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The Mist in the Mirror

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And for most of the book that's what happened to this reader. I settled down in bed with just the low glow of the bedside lamp and intended to just read until I got sleepy. And I finished the story before that ever happened... Rain on all the silent streets and squares, alleys and courts, gardens and churchyards and stone steps and nooks and crannies of the city. It felt like some of the 'creepy' scenes were there just as an effort to try to be 'creepy' rather than to play any actual part in the story, which made them feel forced. Intent on uncovering the secrets of his childhood hero, the mysterious Conrad Vane, he begins to investigate Vane’s life, but he finds himself warned off at every turn. Of course, part of that was the repetition. There's only so many times Monmouth can talk about how some landscape of England impressed him just as much as any of the farflung locations he spent his life visiting, or how he found England different, but comfortably so, from what he was used to, or how he found part of England vaguely familiar... so on and so forth.

I felt confused, teased by it - Kipps' confusion is demonstrated in his use of two verbs here, as if he cannot decide which word to use. And the ending, the denouement? Surely this must be terrifying, and possibly tragic, after all this suspense; these heightened feelings of paranoia? A nameless narrator opens the novel and shows his intrigue for a fellow club member named James Monmouth. It turns out Monmouth has a deep, dark secret that can be explained by reading his manuscript. The rest of the novel focuses on the retelling of this manuscript. Monmouth was orphaned at a young age and became a global traveler, enjoying the excitement of exotic locations.Okay--I would like someone to explain some things to me. First, why on earth is that mirror in Pyre (the home of the Quincebridges and NOT of Monmouth and certainly not any relation of that innkeeper at the beginning of the story)? Second, we basically know why Monmouth is haunted by the boy's ghost, the misty mirror and all the rest, but why would our narrator start seeing things in the mirror? Just because he read Sir James Monmoth's notebooks? I also wish we were given a clearer picture of how the boy is related to Sir James. Obviously, they're kin of some sort, but what sort? Is that all related to the death of Monmouth's parents? If not, what really happened there? And why did Conrad Vane curse all the Monmouth men? (And--apparently anyone interested in them if we take our narrator's final vision as a preview of things to come.) I loved it !I virtually inhaled it.In other words it's not very original but it's beautifully assembled.It doesn't really make a lot of sense and it's strictly for aficionados of the genre.

I settled into my chair, turning off all the lights save for one shaded lamp beside me. I suppose that I intended to read for an hour at most, expecting drowsiness to overtake me again, but I became so engrossed in the story that unfolded before me that I rapidly forgot all thought of the time, or my present surroundings. The moody countryside wanderings of an adventurer Hill ( A Question of Identity, 2013, etc.) sends on a glacially paced adventure in search of the truth about his hero. abruptly, his hand shot out and he clutched my arm. "I beg you," he said in a low, urgent voice, " read it." As Hill’s novel unfolds, psychological explanations are eventually ruled out as explanations for Monmouth’s visual and olfactory experiences, many of which are beautifully described. It’s a pity that Hill does not explore the psychological aspects more than she does, because Monmouth is really doubly haunted: metaphysically, he is plagued by ghosts; existentially, he is beset with alienation and a middle age crisis in meaning.Our story is framed by our unnamed narrator who sits and talks with Sir James Monmouth for a while at their club and then gets involved in an after-dinner ghost story fest. After the men break up their after-dinner chat, the narrator is joined by Sir James on his walk home. Sir James tells him that he'd like our man to read an account he's written up "of certain--events." He doesn't just ask him... But he soon begins to feel as though something is warning him away at every turn; there are the intense feelings of being watched and the strange apparitions of a sad little boy. This is told as a story within a story and I'm not sure that was entirely necessary or that it completely worked.

A chilling, classically-inspired ghost story from Susan Hill, our reigning mistress of spine-tingling fiction. All is impression, and hints. What is the mysterious mirror? Does it show the future, or or something else? Susan Hill’s superbly crafted work enthralls the reader with its atmosphere and description. She is a master of the understated, using spare language when that is all that is needed:I stepped inside, and stood, letting my eyes grow accustomed to the change of light. I found myself in a room that stretched far ahead of me into the gloom. But there was enough of the soft, snow-reflected light coming in through the tall windows for me to have a view of a gallery, that ran the whole way around, rising towards the vaulted and elaborately carved ceiling. I felt no fear, but rather a sense of awe, as if I had entered some church or chapel. All the while, Monmouth is haunted by images of a young boy following him around as well as crying in the night. He also comes across a strange mirror in a former abode of Vane's that instantly mists up when he tries to see into it. What unsettles Monmouth the most is when his own family name comes up in the research into Vane's past. It seems that his ancestors may have been linked in some way to Vane and that his curious urge to investigate Vane may have been preordained. Sir James spent his young life in Africa. Orphaned and largely alone in the world he began an obsessive exploration to discover the mysterious facets of renowned explorer, Conrad Vane’s, life. His search brought him home to England and there he is met with stonewalling, fear, and blatant disrespect when he makes the nature of his search known. It does, however, also bring him some of the answers he has been long looking for, along with many a strange occurrence and ghastly sighting. What started as a simple attempt to write a biography of his boyhood hero, the famous adventurer Conrad Vane, becomes increasingly strange, with a great sense of foreboding. Monmouth has many chances to abandon his quest for knowledge, but always refuses. The compulsion to learn more ever urges him onward, much as it does the reader, whose spine tingles as they learn more about Conrad Vane’s dreadful and nefarious secret. Gradually Monmouth learns that his life is bound together with that of his hero, in a way nobody could ever have imagined. Sir James Monmouth has spent many years travelling and now ventures to England. On arrival he feels like he is being watched by someone and as he continues on his travels he uncovers some dark secrets about his past.

Before long he realises he is being followed too. A pale, thin boy is haunting his every step but every time he tries to confront the boy he disappears. And what of the chilling scream and desperate sobbing only he can hear? We learn that Sir James Monmouth spent his childhood abroad, and as a young man travelled all over the globe, following in the footsteps of an earlier great pioneer, Conrad Vane. For the last twenty years Sir James Monmouth has become almost obsessed with both his quest, and Conrad Vane himself. Now he has returned to his family home in England, the remote Kittiscar Hall, which he cannot remember. He aims to research and trace Conrad Vane, having discovered that Conrad Vane’s life is inextricably entangled with his own. No one," he said, "wants to revive the memory or disturb the shade of Conrad Vane. No one will speak to you of him--no one who could possibly be of use to you. No one who knows. An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale. The Mist in the Mirror: A Ghost Story is a novel by Susan Hill. The novel is about a traveller called Sir James Monmouth and his pursuit of an explorer called Conrad Vane. [1] Summary [ edit ]Sir James Monmouth has spent most of his life travelling. After the death of his parents, he was raised by his guardian. Later, he arrives in England with the intention of discovering more about himself and his obsession with explorer Conrad Vane. Warned against following his trail, Sir James experiences some extraordinary happenings – who is the mysterious, sad little boy, and the old woman behind the curtain? And why is it that only he hears the chilling scream and the desperate sobbing? [2] Reception [ edit ] I still highly recommend Susan Hill’s work — it’s atmospheric, enthralling, and pitch-perfect. Read it for the mood and quality of the prose rather than waiting for the exciting plot revelations. The Mist in the Mirror has its flaws, but as with any Susan Hill novel it goes perfectly with a slow weekend of drizzling rain and several cups of tea. But the problem is we're told. We don't experience it, because, written as a sort of diary, he tells us how he was feeling without giving that level of detail which makes it feel present. Such carefully controlled mounting tension creates a feeling of an earlier time, perhaps the 19th century, when in most classic novels of English literature, fear was merely a suggestion in the mind. And it continues: Monmouth may be a British citizen, but a woman he meets on the train considers him “alone in a strange country”, takes pity on him, and invites him to spend Christmas with her husband and family. Monmouth too admits, “I was, I confess, still out of place in London and isolated too, without a home, family or friends… I needed a purpose, and exploration into the life of Vane was giving me one, for the time being.”

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