  What Was It



Author:  Fitz-James O'Brien



Genre(s): Horror & Supernatural Fiction



Language: English



Read By:  Igor Teaforay



Librivox Recording



Most famous in O’Brien’s oeuvre is the following episode: “What Was It?” In the original publication (which we have included), references to opium and a stark ending brooding with uncertainty enhanced the Gothic aesthetic. While those were redacted in the secondary, more widely published, Victorian version of the tale (compare to the incorrigible censorship of Poe’s gruesome “Berenice”), all versions maintain a vigorous element of melancholy, otherworldliness, and mystery. As in “The Lost Room,” we are denied explanations and refused clarification. Unlike the tales thematic descendents – particularly H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man – there are no science fictional expositions to unwrap the grisly puzzle. The story invites comparisons to Machen’s The Great God Pan, Lovecraft’s “From Beyond,” and “The Music of Erich Zann,” Blackwood’s “The Willows,” and especially de Maupassant’s “The Horla,” and Bierce’s “The Damned Thing” (two direct descendents) – stories that wonder at the possibility that other worlds exist alongside ours, worlds terrifying, malignant, and awesome. Like Bierce’s compendium, “Strange Disappearances,” it reads like a newspaper clipping concerning a little-noticed, little-understood oddity which science has yet to explain. The weirdness of this writing style leaves the reader feeling insecure, confused, and vulnerable; we are used to clean-cut explanations, and while O’Brien’s withholding plot lost him the affection of critics in his own day, we may look back at his style as artistically brave and philosophically chilling. Summary by M. Grant Kellermeyer



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