The Witch of Prague, by F. Marion Crawford
Brand : Wildside Press
- SKU:
- 1587150913
- UPC:
- 1587150913
From the introduction by Darrell Schweitzer:
There is no denying that the book you are holding is a ôperiod piece,ö by which we emphatically do not mean, ôwell it's badly dated but still vaguely interesting.ö No, not at all. The Witch of Prague, which was first published in 1891, is a well-written and exciting occult novel, full of strange twists and unusual situations, which can be read for enjoyment in its own right, but which gains an added level of interest from the way it reflects the attitudes and interests of the time in which it was written.
The famous critic E.F. Bleiler said of The Witch of Prague in his The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983), ôthis is the novel that Marie Corelli might have written had she been more intelligent and a better writer.ö
Corelli (1855-1924), author of The Sorrows of Satan, A Romance of Two Worlds, and numerous others was one of the worst writers of all time, a hysterical mystic who might be described as a cross between Shirley MacLaine and the Jacqueline Susann of Yargo. When critics ridiculed her work, she became increasingly defensive, even delusional, and ultimately claimed to be the reincarnation of William Shakespeare.
But she was one of the great bestsellers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, someone who effectively rode the wave of interest in spiritualism and the occult which was cresting about then. This was an era of the Order of the Golden Dawn, Theosophy, Aleister Crowley, ectoplasm, table-rappings, and the Cottingly Fairies which so beguiled Arthur Conan Doyle. It was an era in which hypnotism still seemed like magic, the day of Svengali as a popular villain. So the awfulness of Corelli's work hardly mattered. She was on to something the public wanted to read.With The Witch of Prague we see the same sort of material in the hands of a far superior writer. Had F. Marion Crawford gone on to write occult novel after occult novel, might he also have become one of the great bestsellers of the age?
It wasn't that he did badly. Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) came from an artistic family. He was an American, born in Italy, the son of a sculptor. His sister was a novelist of some note. He wrote numerous popular novels set in exotic placesùEurope, Asia, the Middle Eastùand made something of a specialty of novels about Italian high society. He was what we might call today a jet-setter, someone who moved in wealthy, cosmopolitan circles. His lifestyle demanded a large income which his novels provided. Miscellaneous facts about him include that he was an accomplished sailor and once edited a newspaper in India.
He seems to have had his feet considerably more firmly in this world than did Marie Corelli, and perhaps wrote The Witch of Prague because such things were ôin the airö at the time. While the supernatural remained an interest for Crawford, it did not become a lifelong obsession. Thus he wrote as an artist rather than as a true believer and was able to shape his material as the story demanded rather than being hamstrung by an insistence on what is ôtrue.ö Crawford's works are entertainments rather than doctrinal exercises.
He produced only a small amount of outright fantasy. With the Immortals (1888) is a marginal case, more of a philosophical dialogue, in which the spirits of famous men of different eras meet and converse. (A couple years later John Kendrick Bangs scored a hit by playing the same situation for comedy, in his famous A House Boat on the Styx.) Mr. Isaacs (1882) is set in India, and has mystical elements. Khaled (1891), which was reprinted in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, is an Arabian tale, with scenes set in the Islamic afterlife. But the real masterpiece is Wandering Ghosts (a.k.a. For Blood is The Life and Other Stories in a recent edition edited by yours the undersigned), a posthumous collection (1911) which was praised by H.P. Lovecraft and contains some of the most powerful horror stories in literature, including the famous ôThe Upper Berth,ö the equally hideous ôThe Dead Smile,ö and an early vampire story set in Italy, ôFor Blood is the Life.ö
And then there is The Witch of Prague, the closest Crawford ever came to a horror novel, far more than just a curiosity, a fascinating romance filled with bizarre characters and elements of witchcraft, hypnotism, and immortality, complete with exotic settings and Crawford's always literate prose.Have a look. Enjoy. A novel by the author of ôThe UpperBerth.ö