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Originally Posted by j. d. worthington  Interesting you've had that reaction. "Markheim" is, to my mind, the most "studied" of his tales of the supernatural; a bit too mechanical to be in the top rank. I say this despite HPL's high regard (at least, in SHiL) for the tale -- which may owe something to its thematic similarities to Poe's "William Wilson". |
It's been a while, but that rings a bell -- "studied," "mechanical." I had a lesser but similar reaction to portions of
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Though overall the novel worked quite well, there were portions during which I felt like the story was diagrammed, a bit too neatly black & white.
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"Thrawn Janet", in my opinion, is quite another matter; a true masterpiece in weird storytelling. True, the dialect is a bit thick for most modern readers, but it is well worth the effort (and if you've accustomed yourself to works with such heavy dialect it should be actually a lead-pipe cinch), and it does add tremendously to the eeriness of the effect....
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Maybe I'll try to tackle it sooner than later. I've been looking at Stevenson and debating about trying some more of his weird tales.
Thanks, J.D.
Randy M.