The final story in The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies and Grottoes brings us full circle, in a way. The narrator recalls arriving at a certain country house in 1937, and mentions the oppressive heat. The overall feel of the story is very traditional, and the characters might be the creations of E.F. Benson, L. P. Hartley, or Walter de la Mare.
Two former schoolmates have been reunited by chance, or so it seems. The protagonist Richard Murray never considered himself a friend of the somewhat effete Julian Sleat but accepts an invitation to visit his newly-acquired estate. The two men are interested in an obscure eighteenth-century composer, and Sleat has acquired some rare lost works by this Casimir Hoffner.
It transpires that another guest of Sleat, Simon Larch, a gifted but troubled young English composer, is seeking to recreate Hoffner's works in a folly within the grounds. There are some excellent passages in which Hoffner's obsession with the music of the spheres is explored. I love stories that take the cosmic and bring it down to earth, so to speak, and Rennie succeeds in doing this quite brilliantly. Larch's performance of Hoffner's sinister masterwork proves disastrous. Something is unleashed upon the world. The narrator barely survives to tell his tale.
Overall, this anthology is one of the most entertaining I've read in recent years. As always, editor Ro Pardoe has done a first-rate job of winnowing dozens (scores?) of submissions to offer the discerning bookworm a well-balanced and satisfying read.
No comments:
Post a Comment