Arthur Machen's "The recluse of Bayswater"

[Kyriakos]

The Recluse of Bayswater is one of the shorter 'novels' which make up a larger novel, "the three Impostors". However each novel is written in a way that it can be read as stand-alone. Although there exists at least one more such smaller novel inside the Three Impostors which is of significant value, "The Black seal", in my view "The recluse of Bayswater" is one of Machen's most impressive stories, and thus one of the main stories of the 'literature of the weird'.
The story has one central part, titled "the novel of the white powder", which again is standalone, although the Recluse of Bayswater is only a few pages larger than the White Powder segment. The story- which i am translating these days- is about two siblings in Bayswater (a part of London) one of which faced a horrible fate due to a white powder that was prescribed to it as medicine, but in reality it was something very different than what it was supposed to have been.
I wouldnt want to reveal what is the plot of the story, since it is worth reading, so i will just note than my view is that this is one of the very few really artistic short stories of the literature of horror.
It doesnt suffer from some of the ussual problems Machen has (many characters, unrealistic plot twists and needless maximalism in plots), the characters are few (four in total, but one of them is the person to whom the story is narrated to, and the other is the original narrator - the book is written as the recollections of the first person) and although their background is a bit sketchy, it doesnt seem fake.

The story gains its strength undoubtably from the very impressive storyline, ie the horrific fate of the one sibling.

Although some parts of the escalation- mostly before the actual escalation- appear to be a bit too mechanised (ie some progressions are just given as progressions in one or two lines; differences in states of mind of the one sibling are presented in only general descriptions) this too does not make the story suffer much, since the part of it that deals with the suffering which strikes the sibling is bigger in size that its sketchy built-up, and there we are given a good amount of detail, so in retrospect the sketchy beginning seems to fade away.

Along with "The White People" and "Inmost Light", this is in my oppinion the best of Machen. The White people are built-up in an entirely different way alltogether though, and are too a very interesting story, but they do not contain such a striking image as that which is to be found in The recluse of Bayswater

 

[Kyriakos]

By now i have completed almost 5/7ths of the translation, and also re-read the entire story. When i first read it, nearly nine years ago, i had not been familiar with the writing style of Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, and now i was very surprised to see that the Recluse of Bayswater is almost a copy of the mechanism found in J&H in regards to the letters that reveal significant parts of the plot, and also the rather sudden doom that collectively falls on all of the characters.
Whereas unlike in Jekyll & Hyde, in the Recluse of Basywater at least the two central characters (the Leicesters) are more believable, and alive, in regards to the rest of the people who make their appearence in the story it has to be said that they would easily find a place in that other novel, since they are sustained to a very basic form of existence by having a few lines describe them, or even just their professions. Some bursts of emotion can be guessed by the tone of those secondary characters, or by some general descriptions (for example the pharamcist is old, old-fashioned, easily scared, whereas the family doctor appears to be dismissive of fear and anxiety) but in total they seem to be more like puppets which move in rigid ways, and they are not evewn ever seen dancing in the background. Apart from the two main characters there is only a world of little detail to be found, something which becomes more obvious as the story progresses.
Whereas the first part of the story, with the interesting image of the "rain of blood", and the "stamp of black fire" is somewhat rich in its description of the Leicesters, and their life (albeit that too is a bit abrupt in its development; afterall the story describes what has happened in the course of more than one month, and does so only in 12 pages) the second part is full of Stevensonian mechanisms. The introduction of a final character, a friend of the family doctor, whose only purpose in the story is to write a letter with his remarks about the white powder, is a climax of that mechanism, but here again one tends to think that it is equally easy to just raise an eyebrow against the introduction of a new character as an epistolographer in the final two pages.
Still, the image of Mr. Leicester, with his black metamorphosis, is probably enough to save the story, and in my view in a way which is a bit more pleasant than that in which the Jekyll and Hyde novel is sustained by the oddity of its plot.

The story has many rooftops, and then many very plain and static points. The firey night, and the view of the stormy cloud and the blood-red rain, along with the more official climax of the discovery of Mr. Leicester in his final form, in his room, are two of them. The plain passages are many, mostly having to do with needless trips to the doctor's house and back, which do not further the plot, but make the story expand in its own time and space. But then again there is no realistic examination of why Mrs Leicester would wait for so long before seeking help, and on the other hand there is- more crucially perhaps- no detailed desciption of her emotions. The contrast between Mrs Leicester and Mr. Leicester is the most concrete as of its description, part of the short story, and perhaps if the image of the black fire was used in the second part as well the story would have benefited greatly.

Ofcourse all that does not matter to one who is reading the story for the first time. Anyone who has once read a story knows perfectly well that the first time he read it was the one in which the story made a bigger impression, since at that time it would present itself as a complete form that rises above the waves of anticipation of its reader, and slowly becomes more and more visible, until all parts of it have been seen.
I am still of the view that Machen, along with De Maupassant, E.T.A. Hoffman, Henry James, and H.P.Lovecraft are the main writers of the 'literature of the weird'

 

[Till]

Hmm you got me interested I'll give it a shot.
(The story can be found in pdf format here)

 

[Kyriakos]

Did you read it?

 

[Till]

I did. The writing style was very enjoyable. I just love the vocabulary of old English speaking authors. The story itself was good, but the pace was obviously not aimed at an contemporary reader.
Some parts could have done with a little trimming. Especially the part, where the chemist describes what he found out about the powder.
He goes on and on how he used to think the empiric method was infallible, and how events have changed his mind on that issue. It takes almost an entire page.

I find it way too verbose and philosophical. What was Machen trying to achieve here? Convince the reader of the existance of the supernatural? Describe how a man of science lost his faith?

If the former, then he is wasting his time. I wouldn't be reading his story, if i was unwilling to belive in the existance of the supernatural at least for the duration of the story.
If the later, then he should have given the chemist a more central role in his story or at least make him more interesting. All i really wanted to hear from the chemist was his opinion on the powder. I mean come on, he is an aquintance of the physician, who is a side character himself! I don't see how he deserves so much space.

Other than that i found the White Powder story to be very enjoyable. The fact that the characters are a bit colourless makes sense after one knows the truth about the story.

The plot twist was good, but i think it could have been even better, if Dyson had accepted the request for help from the lady. That would have opened up the way for a hide and seek game with the man with the glasses at which's end Dyson finds the diary.

The ending of the story is almost comical due to Dyson's matter-of-fact comment about the final scene. He really should have been a little more involved.

My favourite part of "The recluse of Bayswater" was the diary of the young man. It was enganging and didn't have any unnecessary elements. The other parts weren't bad at all, but could use some more work, in my opinion.

 

[Kyriakos]

I always regarded the story as pretty much finished up when Mr. Leicester is found on his room by the family doctor. The vinum Sabbati part is important, but a bit too superficial. Dyson's comment is rather silly, but that is after even the letters.

The three impostors have a very maximalistic form, and so i never got to reading all of the novel.