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Η θεία του Σίτον
Στο διήγημα "Η θεία του Σίτον" η αφήγηση ξεδιπλώνεται και σαν λεπτομερής σπουδή χαρακτήρων, ενώ εκτυλίσσεται «στο νοσηρό περιβάλλον ενός υποχθόνιου βαμπιρισμού», όπου ο ντε λα Μέαρ, μέσα από ένα πανίσχυρο θηλυκό αρχέτυπο -τη γριά μάγισσα της λαογραφικής και ευρύτερης λογοτεχνικής παράδοσης-, εξερευνά την ιδέα της «τερατώδους μητέρας» και κατ' επέκταση του «τερατώδους θηλυκού», ανασυστήνοντας την ατμόσφαιρα του βικτωριανού «οικιακού γοτθικού». [...]
Στη μυθοπλασία του το σπίτι παραχωρεί τη θέση του σ' ένα απειλητικό οικοδόμημα-μαυσωλείο που αποκαλύπτεται σταδιακά ως φορέας ενός προϊστορικού Κακού, η εστία ως ιερό καταφύγιο υπονομεύεται, αποδεικνύεται αφιλόξενη και νοσογόνος και εντός της ένα παιδί χωρίς γονείς, παγιδευμένο και αδοήθητο, συγκρούεται με μια ενήλικη, υποκατάστατη γονεϊκή φιγούρα που επιθυμεί τον αφανισμό του. (Από την παρουσίαση στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου)
«Η γλώσσα του Ουόλτερ ντε λα Μέαρ θυμίζει ψιθυριστό ξόρκι για τη διάνοιξη της πρόσβασης στα φαντάσματα του νου» (T.S. Eliot)
«Είναι ένας από τους ελάχιστους για τους οποίους το εξωπραγματικό υφίσταται ως εναργής, αδιαμφισβήτητη παρουσία, εξού και διαθέτει την ικανότητα να εμποτίζει τις περιστασιακές μελέτες του περί φόβου με την ένταση που συνιστά αποκλειστικό γνώρισμα του σπάνιου αριστοτέχνη». (H.P. Lovecraft)
Στη μυθοπλασία του το σπίτι παραχωρεί τη θέση του σ' ένα απειλητικό οικοδόμημα-μαυσωλείο που αποκαλύπτεται σταδιακά ως φορέας ενός προϊστορικού Κακού, η εστία ως ιερό καταφύγιο υπονομεύεται, αποδεικνύεται αφιλόξενη και νοσογόνος και εντός της ένα παιδί χωρίς γονείς, παγιδευμένο και αδοήθητο, συγκρούεται με μια ενήλικη, υποκατάστατη γονεϊκή φιγούρα που επιθυμεί τον αφανισμό του. (Από την παρουσίαση στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου)
«Η γλώσσα του Ουόλτερ ντε λα Μέαρ θυμίζει ψιθυριστό ξόρκι για τη διάνοιξη της πρόσβασης στα φαντάσματα του νου» (T.S. Eliot)
«Είναι ένας από τους ελάχιστους για τους οποίους το εξωπραγματικό υφίσταται ως εναργής, αδιαμφισβήτητη παρουσία, εξού και διαθέτει την ικανότητα να εμποτίζει τις περιστασιακές μελέτες του περί φόβου με την ένταση που συνιστά αποκλειστικό γνώρισμα του σπάνιου αριστοτέχνη». (H.P. Lovecraft)
98 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1921
4 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Walter de la Mare
524 books173 followersWalter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fiction, including "Seaton's Aunt" and "All Hallows". In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 34 reviews
January 25, 2025
This is a fairly traditional creepy story, set mostly in a big house, where even Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata becomes menacing. However, the gratuitous nastiness of the first few paragraphs nearly made me put it aside: “distastefully foreign” compared with “us true-blue Englishmen” and more besides. I'm glad I persisted, though. The narrator’s desire to be “deliberately aloof” from the “sallow” Seaton is part of the point, and sadly common in his class at the time.
The narrator is at boarding school and spends an uneasy night at a fellow pupil’s home:
“We stood leaning over the staircase. It was like leaning over a well, so still and chill the air was all around us. But presently, as I suppose happens in most old houses, began to echo and answer in my ears a medley of infinite small stirrings and whisperings.”
Years later, he visits again, and I thought of Great Expectations, though they’re not much alike.
Eyes and ears
I first encountered de la Mare as a young child, via his poem, The Listeners. The plot seems to be about listening, but really, it's more about the eyes:
“She sees everything. And what she doesn’t see she knows without.”
There are 37 mentions in 15 pages, including:
• “slow chocolate−coloured eyes”
• “sluggish eyes fixed for the most part on my face”
• “her eyes regarded me with such leaden penetration beneath their thick lids that I doubt if my face concealed the least thought from her.”
• “There's hundreds of eyes like that in this house; and even if God does see you, He takes precious good care you don't see Him. And it's just the same with them.”
• “I saw his face change, saw his eyes suddenly drop like shot birds and fix themselves on the cranny of the door he had just left ajar.”
• “his eyes gleamed darkly, watching me”
• “those flat, slow, vigilant eyes.”
• “their eyes met in a kind of instantaneous understanding”
• “her eyes groped, as it were, over my vacant, disconcerted face”
Image: An eye, surrounded by the words, “Thou God seest ME”, hangs in the room where Withers, the narrator, stays (Source)
Also:
“I could scarcely see her little glittering eyes under their penthouse lids.”
I was surprised to read "penthouse" as a metaphor based on its current meaning in a story from 1922. I know multi-storey apartment buildings existed by then, but I had assumed it was a relatively recent coinage. Etymology online attests it in that meaning to 1921, HERE.
What’s it all about? - no spoilers
I like the ambiguity, even after I spotted foreshadowing when I immediately reread it. Is Seaton mad? Is his aunt mad? Is Withers making it all up? Are there supernatural forces at play? To what extent was the “chance” meeting chance?
The closing metaphor chills without supernatural force. It echoes what’s happened and firmly underlines Seaton’s isolation and Withers’ wilful blindness to it. I don’t think de la Mare is espousing Withers’ prejudice.
Quotes
• “Seaton was about the only fellow at Gummidge’s who ever had the ostentation to use bad language.”
• "She's in league... She just sucks you dry."
• “The breakfast−room was sweet with flowers and fruit and honey. Seaton's aunt was standing in the garden beside the open French windows, feeding a great flutter of birds.” [Such a contrast to the disturbing night.]
• “A pale haze of cloud muffled the sun; the garden lay in a grey shimmer—its old trees, its snap−dragoned faintly glittering walls. But now there was an air of slovenliness where before all had been neat and methodical… The goddess of neglect brooded in secret.”
• “We are nothing better than interlopers on the earth, disfiguring and staining wherever we go.”
• “The meal was tremendous. I have never seen such a monstrous salad.”
• “The flashing blooming of the covered-in jeweller’s shop.”
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here.
The narrator is at boarding school and spends an uneasy night at a fellow pupil’s home:
“We stood leaning over the staircase. It was like leaning over a well, so still and chill the air was all around us. But presently, as I suppose happens in most old houses, began to echo and answer in my ears a medley of infinite small stirrings and whisperings.”
Years later, he visits again, and I thought of Great Expectations, though they’re not much alike.
Eyes and ears
I first encountered de la Mare as a young child, via his poem, The Listeners. The plot seems to be about listening, but really, it's more about the eyes:
“She sees everything. And what she doesn’t see she knows without.”
There are 37 mentions in 15 pages, including:
• “slow chocolate−coloured eyes”
• “sluggish eyes fixed for the most part on my face”
• “her eyes regarded me with such leaden penetration beneath their thick lids that I doubt if my face concealed the least thought from her.”
• “There's hundreds of eyes like that in this house; and even if God does see you, He takes precious good care you don't see Him. And it's just the same with them.”
• “I saw his face change, saw his eyes suddenly drop like shot birds and fix themselves on the cranny of the door he had just left ajar.”
• “his eyes gleamed darkly, watching me”
• “those flat, slow, vigilant eyes.”
• “their eyes met in a kind of instantaneous understanding”
• “her eyes groped, as it were, over my vacant, disconcerted face”
Image: An eye, surrounded by the words, “Thou God seest ME”, hangs in the room where Withers, the narrator, stays (Source)
Also:
“I could scarcely see her little glittering eyes under their penthouse lids.”
I was surprised to read "penthouse" as a metaphor based on its current meaning in a story from 1922. I know multi-storey apartment buildings existed by then, but I had assumed it was a relatively recent coinage. Etymology online attests it in that meaning to 1921, HERE.
What’s it all about? - no spoilers
I like the ambiguity, even after I spotted foreshadowing when I immediately reread it. Is Seaton mad? Is his aunt mad? Is Withers making it all up? Are there supernatural forces at play? To what extent was the “chance” meeting chance?
The closing metaphor chills without supernatural force. It echoes what’s happened and firmly underlines Seaton’s isolation and Withers’ wilful blindness to it. I don’t think de la Mare is espousing Withers’ prejudice.
Quotes
• “Seaton was about the only fellow at Gummidge’s who ever had the ostentation to use bad language.”
• "She's in league... She just sucks you dry."
• “The breakfast−room was sweet with flowers and fruit and honey. Seaton's aunt was standing in the garden beside the open French windows, feeding a great flutter of birds.” [Such a contrast to the disturbing night.]
• “A pale haze of cloud muffled the sun; the garden lay in a grey shimmer—its old trees, its snap−dragoned faintly glittering walls. But now there was an air of slovenliness where before all had been neat and methodical… The goddess of neglect brooded in secret.”
• “We are nothing better than interlopers on the earth, disfiguring and staining wherever we go.”
• “The meal was tremendous. I have never seen such a monstrous salad.”
• “The flashing blooming of the covered-in jeweller’s shop.”
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here.
February 18, 2025
The Short Story Club
The two best things about 'Seaton's Aunt' is its atmosphere and deeply psychological portrayal of the characters.
The description of narrator and Seaton's personalities is brilliant. Seaton is an unloved, lonely, vulnerable orphan dominated by his sinister aunt. The narrator is his well-bred, popular but indifferent schoolfellow. Seaton attempts to confide in the narrator but is not taken seriously. He desperately tries to escape his likely fate but who or what can help him?
Nothing is certain, supernatural phenomena (or crimes) are not visible but just suggested and yet, dread is mounting throughout the story. The story and its events are open to the reader's interpretation.
The two best things about 'Seaton's Aunt' is its atmosphere and deeply psychological portrayal of the characters.
The description of narrator and Seaton's personalities is brilliant. Seaton is an unloved, lonely, vulnerable orphan dominated by his sinister aunt. The narrator is his well-bred, popular but indifferent schoolfellow. Seaton attempts to confide in the narrator but is not taken seriously. He desperately tries to escape his likely fate but who or what can help him?
Nothing is certain, supernatural phenomena (or crimes) are not visible but just suggested and yet, dread is mounting throughout the story. The story and its events are open to the reader's interpretation.
February 11, 2025
3★
“ ‘I tell you, Withers,’" he went on moodily, slinking across the meadow with his hands covered up in his pockets, ‘she sees everything. And what she doesn't see she knows without.’”
Arthur Seaton is a sallow, quiet, unpopular schoolboy for whom Withers feels a bit sorry. Seaton is bullied or ignored, depending on the mood of the boys, but Withers makes occasional contact with him.
When Seaton invites him to visit at his Aunt’s magnificent country house, Withers would rather not accept, but in the end he decides to go. When they get there, Seaton is visibly uncomfortable.
It’s while they are walking through the garden and the estate that Seaton makes the comment about his aunt knowing and seeing all, like some kind of fortune-teller.
“‘But how?’ I said, not because I was much interested, but because the afternoon was so hot and tiresome and purposeless, and it seemed more of a bore to remain silent.
Seaton turned gloomily and spoke in a very low voice. ‘Don't appear to be talking of her, if you wouldn't mind. It's—because she's in league with the devil.’ ”
Curiously, the aunt seems to like Withers/Smithers, whatever his name is.
“ ‘So this is your friend Mr. Smithers, I suppose?’ she said, bobbing to me.
‘Withers, aunt,’ said Seaton.
‘It's much the same,’ she said, with eyes fixed on me. ‘Come in, Mr. Withers, and bring him along with you.’ She continued to gaze at me—at least, I think she did so. I know that the fixity of her scrutiny and her ironical "Mr." made me feel peculiarly uncomfortable. None the less she was extremely kind and attentive to me, though, no doubt, her kindness and attention showed up more vividly against her complete neglect of Seaton. Only one remark that I have any recollection of she made.to him: ‘When I look on my nephew, Mr. Smithers, I realise that dust we are, and dust shall become. You are hot, dirty, and incorrigible, Arthur.’”
The aunt is certainly a piece of work, as the saying goes, with a big head and an enormous amount of hair. I pictured her as a character out of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or something similar. But I didn’t find her frightening.
There is more to the story than this, as the boys grow older and meet again. It didn’t seem particularly scary or even intriguing to me, but I don’t know how it would have been received when it was written a century ago.
This is another from the Goodreads Short Story Club Group here:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
You can get a free PDF of the story here:
http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/8...
“ ‘I tell you, Withers,’" he went on moodily, slinking across the meadow with his hands covered up in his pockets, ‘she sees everything. And what she doesn't see she knows without.’”
Arthur Seaton is a sallow, quiet, unpopular schoolboy for whom Withers feels a bit sorry. Seaton is bullied or ignored, depending on the mood of the boys, but Withers makes occasional contact with him.
When Seaton invites him to visit at his Aunt’s magnificent country house, Withers would rather not accept, but in the end he decides to go. When they get there, Seaton is visibly uncomfortable.
It’s while they are walking through the garden and the estate that Seaton makes the comment about his aunt knowing and seeing all, like some kind of fortune-teller.
“‘But how?’ I said, not because I was much interested, but because the afternoon was so hot and tiresome and purposeless, and it seemed more of a bore to remain silent.
Seaton turned gloomily and spoke in a very low voice. ‘Don't appear to be talking of her, if you wouldn't mind. It's—because she's in league with the devil.’ ”
Curiously, the aunt seems to like Withers/Smithers, whatever his name is.
“ ‘So this is your friend Mr. Smithers, I suppose?’ she said, bobbing to me.
‘Withers, aunt,’ said Seaton.
‘It's much the same,’ she said, with eyes fixed on me. ‘Come in, Mr. Withers, and bring him along with you.’ She continued to gaze at me—at least, I think she did so. I know that the fixity of her scrutiny and her ironical "Mr." made me feel peculiarly uncomfortable. None the less she was extremely kind and attentive to me, though, no doubt, her kindness and attention showed up more vividly against her complete neglect of Seaton. Only one remark that I have any recollection of she made.to him: ‘When I look on my nephew, Mr. Smithers, I realise that dust we are, and dust shall become. You are hot, dirty, and incorrigible, Arthur.’”
The aunt is certainly a piece of work, as the saying goes, with a big head and an enormous amount of hair. I pictured her as a character out of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or something similar. But I didn’t find her frightening.
There is more to the story than this, as the boys grow older and meet again. It didn’t seem particularly scary or even intriguing to me, but I don’t know how it would have been received when it was written a century ago.
This is another from the Goodreads Short Story Club Group here:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
You can get a free PDF of the story here:
http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/8...
January 20, 2025
"Seaton's Aunt" is an unsettling story that first involves the interactions of two schoolboys in a boarding school full of prejudice against anyone that looks a little different. Then Seaton takes Withers home to meet his creepy aunt, and things get really strange. The aunt seems fascinated by death, and the old house has its own secrets. The story becomes more and more terrifying. 3.5 stars.
I read this story with the Short Story Club. We're reading the anthology "Black Water: the Book of Fantastic Literature."
I read this story with the Short Story Club. We're reading the anthology "Black Water: the Book of Fantastic Literature."
March 3, 2021
Mesmerizing and deeply disturbing, Seaton’s Aunt really shows how De La Mare paved the way for the subtle strangeness of Robert Aickman. Like Walter De La Mare’s other ghostly tales, this will linger on in the back of my mind. Sheer perfection.
January 21, 2025
A short story about two schoolboys, and one of them has a mysterious domineering aunt.
The story goes downhill from there — mysteries deepen, interest lags.
I had trouble finishing this story; having paused with 5 pages to go, had trouble rejoining the flow.
Not very familiar with this author, although I have read another story of his, Broomsticks, which was in a cat anthology. (Walter de la Mare has the ability to even make a cat story dull.)
The story goes downhill from there — mysteries deepen, interest lags.
I had trouble finishing this story; having paused with 5 pages to go, had trouble rejoining the flow.
Not very familiar with this author, although I have read another story of his, Broomsticks, which was in a cat anthology. (Walter de la Mare has the ability to even make a cat story dull.)
June 8, 2019
One of de la Mare's best weird/supernatural stories evident of the author's outstanding ability in crafting slow-building dread and gloomy atmosphere.
Highly recommended for fans of subtle horror and ambiguous endings.
Highly recommended for fans of subtle horror and ambiguous endings.
July 30, 2025
Διαβάζοντας το "Η θεία του Σίτον" ένιωσα εκείνο το ιδιαίτερο, σχεδόν υπνωτιστικό βάρος που αφήνουν τα υπόγεια και υπαινικτικά έργα της αγγλικής φανταστικής λογοτεχνίας. Ο Ουόλτερ ντε λα Μέαρ δεν προσφέρει στον αναγνώστη του ένα ξεκάθαρο μονοπάτι. Αντίθετα, τον οδηγεί μέσα από ένα αχνό τοπίο όπου τα όρια ανάμεσα στο πραγματικό και το απόκοσμο γίνονται ολοένα και πιο ασαφή.
Η ιστορία ακολουθεί την αφήγηση ενός άνδρα που αναπολεί τη γνωριμία του με τον Σίτον, έναν αλλόκοτο συμμαθητή του, και κυρίως την ακόμα πιο παράξενη θεία του, μια φιγούρα αινιγματική, σχεδόν φασματική, που αιωρείται διαρκώς μεταξύ γελοιότητας και φρίκης. Η αφήγηση είναι αργή, βραδυφλεγής, αλλά κάθε τόσο ξεσπά με λεπτές, υπόγειες ανατριχίλες.
Αυτό που με συγκλόνισε δεν ήταν κάποια εξωτερική δράση ,γιατί ουσιαστικά δεν υπάρχει, αλλά η αίσθηση του αδιόρατου τρόμου που σιγά-σιγά εισχωρεί μέσα στο μυαλό του αναγνώστη. Δεν ξέρεις αν αυτό που διαβάζεις είναι μια παιδική υπερβολή, φαντασία ενός ευαίσθητου νου, ή αν πράγματι η θεία του Σίτον είναι κάτι πέρα από το ανθρώπινο.
Ο ντε λα Μέαρ καταφέρνει κάτι εξαιρετικά δύσκολο: να πλάσει τρόμο χωρίς να δείξει σχεδόν τίποτα. Δεν υπάρχει αίμα, δεν υπάρχουν τέρατα, μόνο σκιές, σιωπές και ένα σπίτι που θυμίζει παγίδα. Η ίδια η θεία παραμένει σκόπιμα απροσδιόριστη, δεν την καταλαβαίνουμε ποτέ πλήρως, αλλά τη νιώθουμε να μας παρακολουθεί από τις σελίδες. Μία αίσθηση ακινησίας διατρέχει ολόκληρη την ιστορία. Όλα φαίνονται σαν να έχουν παγώσει σ’ έναν αλλόκοτο χρόνο, έναν χρόνο παιδικής μνήμης, γεμάτο απορίες και σκοτεινές εντυπώσεις που ποτέ δεν ξεκαθαρίζουν.
Δεν ξέρω αν τελικά ο Σίτον ή η θεία του ήταν όντως φορείς κάποιου υπερφυσικού στοιχείου ή απλώς αντανάκλαση της εσωτερικής μοναξιάς και του παιδικού τρόμου. Αυτό που ξέρω είναι ότι η ιστορία αυτή με ακολούθησε και μετά το πέρας της ανάγνωσης. Όχι με κραυγές ή σκηνές έντασης, αλλά με εκείνη τη σιωπηλή αναστάτωση που αφήνουν τα όνειρα που δεν καταλαβαίνεις αλλά δεν ξεχνάς.
Η ιστορία ακολουθεί την αφήγηση ενός άνδρα που αναπολεί τη γνωριμία του με τον Σίτον, έναν αλλόκοτο συμμαθητή του, και κυρίως την ακόμα πιο παράξενη θεία του, μια φιγούρα αινιγματική, σχεδόν φασματική, που αιωρείται διαρκώς μεταξύ γελοιότητας και φρίκης. Η αφήγηση είναι αργή, βραδυφλεγής, αλλά κάθε τόσο ξεσπά με λεπτές, υπόγειες ανατριχίλες.
Αυτό που με συγκλόνισε δεν ήταν κάποια εξωτερική δράση ,γιατί ουσιαστικά δεν υπάρχει, αλλά η αίσθηση του αδιόρατου τρόμου που σιγά-σιγά εισχωρεί μέσα στο μυαλό του αναγνώστη. Δεν ξέρεις αν αυτό που διαβάζεις είναι μια παιδική υπερβολή, φαντασία ενός ευαίσθητου νου, ή αν πράγματι η θεία του Σίτον είναι κάτι πέρα από το ανθρώπινο.
Ο ντε λα Μέαρ καταφέρνει κάτι εξαιρετικά δύσκολο: να πλάσει τρόμο χωρίς να δείξει σχεδόν τίποτα. Δεν υπάρχει αίμα, δεν υπάρχουν τέρατα, μόνο σκιές, σιωπές και ένα σπίτι που θυμίζει παγίδα. Η ίδια η θεία παραμένει σκόπιμα απροσδιόριστη, δεν την καταλαβαίνουμε ποτέ πλήρως, αλλά τη νιώθουμε να μας παρακολουθεί από τις σελίδες. Μία αίσθηση ακινησίας διατρέχει ολόκληρη την ιστορία. Όλα φαίνονται σαν να έχουν παγώσει σ’ έναν αλλόκοτο χρόνο, έναν χρόνο παιδικής μνήμης, γεμάτο απορίες και σκοτεινές εντυπώσεις που ποτέ δεν ξεκαθαρίζουν.
Δεν ξέρω αν τελικά ο Σίτον ή η θεία του ήταν όντως φορείς κάποιου υπερφυσικού στοιχείου ή απλώς αντανάκλαση της εσωτερικής μοναξιάς και του παιδικού τρόμου. Αυτό που ξέρω είναι ότι η ιστορία αυτή με ακολούθησε και μετά το πέρας της ανάγνωσης. Όχι με κραυγές ή σκηνές έντασης, αλλά με εκείνη τη σιωπηλή αναστάτωση που αφήνουν τα όνειρα που δεν καταλαβαίνεις αλλά δεν ξεχνάς.
July 23, 2019
I love this story. In fact, it might be my favourite weird tale. This is an incredibly subtle kind of horror, to the point where it's very difficult to describe exactly why it's terrifying, but the language is remarkable, and there's a very specific kind of strangeness to the details that give a the story a sense that we're peeking in on a situation that's impossibly vast and unknowable. A real treat for anyone who loves that uneasy feeling.
March 19, 2018
Listened to on LibriVox.
February 9, 2025
This might be my favourite piece of horror fiction. The narrative lucanae are pitched so precisely for the terror and melancholy of the story, the atmosphere and characters so real and suggestive of the unreal...
The final line lands with devastating power.
The final line lands with devastating power.
August 7, 2025
Προσεγμένο και υπαινικτικό, αλλά δεν μπορώ να πω κι ότι μου άρεσε.
October 9, 2022
“She gazed softly into the garden a moment, and presently, with a shake of her body, began to play the opening bars of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." The piano was old and woolly. She played without music. The lamplight was rather dim. The moonbeams from the window lay across the keys. Her head was in shadow. And whether it was simply due to her personality or to some really occult skill in her playing I cannot say: I only know that she gravely and deliberately set herself to satirise the beautiful music. It brooded on the air, disillusioned, charged with mockery and bitterness. I stood at the window; far down the path I could see the white figure glimmering in that pool of colourless light. A few faint stars shone, and still that amazing woman behind me dragged out of the unwilling keys her wonderful grotesquerie of youth, and love, and beauty.”
“Seaton’s Aunt” by Walter de la Mare is a deeply unsettling story. Upon completing it, I initially gave it 4 stars, but it has left such a lasting impression on my mind that I felt the need to upgrade that to 5 stays. The author creates a creeping sense of unease without . This is a remarkable feat.
I read “Seaton’s Aunt” because it is featured in The Literature of Lovecraft, Vol. 1 , a collection of strange stories that were admired by H.P. Lovecraft. In his literary essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, HPL had this to say about de la Mare:
Deserving of distinguished notice as a forceful craftsman to whom an unseen mystic world is ever a close and vital reality is the poet Walter de la Mare, whose haunting verse and exquisite prose alike bear consistent traces of a strange vision reaching deeply into veiled spheres of beauty and terrible and forbidden dimensions of being. In the novel The Return we see the soul of a dead man reach out of its grave of two centuries and fasten itself upon the flesh of the living, so that even the face of the victim becomes that which had long ago returned to dust. Of the shorter tales, of which several volumes exist, many are unforgettable for their command of fear’s and sorcery’s darkest ramifications; notably “Seaton’s Aunt”, in which there lowers a noxious background of malignant vampirism; “The Tree”, which tells of a frightful vegetable growth in the yard of a starving artist; “Out of the Deep”, wherein we are given leave to imagine what thing answered the summons of a dying wastrel in a dark lonely house when he pulled a long-feared bell-cord in the attic chamber of his dread-haunted boyhood; “A Recluse”, which hints at what sent a chance guest flying from a house in the night; “Mr. Kempe”, which shews us a mad clerical hermit in quest of the human soul, dwelling in a frightful sea-cliff region beside an archaic abandoned chapel; and “All-Hallows”, a glimpse of daemoniac forces besieging a lonely mediaeval church and miraculously restoring the rotting masonry. De la Mare does not make fear the sole or even the dominant element of most of his tales, being apparently more interested in the subtleties of character involved. Occasionally he sinks to sheer whimsical phantasy of the Barrie order. Still, he is among the very few to whom unreality is a vivid, living presence; and as such he is able to put into his occasional fear-studies a keen potency which only a rare master can achieve. His poem “The Listeners” restores the Gothic shudder to modern verse.
It is “the subtleties of character” that have made “Seaton’s Aunt” so memorable. I highly recommend it to people that enjoy horror fiction.
Title: Seaton’s Aunt
Author: Walter de la Mare
Dates: 1922
Genre: Fiction - Novelette*, horror
Word count: 11,703 words*
Date(s) read: 10/8/22-10/9/22
Reading journal entry #277 in 2022
Link to the story: http://www.searchengine.org.uk/ebooks...
Link to Lovecraft’s essay: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...
Link to the image: https://10badhabits.com/2020/10/12/bw...
Sources:
Fifer, C., & Lackey, C. (2014, October 16). Episode 229. H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
https://www.hppodcraft.com/episodes/2...
Fifer, C., & Lackey, C. (2014, October 23. Episode 230. H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
https://www.hppodcraft.com/list/2014/...
Lovecraft, H. P., & Joshi, S. T. (2012). The annotated supernatural horror in literature (second edition). Hippocampus Press. https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/... (Original work published 1927)
De la Mare, W. (2021). Seaton’s aunt. In H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (Ed.), The literature of Lovecraft, vol. 1.. (S. Branney, Narr.; A. Leman, Narr.) [Audiobook]. HPLHS. https://www.hplhs.org/lol.php (Original work published 1922)
The contents of The Literature of Lovecraft, Vol. 1 are:
"The Black Stone" by Robert E. Howard
The Place Called Dagon by Herbert Gorman
"Skule Skerry" by John Buchan
"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith
Here is a list of the stories in the order in which they were written, with links to my reviews of them:
The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori
The Adventure of the German Student (1824) by Washington Irving
The Tapestried Chamber (1828) by Walter Scott
The Minister's Black Veil (1836) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Venus of Ille (1837) by by Prosper Mérimée
The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains (1839) by Frederick Marryat
The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe
What Was It? (1859) by by Fitz-James O'Brien
The House and the Brain (1859) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Signal-Man (1866) by Charles Dickens
The Man-Wolf by Erckmann-Chatrian
The Ghostly Kiss (1880) by Lafcadio Hearn
One of Cleopatra's Nights (1882) by by Théophile Gautier
The Upper Berth (1886) by F. Marion Crawford
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Horla (1887) by Guy de Maupassant
The Phantom Rickshaw (1888) by Rudyard Kipling
”The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” (1891) by Ambrose Bierce
Lot #249 (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Ghost of Fear (1894) by H.G. Wells- also called The Red Room
The Yellow Sign (1895) by Robert W. Chambers
The Dead Valley (1895) by Ralph Adams Cram
The Were-Wolf (1896) by Clemence Housman
The Monkey's Paw (1902) by W.W. Jacobs
The Shadows on the Wall (1903) by Mary E. Wilkins
Count Magnus (1904) by M.R. James
The White People (1904) by Arthur Machen
The Willows (1907) by Algernon Blackwood
The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907) by William Hope Hodgson
Idle Days on the Yann (1910) by Lord Dunsany
The Story of a Panic (1911) by E.M. Forster
The House of Sounds (1911) by Matthew Phipps Shiel
A Shop in Go-By Street (1912) by Lord Dunsany
The Avenger of Perdóndaris (1912) by Lord Dunsany
sThe Spider (1915) by Hanns Heinz Ewer
The Death Mask (1920) by H.D. Everett
The Bad Lands (1920) by John Metcalfe
Seaton's Aunt (1922) by Walter de la Mare
The Place Called Dagon (1927)
Skule Skerry (1928)
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros (1929)
The Black Stone (1931)
*The difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Diff...
Vignette, prose poem, flash fiction: 53 - 1,000 words
Short Stories: 1,000 - 7,500
Novelettes: 7,500 - 17,000
Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000
Novels: 40,000 + words
November 24, 2024
Relatives.
Ugh. Speculative? Not the best speculative, as far as I'm concerned. Way too open ended and an aftertaste of nothingness. Sad. This had actually something very good going, superbly unsettling, eerie, and memorable, until that ending that totally blew it. Bummer. I'd have ended it so differently.
Low priority RTC.
It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.
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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1921] [48p] [Horror] [2.5] [Not Recommendable]
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★★★★☆ The Riddle.
★★☆☆☆ Seaton's Aunt. [2.5]
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Familiares.
Bah ¿Especulativo? No de lo mejor especulativo, en lo que a mí concierne. Demasiado abierto y con un final con sabor a nada. Triste. En realidad, esto venía con algo muy bueno, magníficamente inquietante, perturbador, y memorable, hasta ese final que lo arruinó todo por completo. Bajón. Yo lo habría terminado de una manera muy distinta.
RTC de baja prioridad.
Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.
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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1921] [48p] [Horror] [2.5] [No Recomendable]
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Ugh. Speculative? Not the best speculative, as far as I'm concerned. Way too open ended and an aftertaste of nothingness. Sad. This had actually something very good going, superbly unsettling, eerie, and memorable, until that ending that totally blew it. Bummer. I'd have ended it so differently.
Low priority RTC.
It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1921] [48p] [Horror] [2.5] [Not Recommendable]
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★★★★☆ The Riddle.
★★☆☆☆ Seaton's Aunt. [2.5]
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Familiares.
Bah ¿Especulativo? No de lo mejor especulativo, en lo que a mí concierne. Demasiado abierto y con un final con sabor a nada. Triste. En realidad, esto venía con algo muy bueno, magníficamente inquietante, perturbador, y memorable, hasta ese final que lo arruinó todo por completo. Bajón. Yo lo habría terminado de una manera muy distinta.
RTC de baja prioridad.
Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1921] [48p] [Horror] [2.5] [No Recomendable]
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August 23, 2022
Es complicado que una obra consiga cumplir las expectativas que has puesto sobre ella, este es uno de esos casos.
El estilo de los relatos de De La Mare son únicos. ¿En qué género englobaríamos la obra de De La Mare? Fantasía psicológica, terror ambiental, horror melancólico, infancia tenebrosa... No sé si serán géneros pero sí temáticas que se desarrollan en los relatos. Nunca había leído una visión tan oscura de la visión de la infancia sin recurrir a esa visceralidad tan típica de la narrativa bizarra. Unos relatos en los que aúnan la infancia de aventuras con el terror, un terror que suele contraponerse con figuras de la vejez y la autoridad, nunca vida y muerte estuvieron tan cerca.
Además encontramos en De La Mare ese fantástico cotidiano que podemos encontrar en Un fragmento de vida de Machen pero con un reverso mucho más oscuro, repleto de personajes solitarios cuyo destino en la tierra es convertirse en una suerte de tótem de las líneas sanguíneas terminadas: mansiones semiabandonadas, estaciones fantasmas, pueblos minúsculos, herencias acabadas, etc.
Sólo puedo esperar a que mi amiga Leonor pueda traducir The Return.
El estilo de los relatos de De La Mare son únicos. ¿En qué género englobaríamos la obra de De La Mare? Fantasía psicológica, terror ambiental, horror melancólico, infancia tenebrosa... No sé si serán géneros pero sí temáticas que se desarrollan en los relatos. Nunca había leído una visión tan oscura de la visión de la infancia sin recurrir a esa visceralidad tan típica de la narrativa bizarra. Unos relatos en los que aúnan la infancia de aventuras con el terror, un terror que suele contraponerse con figuras de la vejez y la autoridad, nunca vida y muerte estuvieron tan cerca.
Además encontramos en De La Mare ese fantástico cotidiano que podemos encontrar en Un fragmento de vida de Machen pero con un reverso mucho más oscuro, repleto de personajes solitarios cuyo destino en la tierra es convertirse en una suerte de tótem de las líneas sanguíneas terminadas: mansiones semiabandonadas, estaciones fantasmas, pueblos minúsculos, herencias acabadas, etc.
Sólo puedo esperar a que mi amiga Leonor pueda traducir The Return.
August 26, 2013
An uber-subtle horror tale. de la Mare doesn't really let us see everything that's going on, he hints, gives us half glances and lets us imagine the true horror in it. Some people find this story very unsettling, I think it's very well written, but it's a little too subtle to be really terrifying.
June 22, 2017
Am I missing something here?
May 7, 2023
Good scary and disturbing. There are scarier things than ghosts.
June 5, 2021
‘She’s in league. You don’t know. She as good as killed my mother; I know that. But it’s not only her by a long chalk. She just sucks you dry. I know. And that’s what she’ll do for me; because I’m like her—like my mother, I mean. She simply hates to see me alive. . . .
"Seaton's Aunt" is a macabre short story by Walter de la Mare, one of those old granddaddies of the genre that set the stage with inspiration for authors as varied as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Aickman, and Ramsey Campbell. The story is told by Withers, the reluctant friend of a mistreated young man, Seaton, whom the reader meets in school as a bullied, unpopular child. As Seaton's only friend, Withers is invited to Seaton's house for an overnight stay, and meets the formidable aunt, a strange old woman covered in fancy lace. The sense of dread that emanates from the aunt, the strange, disturbing things she says - all of these elements combine with Withers skepticism so that the reader is unsure of what exactly is going on - until the very brutal end.
"Seaton's Aunt" is a macabre short story by Walter de la Mare, one of those old granddaddies of the genre that set the stage with inspiration for authors as varied as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Aickman, and Ramsey Campbell. The story is told by Withers, the reluctant friend of a mistreated young man, Seaton, whom the reader meets in school as a bullied, unpopular child. As Seaton's only friend, Withers is invited to Seaton's house for an overnight stay, and meets the formidable aunt, a strange old woman covered in fancy lace. The sense of dread that emanates from the aunt, the strange, disturbing things she says - all of these elements combine with Withers skepticism so that the reader is unsure of what exactly is going on - until the very brutal end.
January 24, 2025
I had forgotten Walter de la Mare!
I'm glad this week's GR's The Short Story Club* reminded me of this author. Back in school, did your class read the poem "The Listeners?" I recall its haunting impact on me as a kid very well.
Now, you've got to meet Seaton's Aunt. Be very glad that she's not your Aunt, but as a literary portrait she is a fascinating old biddy. Any old woman who wears her still plentiful hair piled on top of her head "barbarously" and who plays Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano "satirically" has got my attention.
But is she in league with the devil? You decide.
I now want to read more Walter de la Mare!
*The link to that group is https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
I'm glad this week's GR's The Short Story Club* reminded me of this author. Back in school, did your class read the poem "The Listeners?" I recall its haunting impact on me as a kid very well.
Now, you've got to meet Seaton's Aunt. Be very glad that she's not your Aunt, but as a literary portrait she is a fascinating old biddy. Any old woman who wears her still plentiful hair piled on top of her head "barbarously" and who plays Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano "satirically" has got my attention.
But is she in league with the devil? You decide.
I now want to read more Walter de la Mare!
*The link to that group is https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
June 21, 2023
A wonderful little novella. More than any other story I have come across, this drips with melancholy and dread. But is it actually a ghost story? And does anything inexplicable even happen? But if it isn't and it doesn't, then why on earth is it so horribly sinister? The simple truth is that in this shortest of stories, de la Mare has managed to create one of the most unforgettable monsters of fiction. A work of pure genius.
April 14, 2022
I listened to this as part of the box set Classic Tales of Horror - 500+. This is about two friend that when they get together the friend of Seaton is alway with the aunt. She is nice enough but in a strange way almost like a witch. I would recommend this short story to readers of horror. Enjoy the adventure of books. 2022
July 13, 2023
Yeah I’m not sure about this one… a great atmosphere was made, but I felt like by the end I was a bit lost and didn’t really get what was going on? Like I understand the basic plot, but it feels like the symbolism or purpose of the plot just went over my head…. Other than that though, when the boys are teenagers, the book is great, it’s just later on, I’m not sure I really understood it!
November 19, 2025
Creepy kid, creepy aunt, creepy old house...I could see this tale being read by Neil Gaiman as a youngster and having a profound influence on his aesthetics, but I have no idea if that's the case.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Read for my GR short story group
Tale collected in Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature, edited by Alberto Manguel
++++++++++++++++++++++
Read for my GR short story group
Tale collected in Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature, edited by Alberto Manguel
May 11, 2018
A classic story, mostly because of what it merely hints. Seaton's elderly auntie might be some sort of witch, able to communicate with the dead... or it might only be in the imaginations of Seaton and his friend, the narrator. Very good- and very unsettling.
July 19, 2025
This really is the kind of story I can settle down to and just enjoy the read. It's dark, atmospheric, brooding and you never quite know what's real and imagined. I really liked Arthur Seaton. He's off, a bit of an outcast. He manages to make friends with the narrator who visits him and his aunt twice at their home in the country. The place is haunting and his aunt, heavens, I find her a terrifying woman. The narrator though thinks everything Seaton says about her is exaggerated and his stories about ghosts in the house are dismissed.
I know, not much happens in the story and some readers criticise this kind of genre for that. But for me, nothing needs to happen. It's all about the characters, the real or imagined and the ever present sense of a menacing future.
I know, not much happens in the story and some readers criticise this kind of genre for that. But for me, nothing needs to happen. It's all about the characters, the real or imagined and the ever present sense of a menacing future.
August 21, 2025
Μια ατμοσφαιρική, μελαγχολική αφήγηση που ποτέ δεν ξέρεις τι είναι αληθινό και τι φανταστικό. Ο χαρακτήρας της θείας είναι μια μάλλον αινιγματική φιγούρα, με αποτέλεσμα η όλη ιστορία (και τα μεμονωμένα γεγονότα) να είναι ανοιχτή ως προς την ερμηνεία της.
February 7, 2019
Kind of spooky but I also kind of found it boring.
May 17, 2020
Creepy
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