Podolo

by L.P. Hartley

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Christmas

75 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2024

About the author

Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the Spectator and Saturday Review. His first book, Night Fears (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of Eustace and Hilda (1947), which won the James Tait Black prize, that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author. His other novels include The Go-Between (1953), which was adapted into an internationally-successful film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and The Hireling (1957), the film version of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending is abrupt and brutal (though off-screen); yet Seth’s illustrations are fun and imaginative.

[John Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leave stray cats alone.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure that its one eerie moment makes up for what happened to the cat.

[Jaidin Sykes · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up!

I think I read this in like 20 minutes, I'm a big fan of these little Christmas ghost stories that have nothing to do with Christmas.

Lowkey Angela got what was coming to her! Trying to kill a stray cat? She deserved what happened to her!

[Anne Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Podolo is about a small group who travel by boat to a deserted island for a picnic off the coast of Venice, but while there, spot a tiny malnourished cat. Angela is adamant that they bring the cat home to take care of, but when it proves too difficult to catch, she resolves to kill it instead. Upset by this decision but ultimately not willing to argue with her, her friend and the gondolier who brought them over decide to give her time to chase it, but fall asleep instead. When they awaken they begin their search for Angela as darkness falls, but they spot another person on the island, and their evening gets decidedly worse from there. This was one of my favourites in the series because of the mystery cat, and this feline influence is reflected in the illustrations. You can hear the tale, originally published in 1948 narrated on YouTube, and it’s quite a good version. I loved how spooky this story was – it had an eerie setting that was made worse by the appearance of this poor cat, and Angela’s strange reaction to it. The ending is quite good, but I can’t give away anymore details without spoilers.

To read the rest of my reviews, visit my website: www.ivereadthis.com

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it’s extremely difficult to write a really good ghost story that is in short story format, because it’s so difficult to build up enough atmosphere and sense of menace in so few pages.

This one is no different in the sense that it likely would have been better if it was longer, but it does a better job than most of getting where it needs to go in a relatively short amount of time without completely sacrificing any sense of foreboding and atmospheric description.

The story has a small clever twist to it, and the tone feels spot on for the material. I liked how this was set up, as well as how it ended.

This was originally written to fulfill the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas, though the story doesn’t touch on anything Christmas-themed.

A good choice if you want a quick read that has a bit of creepiness to it.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Paige · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was pitched as a fun story to read aloud with the family on Christmas Eve and we did just that. I don’t think my family really loved the story and most of the fun came with people ad libbing bits when it needed a punch up. Wouldn’t recommend as a family read, especially because of the bits of racism and sexism.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Podolo (1948, but 2024 in this edition), by E.P. Hartley, is a short story presented in small book format, designed and illustrated by Seth in his Ghost Stories for Christmas series. Podolo is a small, need-I-say desolate island off Italy to which a small party ventured for lunch via gondola. The party finds a feral cat, apparently starving, and the woman in the party 1) decides to try to feed the cat and then (inexplicitly) decides 2) to consider killing the cat if she can’t catch it and take care of it, presumably using a “put it out of its misery” defense.

The gondolier makes it clear that killing cats is not considered good luck in Italy, which explains the presence of so many feral cats, but regardless, no one else is in favor of killing the cat. Let it live, even if it is not well! But the woman, frustrated in her attempt, tells one of the party that she is “no longer trying to feed the cat.” The guy goes back to the boat, and he and the gondolier (inexplicably) fall asleep, but when they wake up, and proceed to find the woman, the gondolier says he saw some kind of humanoid creature lurking (what else would he do but lurk?) in the dark (maybe a Negro, he says, because it was hard to see him(?!), but then he finds (spoiler alert!!) a dead cat, and then the dead woman.

I thought the basis for wanting to kill the cat was insufficiently clear and just weird and even cruel, but maybe her cruelty is the point? I wish we had more interaction with the actual ghost, but there is something chilling in this one about what the ghost is and why it kills. We also are left wondering: Does the ghost kill the woman because she killed the cat? We don’t know anything about the sequence at all. So that seems kinda weak as a plot point.

But then: Look at that cover. I like that cover! A red-eyed demon cat ghost? Maybe it indicates Seth's interpretation of the cat as killer? Try to kill me, lady, and I will get my revenge? Or maybe the ghost cat lures unsuspecting island visitors to their doom? More questions than answers, but the end is still a bit chilling, actually.

Here is Edward E. French (and not AI) reading it on You Tube. It takes about 23 minutes to hear it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT6nE...

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a "Christmas in July" moment I decided I needed to read some more of Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories. This one came up as my next option. I am not quite certain what to think of this one. If you love cats, you should avoid this one. It is creepy and well-managed given its short length. Many reviewers claim racism but I did not see the frightening creature as human at all so I would not agree with that assessment. I might be way off base but that's how I read it.

[October Murilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

An effective, short little horror story in spite of the fact that there isn't any real build up to the horror. It's very much just a last page 'and then something scary happened!' kind of an ending, but it still worked for me. The pedant in me is also a bit put off by the fact that this was included in a series of ghost stories, as nothing about it makes me think 'ghost.'

[David Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deserted (or is it?) island off the Venetian coast. A woman with a compassionate heart. A grumbling and reluctant gondolier. A feral cat. A dark dream. A terrible discovery on shore.

L. P. Hartley's "Podolo" is a slim, swift bite of a story. Just wait til it gets its claws in you.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, but spooky tale, although the climatic ending is a bit confusing in its abruptness. Probably not a good choice for cat lovers, though. The story takes up 24 short pages, the remainder filled with Seth's minimalist drawings and publisher information.

[Henry Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the scariest ghost stories i've ever read. While I don't know if it should be called a ghost story, it was still really great, and was able to paint a very clear picture in my mind of everything that was happening without adding too much detail. 9/10

[Kelsey Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great short, scary story - left a lot unsaid but makes the imagination go wild

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely provides what it promises: a quick, chilling story you can read in a night!

[Vera Elwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite so far since we started reading Christmas Eve Ghost Stories! Be warned, however. There is brief description of animal cruelty.

[Carla · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was fine until the menacing otherworldly “negro” showed up. It is so clearly racist that it’s bizarre that it was republished in 2024.

[Sam Crossland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suitably grisly, without the gore.

[Canavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

✭✭✭✭½

[Cora James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tit for tat, in my opinion. A life for a life. "He's hungry, too."

[Peyton Honeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly L.P. Hartley was writing before Save The Cat! was written 🐈 but this story is kind of an anti-save-the-cat tale. Angela got what was coming to her!

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A haunted island with a starving kitty. It's a pretty interesting story!

[JA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venice. Cats. Death.