The Black Fox

by Gerald Heard

The setting of The Black Fox is an English cathedral close of the eighteen seventies. Here Thorocton is a Canon - an ambitious scholar and orientalist who despises one of his colleagues and fears another. When Canon Simpkins wins preferement over him his resentment is so great that partly to resolve his hatred he looks up an ancient Arabic formula for destroying one's enemy. What follows his brief ritualistic act gives this story its name and dark pattern...

Genres: Horror, Weird Fiction, Fiction

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Gerald Heard, born in London on October 6, 1889, of Irish ancestry, was educated in England, taking honors in history and studying theology at the University of Cambridge. Following Cambridge, he worked for Lord Robson of Jesmond and later for Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Irish Agriculture Cooperative movement. Heard began lecturing from 1926 to 1929 at Oxford University's Board of Extra Mural Studies. In 1927 he began lecturing for South Place Ethical Society. From 1929 to 1930 he edited "The Realist," a monthly journal of scientific humanism whose sponsors included H.G. Wells, Julian Huxley, and Aldous Huxley. In 1929 he published The Ascent of Humanity, an essay on the philosophy of history that received the prestigious Hertz Prize by the British Academy. From 1930 to 1934 he served as the BBC's first science commentator, and from 1932 to 1942 he was a council member of the Society for Psychical Research.

In 1937 Gerald Heard came to the United States, accompanied by Aldous Huxley, after having been offered the chair of historical anthropology at Duke University. After delivering some lectures at Duke, Heard gave up the post and soon settled in California where from 1941 to 1942 he founded and oversaw the building of Trabuco College, a large facility where comparative-religion studies and practices flourished under Heard's visionary direction. Trabuco College, 30 years ahead of its time, was discontinued in 1947, and the vast properties were subsequently donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

During the 1950s, Heard's main activities were writing and lecturing, along with an occasional television and radio appearance. His broad philosophical themes and scintillating oratorical style influenced many people and attracted a legion of interested persons. But chiefly he maintained a regular discipline of meditation for many years, as the core of his mature beliefs centered around the intentional evolution of consciousness.

A prolific writer, Heard penned some thirty-eight books, the most important of which are his pioneering academic works documenting the evolution of consciousness, including The Ascent of Humanity (1929), The Social Substance of Religion (1931), The Source of Civilization (1935), Pain, Sex and Time (1939), and his last book, The Five Ages of Man (1964). He also wrote several popular devotional books, including The Creed of Christ (1940) and Training for the Life of the Spirit (1941-42). Under the name H. F. Heard (H. F. for Henry FitzGerald, his given name), he wrote a number of mysteries and fantasies, including A Taste for Honey (1941) and The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales (1944). Following five years of illness, Gerald Heard peacefully passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, on August 14, 1971.

Reviews

[p. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great time for me to be reading this. I liked quite a bit of the concept and the plot, and I found the characters interesting (particularly Laetitia) but I really struggled to focus on the novel or stay within it.

[William Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a well crafted, thoughtful novel about who and what we believe in, how and why. It’s also a horror novel about an unleashed demon, erudite, quietly subversive, even humorous at times without losing track of the mordant tone. M.R. James meets Henry James.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Trollope’s Barchester Towers crossed with M R James’ ‘The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral’, this is an entertaining tale of the supernatural set in an Anglican cathedral close in the 1870s.

A gifted scholar and cathedral canon is passed over for ecclesiastical promotion, leading him to use secrets taken from an ancient Arabic book to raise dark powers that he cannot control.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Incredibly verbose and wordy, incredibly short on actual plot.

Again, the British Library tales of the weird series has unearthed some brilliant supernatural tales and novels from the archives.

This sadly isn't one of them.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can only second the judgment of Anthony Boucher in 1952: "Literarily and spiritually, the outstanding supernatural novel of at least the past decade."

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really atmospheric read about ambition and jealousy. For a book written in 1950, I found the portrayal of Laetitia Throcton, a spinister who looks after her brother’s house, really modern. She was sensitive and intelligent despite what her brother thinks, and is often shown to be the more balanced of the two.

Throcton is an interesting character, petty and self absorbed, completely unaware of how ridiculous he is. In the beginning, his scenes are quite humorous because of how blind he is to his own shortcomings while pointing out everyone else’s.

The story is dark and full of suspicion and grief. Another winner from the British Library.

[Alan Boshier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Takes forever to tell a very thin tale; the preface warned that this was a book that starts slowly, but really it never gets going and is written in a verbose, pedantic style that had me skim reading from about halfway through.

[Samantha T · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough read with a rather drawn out build up to an ending that I can only call anticlimactic. I did not enjoy it though it isn’t a bad read, it just leaves you feeling unsatisfied for the time you spent on it.

[Lizixer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Anthony Trollope had had the notion to read Le Fanu and then try his hand at a supernatural tale, it might have come out like this.
Genuinely creepy, more theology than I expected but also as full of academic occultism as an MR James cautionary tale, this is a proper page turner.

[Ben Crozier · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a struggle.

[Ty · Rating 2 out of 5]

i was hoping for something “darkest dungeon”, but all i got was misogyny. one star extra for the cool book cover of the british library edition

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The city is the sink of the countryside, the Close of the city and the Palace of the Close."