Review of “The Shadow in the Corner” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Halloween Countdown

Plot:

Wildheath Grange sits back from the road, the last remnants of a once-vast estate of the Bascom family. The house has a bad reputation among the locals in the nearby village of Holcroft, but it suits the current owner, Michael Bascom, a middle-aged bachelor who spends his days among his books in scientific reading. The only other occupants of the house are his two servants, Daniel Skegg and his wife.

One day, Skegg approaches the master and asks that he hire “a girl” to help his wife, who is getting on in years. Distracted, Bascom agrees but wants her kept out of his way. Skegg explains they’ll have to find someone outside the area because the villagers believe the Grange is haunted.

Bascom reacts with annoyance, but the reader learns that an ancestor of his lost most of the estate and then “destroyed himself” in the Grange.

What luck! Mrs. Skegg finds a girl who has just lost her father and is now homeless. She’ll whip her into shape. Skegg assigns her an attic room to sleep in. It’s the only one up there where the roof doesn’t leak, and it also happens to be where old Anthony Bascom destroyed himself. But what does that matter?

Sometime later, Bascom comes across the girl, Maria, and finds her visibly disturbed. He asks what is wrong. After some hesitation, she tells him she can’t sleep. Her room terrifies her.

He dismisses her; it’s all in her pretty little head.

…but the more he thinks about it, the more he wonders.

Thoughts:

This is a poignant tale, one that deals more with the most vulnerable of Victorian society than with ghosts. The common Victorian trope of a death by suicide leading to a restless spirit appears, but is not dwelt on. At the center of the story is the plight of the orphan girl, Maria. Through no fault of her own, she is cast into the world without friend or protector. She grieves for her father but never shows self-pity. Nor does she complain about the hard work that is now her lot in life. On the contrary, she expresses gratitude for being able to work.

Maria cannot defend herself. She is dependent on the goodwill of those around her and has no appeal should they choose to oppress her. If she makes too much of a nuisance of herself, those in authority could toss her out on her rear end. Her recourse lies in the workhouse, the world’s oldest profession, or starvation.

As science fiction would a century later, “ghost” stories sometimes addressed social issues in the late 19^th century. After all, the story isn’t advocating women’s rights or anything. It’s a ghost story, isn’t it?

While it’s sometimes a bit slow for 21st-century readers and can be a bit on the nose, I enjoyed this poignant tale.


Bio: Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) was associated with “sensation” fiction, a melodramatic genre from the latter half of the nineteenth century that often incorporated elements of crime and drama while drawing on Gothic and romantic traditions. Her most popular work is the novel, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), which was loosely based on a real-life event and involved unintentional bigamy and (presumably intentional) murder.

Braddon founded the monthly magazine Belgravia in 1866 and edited it until 1876. Concentrating on sensation fiction, Belgravia featured poems, short stories, and serialized novels.

After others purchased the magazine, Braddon was removed from the editorship, and Belgravia went on to bigger things, publishing works by Mark Twain, Thomas Hardy, and Arthur Conan Doyle. It folded in 1899.

Braddon and the married publisher John Maxwell lived together without scandal while his wife was confined to an asylum. They married when the wife died. One of their six children, William Babington Maxwell, became a novelist. He also served in World War I.


This story can be read here:

This story can be listened to here: (37:47)


Title: “The Shadow in the Corner”
Author: Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915)
First published: All the Year Round, 1879
Length: short story