I love discovering new-to-me authors from centuries gone by, whose works could sit comfortably alongside those of Poe and Lovecraft but haven’t received quite the same attention. And no one provides better opportunities for such discoveries than Melissa Edmundson and the folks at Handheld Press. Over the last few years, this team brought us two volumes of Women’s Weird collections. Now, they are focusing in on one such weird fiction writer: Helen de Guerry Simpson. The Outcast and The Rite: Stories of Landscape and Fear, 1925-1938 contains thirteen tales of weird, supernatural horror published during the period between the two World Wars by this underappreciated Australian writer. The collection came out from Handheld Press earlier this month.
Helen de Guerry Simpson was an author of nonfiction, plays, novels, and short stories who was born in Australia but spent most of her adult life in the UK. I was first introduced to her writing through one of her stories in Women’s Weird 2. After that first taste I was eager to learn more about her as a writer, and this collection has the answers! The book begins with an introduction by editor Melissa Edmundson, which provides biographical information on Helen Simpson and context for her writing. The introduction situates Simpson within a resurgence of supernatural and macabre fiction during the interwar years and emphasizes her lifelong interest in the occult and her friendships with fellow writers, especially as a member of the Detection Club alongside Clemence Dane and Agatha Christie. It laments the extent to which Simpson has largely been forgotten after her premature death and proudly announces this collection to be the first modern reprinting of Simpson’s short fiction. Edmundson also discusses some of the major themes and characteristics of Simpson’s supernatural fiction, such as its emphasis on atmosphere and landscape to create horror and the creation of “grey areas between the natural and the supernatural.” Following the introduction are eleven tales from Simpson’s debut collection of short fiction The Baseless Fabric, plus two stories published later in her lifetime.
Some of my favorite stories in this collection were those in which a cursed or haunted house served as a central character. In one of the most playful stories, “As Much More Land,” an Oxford undergraduate visits his older cousin who has just inherited an old house from her uncle that comes complete with its own haunted room. When the student sneaks into the room at night, he experiences a moment of intense fear as the walls seem to breathe and come alive around him. “Disturbing Experience of an Elderly Lady” is a more atmospheric take on this theme. The widowed Mrs. Jones purchases a medieval castle and plans to assert her will over it with thorough extensive reservations. After the sentient castle tries and fails to charm her, it instead humbles her with a moment of wild longing in the surrounding woods. “Teigne” is the most classically Gothic of these tales but with a weird twist. The titular castle has its own prophetic curse, and the nearby villagers watch as each family that lives there comes to a tragic end. A collector seeks to avoid the curse by never living within the castle walls but merely gutting its beautiful interior to sell for parts. Then the castle takes a particularly fitting revenge.
But as much as I love a good Gothic plot, I also enjoyed the stories that feel more like atmospheric vignettes. The opening story, “Grey Sand and White Sand,” is one of these, centering on a painter who grows increasingly desperate to capture some unknowable secret hidden in the marshy landscape. The following story, “The Rite,” follows a young woman who flees into the ominous forest to contemplate the two marriage prospects she is caught between and grows frightened of the desire revealed within these wild woods. My favorite story of this type, though, is “The Pledge,” in which a woman whose lover was lost at sea revels in her grief in a former coastal town that the ocean has withdrawn from and yet lingers in the atmosphere. Each of these tales leaves you with more questions than answers at the end, but also a definite sense that something spooky has occurred.
If you love weird fiction, atmospheric horror, and reviving the works of underappreciated female authors, definitely check out The Outcast and The Rite! You can order a copy directly from the UK-based publisher Handheld Press or order it from this Bookshop.org affiliate link and support The Gothic Library in the process. Once you’ve read it, let me know your favorite stories from the collection in the comments below!