Image of Evil - a Dell Gothic

This is a book I specifically hunted down because of the haunting cover.  The lone woman, standing in the swamp in her flowing white dress, with a dark mansion in the background - no light in an upper story window as so many Gothics are wont to do.  The greens and blacks setting the somber mood, the moss hanging from the trees, the moon barely visible in the sky.  To me, this cover screams creepy, and so I had to know if the story could match the horror of the cover art!  Took me a while to track down a copy at a reasonable price, but I finally managed to do so.  The book is written by Rosemary A. Crawford, and from all I can find, this appears to be the author's real name and this book appears to be the only Gothic I can find that she wrote!  If she did write any others, I would sure like to find them, especially if they are as good as this one turned out to be.

 

Image of Evil was first published by Dell in November 1971. The story is told in first-person, from the point-of-view of the main character, Susan (whose name is not actually stated in the book until page 15, when another character finally calls her by her name!), a twenty-three year old clothing designer from New York who comes to Louisiana to meet a family she never knew she had.  After her parents pass, she receives a mysterious letter from one Corinna Hamilton, who claims to be her aunt (her mother's sister).  The woman invites her to come stay at Southern Moon, the Hamilton homestead, and meet the rest of her family - which includes Corinna's two children, Paul Hamilton (a lawyer) and Lacy Hamilton (a spoiled debutante), as well as the brother of Corinna's deceased husband, Cedric Raimond.  Before she can even reach the mansion, which is deep in the Louisiana bayou, she has the misfortune of meeting the deputy sheriff, Billy Ben Curtis, to who she takes an instant dislike (due to his complete lack of manners and unpleasant disposition).  Once at the great house, she meets not only the family, but also the housekeeper, Matilda, and the surly cook, Lucille.  Susan is not overly ecstatic about this sudden appearance of a family she never knew existed, and so she is somewhat reserved when she arrives ... if only she had turned around and left the moment she arrived, perhaps she would not have experienced the terrors she did.  Of course, had she left, then she never would have learned the truth about why her mother left the Hamilton family and never looked back ...

 

I will admit, the story gets off to a somewhat slow start.  Crawford goes back and forth in the first two chapters between the present, as Susan is arriving at Southern Moon (the name of the Hamilton home) and Susan's receipt of her aunt's letter, her meeting with the attorney to learn more about the invitation to Louisiana, and her not-so-great experience on her first entrance into the swampland surrounding the great house. Once all of the backstory is told, Crawford then moves forward in a more normal, linear narrative form.  Susan's first observations of the family are somewhat accurate - Lacy is spoiled and clearly has no interest in knowing her; Paul is a playboy of sorts who takes a shine on her; and Corinna is playing a part, but just what part that is, Susan is unsure.  The only one she feels she can trust is the housekeeper, Miranda, who admits to remembering her mother and slowly, as the story progresses, tells her more and more about Meg Hamilton and why she left the way she did.  Of course, the more she learns about that, the more she learns about Corinna, and the more she begins to realize there is a lot more to this story than she realizes!  Things truly start to come to light when she meets Dr. Clay Foster, a young physician who is treating Miranda's daughter Lillian - and when she tells her new family she has a date with the doctor, she finds they are quite vocal on the matter.  By no means will a Hamilton ever go out with "white trash" like Clay Foster!  This is the beginning of the battle lines being drawn, and soon enough, more truths are revealed about Corinna, about Paul, about Clay, and about Lillian - and about Rosalie, the one no one is allowed to talk about!

 

Crawford build the suspense slowly, but as it rolls along, it gets more and more intense, and as it speeds towards the climax, the terror builds, as Susan finds herself first locked in the attic where Rosalie was hidden away for a number of years, and then ultimately as she runs through the swamps at night, daring to face any danger to escape the evil plans the Hamilton family has in store for her if she were to remain at Southern Moon!  What started out rather uninteresting definitely turns into a page-turner that I could not put down.  

 

The original printing by Dell has full cover art, interrupted only by the title and author's name at the top and bottom, respectively.  However, the book was later reprinted in October 1979 under Dell's "Candlelight Intrigue" banner; while the reprint used the same cover art, it reduced it to just a smaller square under the title and author's name, cutting off portions of the top and bottom of the art, so you do not get the full effect of the image.  Personally, I prefer the full cover printing (which is the version I have).

 

While several blogs and reviews I have read online seem to find this book not overly appealing, I found it to be rather engaging, once you get past the opening sequence.  I would certainly recommend it to those who love a good Gothic read from this time period - and the Louisiana bayou setting is definitely a nice twist to the theme!

 

RATING:  8 extra bolt locks out of 10 for taking our poor heroine through the ringer, with some intensely dangerous moments and a couple of unexpected deaths! 

The Heir of Starvelings - a Gothic Novel of Innocence and Evil

This book is one of those that I picked up because of the cover art.  Yes, yes, I know the saying - don't just a book by its cover.  Yet, there are plenty of times that I see cover art that just cries out for me to pick up the book, and this is one of those instances.  However, it was more than just the heavy greens and blacks and the beautiful blond woman - as it turns out, this cover appeared on at least two different gothic titles!  But I'll get into that later.  There was also that title that caught my attention - a unique title that begs the reader to open the cover to find out just want it means (although, let's face reality - I don't think any title is quite as unusual as Let the Crags Comb Out Her Dainty Hair).  Thus, the book ended up in my hands and ultimately among the stacks of gothic novels I have yet to read.  Only, now, this one has been read...

 

The Heir of Starvelings is, as the title page describes, a tale of innocence and evil. First published in 1967 (my copy is a reprinting by Dell in 1968), it was written by Evelyn Berckman, who is known for her post-war detective fiction.  She was born in the United States, but later moved to England in the 1960s.  She also wrote a number of plays and historical non-fiction, as well as horror and gothic novels.  A quick search online reveals that The Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University has a collection of the author's manuscripts, including early drafts and final proofs (The Evelyn Berckman Collection). This is the first work by Berckman that I've read, and although it gets off to a somewhat lackluster opening, the story does pick up to the point where I was glued to the pages, unable to close the book until I was done!

 

The story centers around lovely Davina Milne, the daughter of the Reverend Frederick Milne, who lives in a small English town, near a decaying old house known as Starvelings.  There are plenty of rumors about the seemingly abandoned property and its owner, Lord Stanyon. These rumors mean nothing to Davina, who is mourning the death of her fiance, Nevil Stonor, of whose death she and her father were notified from the war office. Fate plays a wicked game, though, and an attorney for distant relatives of Lord Stanyon appears on her doorstep, looking for a governess for Lord Stanyon's young son. Although the offer was not meant for her (the lawyer came to see if Reverend Milne knew of any women in town who might be hired), Davina knows this is the thing she needs to distract her mind from Nevil's death.  The lawyer, Mr. Truscott, warns her that not only is the boy wild, unbathed, and likely unlearned, but Mr. Stanyon and his servant, Porcher, are difficult men who will not make her job any easier.  Davina is insistent, giving Mr. Truscott and her father no other choice.

 

Davina is not your typical gothic heroine.  From the very start, she is determined, she is strong, and despite her grieving soul, she finds sympathy and concern for the young William Stanyon.  She quickly learns what incentives she can use to not only get him to wash, but also to practice his speech, writing, and reading.  Despite his rebellious and wild side, she manages to gain his trust while exploring the mysteries of Starvelings.  Where is Lady Stanyon?  Why is William so afraid of the Folly on the grounds?  Who struck William so hard as to cause a loss of hearing in one ear? What happened to the Staynon's fortune? And how can Davina save William from the tragic life to which he is subjected in that house?  Davina sets out to find answers to all of those questions, even though it puts her in danger, not only from Porcher, but from Lord Stanyon himself.  As for Lady Stanyon, well, she is nothing at all what Davina would have expected, and she seems to be more afraid of Porcher than of her own vile husband.  Berckman provides readers with a dark and sometimes depressing mystery that throws in a few twists and turns before it is all revealed in the end.

 

And Berckman's descriptions - she certainly sets the mood with the detailed pictures she creates of the aging house, the overgrown grounds, the moody inhabitants, and the desolation and emptiness within the halls of Starvelings.  The reader immediately sympathizes with William, roots for Davina to overcome all of the evil within the house, and is disgusted by Porcher and Lord Stanyon - especially near the end when Davina has a final confrontation with the two men in the dark recesses of the Folly, which holds some of its own mysteries.  Berckman also includes some very human aspects to the story, with William's fascination with the Queen and his ardent desire to meet the Queen, a wish that surprisingly gets granted in part thanks to Mr. Truscott's feelings for Davina.  Yet, despite having his wish fulfilled, it is bittersweet, as a part of that dream did not see fruition, bringing bitter disappointment to a young boy that could not understand the full impact of the opportunity that he had been given.  Scenes like this are what tug at the heart of the reader and make it all the more real.  That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by an unexpected event at the end of the story, which took the characters in a much different direction than I would have ever anticipated.  I won't spoil it, but I will say that it is most definitely an ending that Davina deserved!

 

Now, some other unusual aspects about this book that are worth mentioning are the dedication, the introduction, and the epilogue.  Berckman dedicates the book "In Memory of Rupert Gunnis, Who Told Me This True Story."  This leads directly into the one-page foreward, "Rupert Gunnis, 1899-1965."  The author provides readers with a bit of background on Mr. Gunnis, who was a real person, a historian as well as collector of British sculpture.  Berckman indicates this story founds its origins in Gunnis' love of buried historical facts, and although she changed the names of the persons involved, the geography and events are said to be true.  Gunnis also appears in the epilogue, which is set nearly 70 years after the events of the story in 1855, and in which young William is now an elderly man, searching for a connection to his past in paintings now owned by another family - paintings that fate uses to bring Gunnis and the elderly Lord Stanyon together, bringing the story full circle.  I don't believe I've ever seen an author meld alleged truth and fiction together to create a story like this, and its curious nature certainly adds to my liking of this tale.

 

Going back to the cover art, depicting Davina as she walks through the halls of Starvelings, that painting of Lord Stanyon just behind her, I wish the artist was identified, as the shadows, the colors, the expression, the candles - they blend so perfectly to create the somber mood that permeates the story within.  And, apparently, Dell (who published this edition of the novel) liked the art so much, the company reused that same art just three years later in 1971 on the cover of its Gothic Romances magazine (issue 2 of the 3-issue series of magazines containing short gothic tales by recognizable authors such as Dorothy Eden, Virginia Coffman, and many others).  The larger art on the magazine cover loses a lot of the shadows from the top and left side, but it does give us a better look at young Davina's face - a face that very much resembles that of Nancy Barrett, the actress who played Carolyn Stoddard in the gothic television drama, Dark Shadows.  Makes one wonder if the author perhaps used Ms. Barrett as a model for this cover art.

 

Having read this book, my search now begins for Evelyn Berckman's other gothic novels...

RATING:  9 peer robes of red velvet out of 10 for a gothic tale of an innocent child, a vile father, an evil servant, and a strong-willed governess ... and a god-forsaken house filled with secrets and broken dreams.