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Imagine a Man in a Box
This 1931 volume was the third collection of stories by Wakefield within four years. An extremely rare book, it contains thirteen stories, seven of which are supernatural, and which include such classic weird tales as Frontier Guards', Day-Dream in Macedon', and Damp Sheets'. In addition to the introduction by Barbara Roden, and a jacket illustration by Paul Lowe, the volume contains a bibliographical afterword by Jack Adrian, in which he discusses Wakefield's fictional output, early editions of his work, and a very puzzling if, as the author states, he had more than one hundred ghost stories published during his life, where are the other thirty stories, never collected in any of his books and never traced to any magazines or newspapers? An Ash-Tree Press Limited Edition.
196 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1931
About the author
H.R. Wakefield
72 books5 followersHerbert Russell Wakefield was an English short story writer, novelist, publisher, and civil servant. Wakefield is best known for his ghost stories, but he produced work outside the field. He was greatly interested in the criminal mind and wrote two non-fiction criminology studies
Used These Alternate Names: H.R. Wakefield, H. Russell Wakefield, Рассел Уэйкфилд?, Herbert Russell Wakefield, Herbert R. Wakefield, Henry Russell Wakefield, Henry R. Wakefield, Sir H. Russell Wakefield, Horace Russell Wakefield
Used These Alternate Names: H.R. Wakefield, H. Russell Wakefield, Рассел Уэйкфилд?, Herbert Russell Wakefield, Herbert R. Wakefield, Henry Russell Wakefield, Henry R. Wakefield, Sir H. Russell Wakefield, Horace Russell Wakefield
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 19, 2025
PLACEHOLDER REVIEWS - finishing off my last few Wakefield reads from my list.
"Mr. Bellows, the Monkey, and the Turtle" by H.R. Wakefield is a light comic fantasy, sort of like a Thurber story, about a desert island idyll.
"Epilogue by Roger Bantock" is quite a neat little ghost story. It pulls the trick of telling a somewhat familiar tale (a haunting to reveal a crime) but then proceeds in a different direction than the usual. Solid. I liked it.
"The Inevitable Flaw" - Mr. Curnott plans and executes the perfect murder when finding his financial fraud will be discovered. But, as is a rule with these things, there is no such thing as "perfect".... Here Wakefield is augmenting (slightly) one of his interests (murder mystery stories) with another (psychic phenomena), giving us the familiar "perfect" murder - much planned - which is undone through two instances of "intuition." An enjoyable read but not much more.
"Frontier Guards" - Lander (himself quite acutely psychic), refuses to let a property he owns because he can tell that it is malignantly haunted by dangerous forces - such that he refuses to enter the place (because being a psychic has taught him NOT to go seeking experiences, unless he HAS to endure them by circumstance, as they are always distressing, and that he himself may be a conduit that strengthens such forces). But Brinton, his friend, REALLY desires to experience a haunting for himself, and convinces Lander to accompany him to the locale for a short time.... This could be seen as a companion/variation on Wakefield's "Blind Man's Bluff" (or "Buff") - working the same idea (and extremely foreshortened story about a haunted locale which is all about the build-up, with a short, punchy ending). Very, very effective.
"Corporal Humpit Of The Fourth Musketeers" - a narrator tells us about a strange city in a strange country that he visited (he doesn't remember how he got there, or how he escaped) where he witnessed a mob beat a individual in a city square, before another bystander explained the circumstances. This is a very strange story which sees Wakefield adopting a style something like bitter absurdist satire, almost Gogol-like, in sketching a deliberately vague, fantastic and symbolic place which commemorates its anti-war stance in extreme ways, and then a specific incident in which the body of decorated soldier is replaced in a memorial with that of a spy and traitor. Interesting.
"The Lazaroid" - and yet again, a different kind of thing (one assumes Wakefield was trying writing in different styles and genres to broaden his markets) - a Wakefield sci-fi story, kinda. In 1980 (!) two scientists develop a machine that will revive the recently dead (although not those dead by violence - like being shot in the head - or natural causes, like old age) and one tests it on himself through self-electrocution and revivification. But when a reporter leaks a certain detail of the experience, societal chaos ensues. This is an interesting idea, poorly deployed. Essentially, it gives us a set-up and conflict as written fiction, but chunks down a huge section of exposition in the middle, and a small one at the end - it almost seems like, in a way, it might have been more honest to write it as a novella or something, and developed the "told not shown" sections. As it is, it's Wakefield musing on the social, spiritual, political and economic impacts of such an invention - but not very well done.
"Mr. Bellows, the Monkey, and the Turtle" by H.R. Wakefield is a light comic fantasy, sort of like a Thurber story, about a desert island idyll.
"Epilogue by Roger Bantock" is quite a neat little ghost story. It pulls the trick of telling a somewhat familiar tale (a haunting to reveal a crime) but then proceeds in a different direction than the usual. Solid. I liked it.
"The Inevitable Flaw" - Mr. Curnott plans and executes the perfect murder when finding his financial fraud will be discovered. But, as is a rule with these things, there is no such thing as "perfect".... Here Wakefield is augmenting (slightly) one of his interests (murder mystery stories) with another (psychic phenomena), giving us the familiar "perfect" murder - much planned - which is undone through two instances of "intuition." An enjoyable read but not much more.
"Frontier Guards" - Lander (himself quite acutely psychic), refuses to let a property he owns because he can tell that it is malignantly haunted by dangerous forces - such that he refuses to enter the place (because being a psychic has taught him NOT to go seeking experiences, unless he HAS to endure them by circumstance, as they are always distressing, and that he himself may be a conduit that strengthens such forces). But Brinton, his friend, REALLY desires to experience a haunting for himself, and convinces Lander to accompany him to the locale for a short time.... This could be seen as a companion/variation on Wakefield's "Blind Man's Bluff" (or "Buff") - working the same idea (and extremely foreshortened story about a haunted locale which is all about the build-up, with a short, punchy ending). Very, very effective.
"Corporal Humpit Of The Fourth Musketeers" - a narrator tells us about a strange city in a strange country that he visited (he doesn't remember how he got there, or how he escaped) where he witnessed a mob beat a individual in a city square, before another bystander explained the circumstances. This is a very strange story which sees Wakefield adopting a style something like bitter absurdist satire, almost Gogol-like, in sketching a deliberately vague, fantastic and symbolic place which commemorates its anti-war stance in extreme ways, and then a specific incident in which the body of decorated soldier is replaced in a memorial with that of a spy and traitor. Interesting.
"The Lazaroid" - and yet again, a different kind of thing (one assumes Wakefield was trying writing in different styles and genres to broaden his markets) - a Wakefield sci-fi story, kinda. In 1980 (!) two scientists develop a machine that will revive the recently dead (although not those dead by violence - like being shot in the head - or natural causes, like old age) and one tests it on himself through self-electrocution and revivification. But when a reporter leaks a certain detail of the experience, societal chaos ensues. This is an interesting idea, poorly deployed. Essentially, it gives us a set-up and conflict as written fiction, but chunks down a huge section of exposition in the middle, and a small one at the end - it almost seems like, in a way, it might have been more honest to write it as a novella or something, and developed the "told not shown" sections. As it is, it's Wakefield musing on the social, spiritual, political and economic impacts of such an invention - but not very well done.
August 20, 2020
Vintage Wakefield
Among the finest practitioners of Jamesian style where malicious ghosts terrify and traumatise mortals, H.R. Wakefield occupies a special spot. That's because of two reasons.
Firstly, his stories are usually of rather superior quality in comparison to the benign lot that had flooded the market during the inter-war years.
Secondly, despite a rather obvious streak of misogyny his works feature women a lot more than we usually come across in genre fiction of the time.
This book, despite being a somewhat mixed-bag, beats a lot of other single-author collections. Also, the editorial inputs put in by the Ash-Tree Press is sublime.
Definitely recommended.
Among the finest practitioners of Jamesian style where malicious ghosts terrify and traumatise mortals, H.R. Wakefield occupies a special spot. That's because of two reasons.
Firstly, his stories are usually of rather superior quality in comparison to the benign lot that had flooded the market during the inter-war years.
Secondly, despite a rather obvious streak of misogyny his works feature women a lot more than we usually come across in genre fiction of the time.
This book, despite being a somewhat mixed-bag, beats a lot of other single-author collections. Also, the editorial inputs put in by the Ash-Tree Press is sublime.
Definitely recommended.
May 21, 2023
An outstanding mid-career short story collection, mixing comedy, horror, and science fiction.
April 15, 2026
Not quite what I signed up for.
With Imagine a Man in a Box, H. R. Wakefield steps away from the ghost stories that made me pick him up in the first place, seemingly trying to prove he can handle other genres just as well. The result is indeed experimental—but not in a particularly satisfying way. The collection feels uneven, and the more comical or satirical pieces rarely land. There are still some solid horror ideas scattered throughout, but they’re too few and too far between to really carry the book.
Imagine a Man in a Box (1/5): A man spends a fortune to suspend a sealed black box above the Sahara, placing another man inside it as part of a bizarre experiment—testing whether he can tell if he’s within a gravitational field or not.
Mr. Bellows, the Monkey and the Turtle (2/5): After being shipwrecked on a deserted island, a man survives with the help of a radio-like device with an improbably long battery life, listening to classical concerts while befriending the island’s only other inhabitants—a monkey and a turtle.
The Central Figure (2/5): Framed as a case study by an alienist, this follows a playwright whose work begins to mirror real life in unsettling ways.
The ‘Swimease’ (1/5): Probably my least favorite (and one of the longest). A businessman invents a revealing, bikini-like swimsuit and tries to promote it by sponsoring a woman to swim across the Atlantic.
Day-Dream in Macedon (4/5): One of the strongest entries. During WWI, a lieutenant stationed in Macedonia experiences, almost telepathically, the death of his former comrades on the Western Front.
The Sun in Their Eyes (2/5): A lifelong bachelor falls in love with a young married woman. When her elderly husband graciously steps aside and leaves the country, happiness seems within reach—but only briefly.
Frontier Guards (5/5): Easily the best in the collection. While visiting a friend, a man becomes intrigued by the dark history of a neighboring house where several mysterious deaths have occurred. Curiosity leads them inside—and things escalate quickly. This is the Wakefield I was looking for!
The Only Way Out (2/5): Two identical aristocratic twins fall for the same young man after one of them hits him with her car. Once proud of being indistinguishable, they now obsess over finding even the smallest difference that might win his affection.
The Lazaroid (2/5): A scientist invents a machine capable of bringing the dead back to life and tests it on himself. Once the discovery becomes public, chaos erupts—religious outrage, political pressure, and calls to destroy the invention.
Epilogue by Roger Bantock (3/5): On medical advice, a man retreats to an old mansion with a violent past. There, he encounters a restless spirit and uncovers the story of a brutal crime, eventually facing a moral dilemma of his own.
Corporal Humpit of the 4th Musketeers (1/5): A man witnesses a group of ghostly soldiers chasing and beating another spectral figure.
The Inevitable Flaw (3/5): A man commits what he believes to be the perfect murder, even going so far as to send a letter to the victim’s wife to cover his tracks. But one small oversight begins to unravel everything.
Damp Sheets (3/5): A woman is haunted after deliberately dampening the sheets of her wealthy uncle, hastening his death in hopes of securing an inheritance.
I can appreciate the attempt to move beyond traditional ghost tales, but in doing so, Wakefield seems to lose exactly what made him interesting in the first place. ★★☆☆☆
With Imagine a Man in a Box, H. R. Wakefield steps away from the ghost stories that made me pick him up in the first place, seemingly trying to prove he can handle other genres just as well. The result is indeed experimental—but not in a particularly satisfying way. The collection feels uneven, and the more comical or satirical pieces rarely land. There are still some solid horror ideas scattered throughout, but they’re too few and too far between to really carry the book.
Imagine a Man in a Box (1/5): A man spends a fortune to suspend a sealed black box above the Sahara, placing another man inside it as part of a bizarre experiment—testing whether he can tell if he’s within a gravitational field or not.
Mr. Bellows, the Monkey and the Turtle (2/5): After being shipwrecked on a deserted island, a man survives with the help of a radio-like device with an improbably long battery life, listening to classical concerts while befriending the island’s only other inhabitants—a monkey and a turtle.
The Central Figure (2/5): Framed as a case study by an alienist, this follows a playwright whose work begins to mirror real life in unsettling ways.
The ‘Swimease’ (1/5): Probably my least favorite (and one of the longest). A businessman invents a revealing, bikini-like swimsuit and tries to promote it by sponsoring a woman to swim across the Atlantic.
Day-Dream in Macedon (4/5): One of the strongest entries. During WWI, a lieutenant stationed in Macedonia experiences, almost telepathically, the death of his former comrades on the Western Front.
The Sun in Their Eyes (2/5): A lifelong bachelor falls in love with a young married woman. When her elderly husband graciously steps aside and leaves the country, happiness seems within reach—but only briefly.
Frontier Guards (5/5): Easily the best in the collection. While visiting a friend, a man becomes intrigued by the dark history of a neighboring house where several mysterious deaths have occurred. Curiosity leads them inside—and things escalate quickly. This is the Wakefield I was looking for!
The Only Way Out (2/5): Two identical aristocratic twins fall for the same young man after one of them hits him with her car. Once proud of being indistinguishable, they now obsess over finding even the smallest difference that might win his affection.
The Lazaroid (2/5): A scientist invents a machine capable of bringing the dead back to life and tests it on himself. Once the discovery becomes public, chaos erupts—religious outrage, political pressure, and calls to destroy the invention.
Epilogue by Roger Bantock (3/5): On medical advice, a man retreats to an old mansion with a violent past. There, he encounters a restless spirit and uncovers the story of a brutal crime, eventually facing a moral dilemma of his own.
Corporal Humpit of the 4th Musketeers (1/5): A man witnesses a group of ghostly soldiers chasing and beating another spectral figure.
The Inevitable Flaw (3/5): A man commits what he believes to be the perfect murder, even going so far as to send a letter to the victim’s wife to cover his tracks. But one small oversight begins to unravel everything.
Damp Sheets (3/5): A woman is haunted after deliberately dampening the sheets of her wealthy uncle, hastening his death in hopes of securing an inheritance.
I can appreciate the attempt to move beyond traditional ghost tales, but in doing so, Wakefield seems to lose exactly what made him interesting in the first place. ★★☆☆☆
October 23, 2022
Not Wakefield’s best and I’m glad I saved it for (nearly) last. The opening story is not good. It’s a very boring science fiction story. In fact, it’s so boring it actually made me want to read the introduction written by Barbara Roden! I have avoided these like the plague. Every single Wakefield short story collection from Ash-Tree opens with one of her introductions and every single one that I’ve read extremely quickly devolves into hysterical accusations of misogyny.
Did I learn anything about the title story? No. Instead she harps on about his infidelities and such. Wakefield’s men may be “weak, foolish, feckless, profligate, even criminal,” but only his women display “sheer nastiness.” Aren’t you clutching your pearls a little too tightly, Babs? Get a grip. Why on earth is nastiness a worse attribute than criminality? Or stupidity? I bet if the men were nasty and only his women displayed “sheer stupidity” she’d be equally upset.
I won’t speculate on Babs’ motives for any of this. Much. I’ve read a few of her short stories and while they didn’t blow me away, they were okay. Maybe she has a chip on her shoulder and thinks she’d be better known or more widely read but for sex discrimination? Maybe it gives her some kind of thrill diminishing the reputation of someone she considers a political enemy? A charitable view would be to assume she’s discovered something really horrific and genuinely cruel about Wakefield’s treatment of the women in his life, but that would be an assumption very uncharitable to the man himself. I’m here for him not her, after all.
All I know is Roden doesn’t ever even seem the least bit enthusiastic for Wakefield’s stories! Any compliment is backhanded. All I know is, she’s trying to make money by selling books—the life works—of a man but cuts him down whenever she can. Not a sound business plan, that. And these, sadly, are the most affordable copies of his work available. Hopefully nobody has ever been dissuaded from Wakefield because of the dumb, repetitive introductions.
Did I learn anything about the title story? No. Instead she harps on about his infidelities and such. Wakefield’s men may be “weak, foolish, feckless, profligate, even criminal,” but only his women display “sheer nastiness.” Aren’t you clutching your pearls a little too tightly, Babs? Get a grip. Why on earth is nastiness a worse attribute than criminality? Or stupidity? I bet if the men were nasty and only his women displayed “sheer stupidity” she’d be equally upset.
I won’t speculate on Babs’ motives for any of this. Much. I’ve read a few of her short stories and while they didn’t blow me away, they were okay. Maybe she has a chip on her shoulder and thinks she’d be better known or more widely read but for sex discrimination? Maybe it gives her some kind of thrill diminishing the reputation of someone she considers a political enemy? A charitable view would be to assume she’s discovered something really horrific and genuinely cruel about Wakefield’s treatment of the women in his life, but that would be an assumption very uncharitable to the man himself. I’m here for him not her, after all.
All I know is Roden doesn’t ever even seem the least bit enthusiastic for Wakefield’s stories! Any compliment is backhanded. All I know is, she’s trying to make money by selling books—the life works—of a man but cuts him down whenever she can. Not a sound business plan, that. And these, sadly, are the most affordable copies of his work available. Hopefully nobody has ever been dissuaded from Wakefield because of the dumb, repetitive introductions.
November 4, 2020
✭✭
“Imagine a Man in a Box” (1931) ✭
“Mr. Bellows, the Monkey and the Turtle” (1930) ½
“The Central Figure” (1929) ✭½
“The ‘Swimease’” (1931) ✭½
“Day-Dream in Macedon” (1930) ✭✭✭½
“The Sun in Their Eyes” (1931) ✭
“Frontier Guards“ (1929) ✭✭✭✭✭
“The Only Way” (1931) ✭½
“The Lazaroid” (1931) ✭½
“Epilogue by Roger Bantock” (alternate title: “Poison”) (1930) ✭
“Corporal Humpit of the 4th Musketeers” (1930) ✭✭
“The Inevitable Flaw” (1929) ✭✭
“Damp Sheets” (1929) ✭✭✭½
“Imagine a Man in a Box” (1931) ✭
“Mr. Bellows, the Monkey and the Turtle” (1930) ½
“The Central Figure” (1929) ✭½
“The ‘Swimease’” (1931) ✭½
“Day-Dream in Macedon” (1930) ✭✭✭½
“The Sun in Their Eyes” (1931) ✭
“Frontier Guards“ (1929) ✭✭✭✭✭
“The Only Way” (1931) ✭½
“The Lazaroid” (1931) ✭½
“Epilogue by Roger Bantock” (alternate title: “Poison”) (1930) ✭
“Corporal Humpit of the 4th Musketeers” (1930) ✭✭
“The Inevitable Flaw” (1929) ✭✭
“Damp Sheets” (1929) ✭✭✭½
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