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Where their Fire is not Quenched
May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a British writer of novels, short stories and poetry and an active suffragette and spiritualist.
'Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched' is a highly unsettling and creepy story about an adulterous couple who are damned to continue their loathsome, loveless relationship for all eternity.
'Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched' is a highly unsettling and creepy story about an adulterous couple who are damned to continue their loathsome, loveless relationship for all eternity.
1 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 1, 1922
66 people want to read
About the author
May Sinclair
220 books59 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 6, 2025
Harriott is 17, living in a big country house, and wants to accept her boyfriend's proposal before he returns to war. Her father refuses, and George dies at sea soon after.
Five years later, she has another beau, but no happy ever after.
Ten years later, she is living in a small home in a mediocre London suburb, hoping for a not miserable ever after, wondering whether to settle for third best and second hand.
“She had given up Oscar Wade because she didn’t want him very much; and now she wanted him furiously, perversely, because she had given him up. Though she had given him up, she couldn’t live without him.”
Twenty years later (the third doubling of time) and Harriott is devoting herself to church.
This is where the story becomes complex, original, and fascinating, exploring love, destiny, purgatory, truth, and the direction of time.
“You think the past affects the future. Has it never struck you that the future may affect the past?”
The scent of elder permeates Harriott's life at, and thus her memories of, key moments. The plant's name suggests the sagacity she fails to acquire as she ages.
Image: “The Artist’s Studio” by Charles Napier Kennedy, shows a woman kissing a full-length portrait of a soldier (Source)
Quotes
• “I don’t know whether this is one moment of eternity, or the eternity of one moment.”
• “Always she looked for something just beyond it, some mystic, heavenly rapture, always beginning to come, that never came. There was something about Oscar that repelled her.”
• “X died… He did it suddenly one evening, falling down in a fit of apoplexy.”
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here.
Five years later, she has another beau, but no happy ever after.
Ten years later, she is living in a small home in a mediocre London suburb, hoping for a not miserable ever after, wondering whether to settle for third best and second hand.
“She had given up Oscar Wade because she didn’t want him very much; and now she wanted him furiously, perversely, because she had given him up. Though she had given him up, she couldn’t live without him.”
Twenty years later (the third doubling of time) and Harriott is devoting herself to church.
This is where the story becomes complex, original, and fascinating, exploring love, destiny, purgatory, truth, and the direction of time.
“You think the past affects the future. Has it never struck you that the future may affect the past?”
The scent of elder permeates Harriott's life at, and thus her memories of, key moments. The plant's name suggests the sagacity she fails to acquire as she ages.
Image: “The Artist’s Studio” by Charles Napier Kennedy, shows a woman kissing a full-length portrait of a soldier (Source)
Quotes
• “I don’t know whether this is one moment of eternity, or the eternity of one moment.”
• “Always she looked for something just beyond it, some mystic, heavenly rapture, always beginning to come, that never came. There was something about Oscar that repelled her.”
• “X died… He did it suddenly one evening, falling down in a fit of apoplexy.”
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here.
June 16, 2025
On her deathbed, Harriott neglected to confess a sinful time in her past. The Biblical title, "Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched," suggests the second half of this story after Harriott's death. Author May Sinclair has invented a claustrophobic version of being trapped in hell forever. Every path Harriott takes and every person she sees from her past lead back to one place.
I read this story with the Short Story Club. It's from the anthology Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic.
I read this story with the Short Story Club. It's from the anthology Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic.
June 16, 2025
A morality tale, of sorts, in the form of a never-ending nightmare.
The strange quality of her state was this, that it had no time. She remembered dimly that there had once been a thing called time; but she had forgotten altogether what it was like.
I like this passage very much; however the author fails to pursue the concept, and the character does not adhere to this "timeless" state — or at the least the situation is complex and somewhat muddled.
This is one of the short stories I've been reading in a group, and it failed to appeal to me. The first half of the story was fine, and kept me interested. But after poor Harriet died, and made the realization reproduced above — after that it was just too ominous.
The strange quality of her state was this, that it had no time. She remembered dimly that there had once been a thing called time; but she had forgotten altogether what it was like.
I like this passage very much; however the author fails to pursue the concept, and the character does not adhere to this "timeless" state — or at the least the situation is complex and somewhat muddled.
This is one of the short stories I've been reading in a group, and it failed to appeal to me. The first half of the story was fine, and kept me interested. But after poor Harriet died, and made the realization reproduced above — after that it was just too ominous.
December 4, 2017
il più grande racconto di sempre l'ha scritto una scrittrice poco nota di nome May Sinclair. é un racconto che faceva parte di una raccolta dal titolo Uncanny Stories, che qualche debito nei confronti di Freud evidentemente l'aveva. (io adoro la parola uncanny, mi fa tremare la schiena e mi spinge a fare piccoli atti di crudeltà a intensità crescente, come schiacciare una zanzara, staccare la coda a una lucertola, bruciare un ape, e via dicendo...).
la storia è semplice, ma il racconto è scritto con una certa maestria. E' una specie di Madame Bovary sovrannaturale, condensato in poco meno di dieci pagine. Harriet, la protagonista, perde la possibilità di sposare il suo amore, un tenente caduto in battaglia. Non ha altre possibilità fino a quando, morto il padre, incontra un uomo sposato di nome Oscar con cui ha una relazione. I due si incontrano nell'Hotel Saint Pierre a Parigi... Dopo la passione sfrenata dei primi giorni, Harriet incomincia a sentire la noia eclatante di quel rapporto che diventa talmente soffocante che quando Oscar muore per lei è un sollievo. Vive il resto della vita come perpetua per un reverendo, poi muore anche lei e la prima cosa che vede è proprio Oscar. I ricordi di quest'anima in questo post-mortem ripercorrono il suo passato, ma ad ogni angolo della sua vita si ricreano le possibilità di un incontro con Oscar, la via dove cammina diventa rue di rivoli, ogni parete che vede si allestisce nell'hotel saint Pierre, sembra di vedere tende rosse e pesanti come in un film di Lynch... torna alla chiesa della sua infanzia, di fronte al portone di casa, lo attraversa ma questo si trasforma in una porta girevole che la costringe all'incontro con l'uomo che non ha mai amato e con cui ha peccato, è di nuovo nell'abominevole corridoio dell'albergo Saint Pierre; invano lei chiede al fantasma di Oscar, fino a quando?... c'è un intento moraleggiante nel racconto di May Sinclair, ma a noi lettori non ci frega assolutamente nulla perché quell'inferno che lei crea sotto i nostri occhi è atroce, bussa alla nostra porta. Ci costringe ad alzarci dalla sedia e fare un grosso respiro, come fanno i racconti migliori.
la storia è semplice, ma il racconto è scritto con una certa maestria. E' una specie di Madame Bovary sovrannaturale, condensato in poco meno di dieci pagine. Harriet, la protagonista, perde la possibilità di sposare il suo amore, un tenente caduto in battaglia. Non ha altre possibilità fino a quando, morto il padre, incontra un uomo sposato di nome Oscar con cui ha una relazione. I due si incontrano nell'Hotel Saint Pierre a Parigi... Dopo la passione sfrenata dei primi giorni, Harriet incomincia a sentire la noia eclatante di quel rapporto che diventa talmente soffocante che quando Oscar muore per lei è un sollievo. Vive il resto della vita come perpetua per un reverendo, poi muore anche lei e la prima cosa che vede è proprio Oscar. I ricordi di quest'anima in questo post-mortem ripercorrono il suo passato, ma ad ogni angolo della sua vita si ricreano le possibilità di un incontro con Oscar, la via dove cammina diventa rue di rivoli, ogni parete che vede si allestisce nell'hotel saint Pierre, sembra di vedere tende rosse e pesanti come in un film di Lynch... torna alla chiesa della sua infanzia, di fronte al portone di casa, lo attraversa ma questo si trasforma in una porta girevole che la costringe all'incontro con l'uomo che non ha mai amato e con cui ha peccato, è di nuovo nell'abominevole corridoio dell'albergo Saint Pierre; invano lei chiede al fantasma di Oscar, fino a quando?... c'è un intento moraleggiante nel racconto di May Sinclair, ma a noi lettori non ci frega assolutamente nulla perché quell'inferno che lei crea sotto i nostri occhi è atroce, bussa alla nostra porta. Ci costringe ad alzarci dalla sedia e fare un grosso respiro, come fanno i racconti migliori.
December 4, 2019
Muy bueno. Corto, intenso, personajes bien descritos, buen manejo de los tiempos, transmisión de sentimientos, inquietudes y desasosiegos. Un relato bien redactado, que aún teniendo su tiempo, ha envejecido bien.
Y no soy muy fan de los relatos, jajaja.
"Estaba segura de lo que iba a ocurrir. Pero no sabía cuándo ni dónde. ..."
"Borrosamente recordaba que alguna vez hubo una cosa llamada tiempo: no se lo imaginaba. ... Ahora pensaba: si tan solo pudiera retroceder al lugar donde no sucedió".
Valoración: 8/10
Lectura: Diciembre 2019
Y no soy muy fan de los relatos, jajaja.
"Estaba segura de lo que iba a ocurrir. Pero no sabía cuándo ni dónde. ..."
"Borrosamente recordaba que alguna vez hubo una cosa llamada tiempo: no se lo imaginaba. ... Ahora pensaba: si tan solo pudiera retroceder al lugar donde no sucedió".
Valoración: 8/10
Lectura: Diciembre 2019
March 1, 2021
El primer conte, “On el foc no s’apaga” és magnífic, d’una gran originalitat i profunditat psicològica. La resta són contes de fantasmes més clàssics, però ben escrits i amb una certa gràcia, malgrat que no sorprenen.
February 4, 2021
La inanidad de una existencia, la fatuidad de un núbil amor perdido y un amor impostado se ven reflejos ante un final caliginoso y eterno.
Me ha sorprendido que tan profunda ha sido esta historia; una yactura al alma.
Me ha sorprendido que tan profunda ha sido esta historia; una yactura al alma.
June 22, 2025
Read for the short story group as part of the collection Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic.
The first half of this 1922 story tells the life of the unlucky-in-love, Harriott Leigh. Forbidden love, tragic love, unrequited love, illicit love.
Suddenly religion creeps into the second half, which follows Harriott's afterlife as it unfolds into a nightmare - her own personal inferno, right out of Dante.
I found the first half intriguing, and might have enjoyed the second half if it were more philosophical about life in general, our choices, our luck, our human cravings. I think because of my personal revulsion for Oscar I'm a bit too subjective to really appreciate that part. But a comment from one of the members of our short story group gave me some perspective that I think makes sense.
The first half of this 1922 story tells the life of the unlucky-in-love, Harriott Leigh. Forbidden love, tragic love, unrequited love, illicit love.
Suddenly religion creeps into the second half, which follows Harriott's afterlife as it unfolds into a nightmare - her own personal inferno, right out of Dante.
I found the first half intriguing, and might have enjoyed the second half if it were more philosophical about life in general, our choices, our luck, our human cravings. I think because of my personal revulsion for Oscar I'm a bit too subjective to really appreciate that part. But a comment from one of the members of our short story group gave me some perspective that I think makes sense.
August 11, 2019
I read this three times already. This is one of my favorite short stories of all time.
September 30, 2019
Kummitustarinassa päähenkilö Harriott joutuu
Kohtaamaan kuoleman jälkeen kaksi aaverakastajaa.
Kohtaamaan kuoleman jälkeen kaksi aaverakastajaa.
October 30, 2019
The vivid descriptions of the protagonist's inner conflicts and secret wishes show the author's profound understanding of human psyche. It also depicts the most frightening depiction of hell that I have ever read (Yes, I've read Dante's Inferno). It's not the kind of scary that one would find in horror stories, but it is a hell so real and so relatable that it's difficult not to get appalled by it.
February 28, 2018
fairly misogynistic with a bizarre moral standard, the only saving grace of this story is the surreal ending.
July 11, 2023
May Sinclair (1863-1946) era una autora completamente desconocida para mí hasta que mi hermano leyó esta recopilación de relatos de misterio de esta autora británica y me lo recomendó fervientemente.
"On el foc no s'apaga", de la editorial El cercle de Viena, recopila cinco cuentos de la autora que son los siguientes:
* On el foc no s'apaga (Donde el fuego no se apaga)
* L' obsequi (El obsequio)
* La naturalesa de l'evidència (La naturaleza de la evidencia)
* Si els morts sabessin (Si los muertos supieran)
* La víctima
Todos los relatos tienen un componente sobrenatural, con un estilo inquietante y sobrecogedor, pero que no da miedo en ningún momento y además no creo que sea la intención de la autora. Los finales de los relatos son completamente satisfactorios, preciosos y conmovedores, fantasmas que no buscan venganza ni crear terror, todo lo contrario: amor, comprensión, perdón, para poder irse tranquilos al otro lado. Especialmente impactantes para mí han sido "El obsequio" y "La víctima" que, además de lograr estremecer con las apariciones de sus fantasmas correspondientes, logran emocionar al final teniéndome al borde de las lágrimas. Maravilloso. Recomiendo leer esta antología acompañados de una bebida caliente al lado de la chimenea (o en su defecto chimenea en la tele como es mi caso 😅). Lo veo más una lectura invernal por la atmosfera que logra crear la autora que recuerda a esas tardes de invierno, con una manta por encima (cómo echo de menos el frío) pero yo, aun con 35 grados, lo he disfrutado igualmente.
"On el foc no s'apaga", de la editorial El cercle de Viena, recopila cinco cuentos de la autora que son los siguientes:
* On el foc no s'apaga (Donde el fuego no se apaga)
* L' obsequi (El obsequio)
* La naturalesa de l'evidència (La naturaleza de la evidencia)
* Si els morts sabessin (Si los muertos supieran)
* La víctima
Todos los relatos tienen un componente sobrenatural, con un estilo inquietante y sobrecogedor, pero que no da miedo en ningún momento y además no creo que sea la intención de la autora. Los finales de los relatos son completamente satisfactorios, preciosos y conmovedores, fantasmas que no buscan venganza ni crear terror, todo lo contrario: amor, comprensión, perdón, para poder irse tranquilos al otro lado. Especialmente impactantes para mí han sido "El obsequio" y "La víctima" que, además de lograr estremecer con las apariciones de sus fantasmas correspondientes, logran emocionar al final teniéndome al borde de las lágrimas. Maravilloso. Recomiendo leer esta antología acompañados de una bebida caliente al lado de la chimenea (o en su defecto chimenea en la tele como es mi caso 😅). Lo veo más una lectura invernal por la atmosfera que logra crear la autora que recuerda a esas tardes de invierno, con una manta por encima (cómo echo de menos el frío) pero yo, aun con 35 grados, lo he disfrutado igualmente.
June 16, 2025
Read this with The Short Story Club group* from the Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic but also can be found including in the collection of short stories in May Sinclair's Uncanny Stories.
Ah, love, sweet love. Ain't it grand?
No, not always. And certainly not here in a 1922 short story about the life (and death) of character Harriott Leigh. She should have played cards for a living, because she certainly was never lucky in love. Her last unsatisfactory affair would haunt her, well, forever.
Somewhere I read that May Sinclair was an under-rated author who deserves more attention. Her works deliciously embrace the new--at the time--advancements in 20th century psychology. She describes her characters with a fresh, bitter understanding of human nature. After reading just two works of hers, I am ready to heartily agree she should be better known. She's on my radar and on my definite TBR.
*The Short Story Club reads and discusses one short story per week. Join us at https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Note to self, June 15, 2025: 12,769 pages and 102 titles read.
Ah, love, sweet love. Ain't it grand?
No, not always. And certainly not here in a 1922 short story about the life (and death) of character Harriott Leigh. She should have played cards for a living, because she certainly was never lucky in love. Her last unsatisfactory affair would haunt her, well, forever.
Somewhere I read that May Sinclair was an under-rated author who deserves more attention. Her works deliciously embrace the new--at the time--advancements in 20th century psychology. She describes her characters with a fresh, bitter understanding of human nature. After reading just two works of hers, I am ready to heartily agree she should be better known. She's on my radar and on my definite TBR.
*The Short Story Club reads and discusses one short story per week. Join us at https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Note to self, June 15, 2025: 12,769 pages and 102 titles read.
June 14, 2025
Have you ever been in one of those tricky, sticky situations where you really wish you could escape, irksome, but made much worse from feeling trapped - seeming to last for an eternity, or even bound beyond (bond), even if it is but a moment - well here we have this story which made me feel just that in reading it - just kidding, not quite so bad, but it was hard to commiserate with the characters while personally experiencing a similar pain from reading it. And I'm not even suggesting the author was successfully conveying a pain to me the reader - the pain was just in reading this. And all that to be standing tall for the short story club to which I belong. I jest. But if this had been a novella, I would have quit it.
Actually, some of the descriptive verse was not half-bad, such as her romantic encounter imagery, but the best part being the description of the room "dissolving" for lack of a better term (read it for yourself). So this could have been a decent enough faTEFUL romance story (with a twist), if you're into that sort of thing, but again not my cup of tea. And if going that route, I would have recommended a salvation way out for the character in her one true requited love, but the author was having none of that - oh well, and again oh hell.
Actually, some of the descriptive verse was not half-bad, such as her romantic encounter imagery, but the best part being the description of the room "dissolving" for lack of a better term (read it for yourself). So this could have been a decent enough faTEFUL romance story (with a twist), if you're into that sort of thing, but again not my cup of tea. And if going that route, I would have recommended a salvation way out for the character in her one true requited love, but the author was having none of that - oh well, and again oh hell.
April 30, 2020
El infierno está lleno de gente parecida a otra gente, aburridos, fingiendo, preocupados por lo que los demás, también simuladores, digan. Cuando el infierno, cansado de su condición, al igual que Brahma se cansó de mirarse, decide huir dejándonos el terror último, el peor, la pastosa eternidad sin centro, una fechada de otra fachada, un laberinto de espejos rotos absolutamente borgeano.
El mito de Sísifo multiplicado infinitesimalmente pero sin dioses que castiguen, sin un gran Sujeto con quien enfrentarse.
Demasiado real, demasiado acá para tener esperanzas en un infierno mejor, más digno, más infernal, más lógico.
El infierno es el absurdo eterno, tan ancho como largo, un depósito imposible donde los ecos se confunden con las palabras y "todo lo sólido se desvanece en el aire".
El mito de Sísifo multiplicado infinitesimalmente pero sin dioses que castiguen, sin un gran Sujeto con quien enfrentarse.
Demasiado real, demasiado acá para tener esperanzas en un infierno mejor, más digno, más infernal, más lógico.
El infierno es el absurdo eterno, tan ancho como largo, un depósito imposible donde los ecos se confunden con las palabras y "todo lo sólido se desvanece en el aire".
October 9, 2024
Stuck with a man you don't love for all of eternity, a man you're bored with and who is equally bored of you, where the only memories you have are of him and everything and everyone else is forgotten until there is nothing left but you and him and the mistakes of your past. Welcome to this woman's personal hell.
January 7, 2024
Um conto assustador, não porque seja realmente terror no sentido de seres sobrenaturais terríveis, mas no sentido do que nós fazemos a nós mesmos, e de como todas as nossas ações podem afetar inclusive nossas memórias. É uma visão do inferno diferente de tudo que já li. Muito bom.
October 17, 2024
Un recull de contes o relats de caire gòtic, on el més destacat és el primer anomenat com el títol del llibre. La resta són més aviat històries de fantasmes, on es reflexiona sobre els temes com la culpa.
Un llibre més que recomanat si vols passar una nit de por!
Un llibre més que recomanat si vols passar una nit de por!
October 2, 2017
Una historia corta que relata el amor y el desamor, la necesidad de compañía. Qué bella es la soledad.
March 21, 2021
Read for uni
January 21, 2022
Me encanto y me transporto dentro de la historia, me recordó a La vida invisible de Addie LaRue.
September 28, 2024
Como dijo Borges: "Recuérdese la pobreza de los infiernos que han elaborado los teólogos y que los poetas han representado; léase después este cuento".
Read
November 5, 2024el vaig trobar en un re-read o em va trobar a mi? l’he gaudit molt💌
May 9, 2025
Aún estoy procesando lo que acabo de leer (?) No conocía a la autora y definitivamente quiero seguir con su obra (aunque no sé que me espera)
December 3, 2024
''O estranho é que estava fora do tempo. Lembrava-se confusamente de que um dia houve uma coisa chamada tempo: não conseguia imaginá-lo. Percebia coisas que aconteciam ou que estavam por acontecer. Fixava-as pelo lugar que ocupavam e media sua duração pelo espaço. Agora pensava: se pelo menos pudesse recuar até o lugar onde aquilo não aconteceu.
Selecionada por Borges, Ocampo e Bioy na ALF. Uma das abordagens mais interessantes que já li do inferno. A autora o representa de um jeito mais temporal e psicológico, em vez de com chamas, diabos e tridentes. A danação é a eterna repetição, é a imortalidade do ponto de vista da reincidência de pecados e romances amargos (e erros!) que acontecem de novo e de novo e de novo. Fica no primeiro patamar da Antologia da Literatura Fantástica, e olha que nesse livro o sarrafo é alto.
“Você acha que o passado afeta o futuro. Nunca parou para pensar que o futuro pode afetar o passado?”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2018
Llibre de relats on podem trobar, entre d’altres, On el foc no s’apaga, el conte més memorable segons Borges.
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