Review of “The Screaming Skull” by F. Marion Crawford: Halloween Countdown

Plot:

Retired Captain Braddock has come to live in his late cousin Luke Pratt’s house. Cousin Luke was a doctor. His wife pre-deceased him. Their son was killed (in the Boer War?) in South Africa.

Braddock isn’t nervous—so he keeps telling his unnamed houseguest, who is also an old sailor. He’s heard the skull scream often. Hear it now? A noise never hurt anyone.

While Luke and his wife were still alive, Braddock had dinner with them. They were joking, and he told them a story about a gruesome form of murder he’d heard about.

Mrs. Pratt died soon after.

Braddock was saddened when he heard about Mrs. Pratt’s passing. He never meant her any harm. She was a charming, friendly woman. Yet he doesn’t examine the matter too closely. Mrs. Pratt had a heart attack, right? Heart attacks are common enough.

The skull comes into his possession after his cousin’s death. It wants to stay in the best bedroom, in a particular bandbox. Is it Mrs. Pratt’s? Braddock is not positive. After all, the skull might be one Luke came across in his student days… right?

Thoughts:

Crawford borrows a device from Poe: the first-person narrator, who is not at all nervous or guilty about the nefarious goings-on, tells his story. He speaks to a friend, recalling their days on the sea. Braddock admits to his part in the tragedies, though he never bore anyone ill will. What’s the sense in examining the matter too closely? The skull hates him, and he knows it.

This is quite effective. The reader is taken into Braddock’s confidence—and creeped out. Is your cousin’s house that nice that you want to stay in it with a skull that screams? And uh, nunthin’ on yer conscience, is there?

The weirdness of the story builds. Without electricity, lamps go out at bad times and candles refuse to light.

I rather liked this gruesome little tale of vengeance biting one on the hind end.

An apparently forgettable movie by the same name came out loosely based on this story. From what little I’ve seen of it, one might surmise that Crawford didn’t come back from the grave and shriek himself is proof that the dead don’t come back.

Bio: F. (Francis) Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American novelist and short story writer who spent much of his adult life in his birthplace of Italy. He also lived in India and learned Sanskrit. His father, a sculptor, died while the writer was young. His family boasted of several writers, including his aunt, the abolitionist Julia Ward Howe. On his mother’s side, he descended from Revolutionary War officer Francis Marion, also called the Swamp Fox. Crawford’s writing was renowned for its vivid settings and characterizations. Though his novels are seldom read now, his supernatural and ghost short stories are still often anthologized


The story can be read here:

This story can be listened to here: (1:12:04)


Title: “The Screaming Skull”
Author: F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909)
First Published: Collier’s (serialized), July 1908
Length: novelette