A Name For Evil

by Andrew Lytle

A neurotic and obstinate novelist brings his young and sophisticated wife to a decaying southern estate in the hopes of reestablishing the squandered fortune of his once prominent family. Lurking there, however, is the old master, who has vowed that the estate would never again be made use of after his demise.

A Name For Evil is a masterwork of suspense by a true scholar and folklorist of the American South. Reminiscent of Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House.

Genres: Horror, Southern Gothic, Fiction

214 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Andrew Nelson Lytle (December 26, 1902 – December 12, 1995) was an American novelist, dramatist, essayist and professor of literature. He was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and early in his life planned to be an actor and playwright. He studied acting at Yale University and performed on Broadway when he was in his 20s.
Unlike other Southern intellectuals who left the region never to return, Lytle went home after the death of a kinsman. Except for brief sojourns elsewhere, he remained in the South for the rest of his life.
(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just didn't care enough to finish it.

[David R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfectly awesome short psychological gothic horror novel of the South. Relate to "The House of Seven Gables" by Hawthorne, and "The Jolly Corner" by Henry James. Goes very well with John Jeremiah Sullivan's "Mr. Lytle, an Essay" about the last year of this author's life, and his death, where his eulogy was "The Confederacy at last came to its end". I loved the formality and ornateness of the language and thought and the evocation of a faded and doomed culture (except lately, as it seems to be having something of a revival)! As a seething cauldron full of vipers do the sentences twist and fold back upon one another in ways that both fascinate and transfix.

[Benjamin Glaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enthralling gothic read that leads to an epic ending. Very enjoyable.