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The Harlequin
The armistice is months past but the memories won't go away.
'A harlequin, leaning against a tree stump and with a goblet of ale clasped in one outstretched hand. Beaumont felt chilled suddenly, in spite of the fire... Most likely it was the thing's mouth, red-lipped and fiendishly grinning, or maybe its face, which was white, expressionless, the face of a clown in full greasepaint.'
Dennis Beaumont drove an ambulance in World War One. He returns home to London, hoping to pick up his studies at Oxford and rediscover the love he once felt for his fiancee Lucy. But nothing is as it once was. Mentally scarred by his experiences in the trenches, Beaumont finds himself wandering further into darkness. What really happened to the injured soldier he tried to save? Who is the figure that lurks in the shadows? How much do they know of Beaumont, and the secrets he keeps?
'A harlequin, leaning against a tree stump and with a goblet of ale clasped in one outstretched hand. Beaumont felt chilled suddenly, in spite of the fire... Most likely it was the thing's mouth, red-lipped and fiendishly grinning, or maybe its face, which was white, expressionless, the face of a clown in full greasepaint.'
Dennis Beaumont drove an ambulance in World War One. He returns home to London, hoping to pick up his studies at Oxford and rediscover the love he once felt for his fiancee Lucy. But nothing is as it once was. Mentally scarred by his experiences in the trenches, Beaumont finds himself wandering further into darkness. What really happened to the injured soldier he tried to save? Who is the figure that lurks in the shadows? How much do they know of Beaumont, and the secrets he keeps?
130 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 30, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 26, 2018
In the aftermath of the Great War, Dennis Beaumont returns to London a haunted man. He finds himself unable to successfully return to his previous existence. Carelessly unfaithful, capricious and misanthropic, Beaumont could easily be a loathsome protagonist, but somehow he's sympathetic – relatable, even. Perhaps it's the strong sense of his postwar disenchantment and trauma; perhaps it's simply that he's so very, horribly human.
Beaumont's London is luridly realised, a soup of misery peopled by the damaged and defeated. In my head, it looks like a Francis Bacon painting come to life.
Something I keep noticing about Nina Allan's fiction: it's so multilayered. The introduction of The Harlequin gives the reader a great deal to chew on. The suggestion of a traumatic wartime incident that continues to trouble Beaumont. Numerous observations he makes of people around him – observations that tell us a lot about the man he is. References to Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes, prompting an assertion (spoken by a friend, remembered by Beaumont) that 'memory is not fantasy. It is the bridge between the real and the imagined'. Allusions to Beaumont's relationship with his fiancée Lucy, about whom he seems to feel distinctly unenthusiastic. Alongside that, a contrasting portrait of Beaumont's sister Doris that underlines how much he cares for her. All this in the opening pages of a short book, all of it done effortlessly and with the lightest of touches.
For the same reason, it's difficult to get a handle on what this story is actually about. At the halfway point, I was uncertain whether so much plot could be gathered together and resolved in the space allowed by what remained of the book. If there is a problem with The Harlequin, it's that the story doesn't have enough room to properly unfold; it could easily have been turned into a book two or even three times the length of this novella.
As it happens, The Harlequin turns out to be 'about' quite a few things, and it's not easy to pinpoint exactly where its deep sense of unease stems from. Beaumont's outburst of violence? The death of fellow soldier Stephen Lovell, a memory he continually returns to? The sinister figure of Vladek in his patchwork coat? Does the latter spring from Beaumont's imagination – or somewhere darker still?
This weird tale is both subtle and confounding. It leaves an impression, a mark, a stain. Allan brings her setting and period to life so vividly that I feel it's a place I've visited, that I could physically return to – though I wouldn't want to.
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Beaumont's London is luridly realised, a soup of misery peopled by the damaged and defeated. In my head, it looks like a Francis Bacon painting come to life.
I am still in hell, Beaumont thought. Only now it is worse, because everyone pretends that the life we are living is the life we want.
Something I keep noticing about Nina Allan's fiction: it's so multilayered. The introduction of The Harlequin gives the reader a great deal to chew on. The suggestion of a traumatic wartime incident that continues to trouble Beaumont. Numerous observations he makes of people around him – observations that tell us a lot about the man he is. References to Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes, prompting an assertion (spoken by a friend, remembered by Beaumont) that 'memory is not fantasy. It is the bridge between the real and the imagined'. Allusions to Beaumont's relationship with his fiancée Lucy, about whom he seems to feel distinctly unenthusiastic. Alongside that, a contrasting portrait of Beaumont's sister Doris that underlines how much he cares for her. All this in the opening pages of a short book, all of it done effortlessly and with the lightest of touches.
For the same reason, it's difficult to get a handle on what this story is actually about. At the halfway point, I was uncertain whether so much plot could be gathered together and resolved in the space allowed by what remained of the book. If there is a problem with The Harlequin, it's that the story doesn't have enough room to properly unfold; it could easily have been turned into a book two or even three times the length of this novella.
As it happens, The Harlequin turns out to be 'about' quite a few things, and it's not easy to pinpoint exactly where its deep sense of unease stems from. Beaumont's outburst of violence? The death of fellow soldier Stephen Lovell, a memory he continually returns to? The sinister figure of Vladek in his patchwork coat? Does the latter spring from Beaumont's imagination – or somewhere darker still?
This weird tale is both subtle and confounding. It leaves an impression, a mark, a stain. Allan brings her setting and period to life so vividly that I feel it's a place I've visited, that I could physically return to – though I wouldn't want to.
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January 28, 2023
Beaumont had come to Oxford prepared to argue that war was different when one witnessed it first hand, that the very fact of war demanded a change in one’s way of thinking. That a life lived in denial of that was a half-life, a betrayal of what you had witnessed and the men who had died.
An unsettling, multifaceted novella about a former WWI ambulance driver who returns to London after the war and finds himself irrevocably changed by his experiences. As he tries to make sense of his life again, he is haunted by spectres real and possibly imagined. I just love Nina Allan’s writing. She has such an uncanny ability to make characters leap off the page and pour emotional resonance into her stories. I'm slowly making my way through all her novels and shorter works.
The Harlequin is gothic horror at its best.
An unsettling, multifaceted novella about a former WWI ambulance driver who returns to London after the war and finds himself irrevocably changed by his experiences. As he tries to make sense of his life again, he is haunted by spectres real and possibly imagined. I just love Nina Allan’s writing. She has such an uncanny ability to make characters leap off the page and pour emotional resonance into her stories. I'm slowly making my way through all her novels and shorter works.
The Harlequin is gothic horror at its best.
December 25, 2015
Originally published at Risingshadow.
Nina Allan's The Harlequin is a harrowingly dark novella that won The Novella Award 2015. It's one of the finest novellas I've read this year. It's a beautifully written and elegantly told story that kept me spellbound until the last word.
This novella has quiet and tender beauty that is nicely balanced by darkness and brutality. Because this kind of a combination has always appealed to me, I was impressed by the story and its atmosphere. I found the story touching, beautiful and harrowing, and I enjoyed its speculative fiction elements.
The Harlequin is a story about Dennis Beaumont and his gradual descent into darkness. It's a gripping story that hooks the reader with its realistic vision of post-WWI England. As you read it, it grows on you and you'll notice that you won't be able to forget about what you've read, because the author writes effectively about the protagonist and his feelings.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
Dennis Beaumont drove ambulance in World War One and tried desperately to save a soldier called Stephen Lovell. After the war he returns to his house on Kennington Lane and meets his fiancée, Lucy, who seems to have changed and matured since he last saw her. A bit later Beaumont goes to see the woman whom the dead soldier loved and tells her of his final moments, because he promised to do so. He meets a woman called Billie and has a secret affair with her. Billie's porcelain harlequin intrigues and terrifies him... This is the beginning of a dark story.
The Harlequin showcases Nina Allan's strengths and writing skills in a perfect way, because it's firmly rooted in reality, but is speckled with darkness. It's a haunting glimpse into the mind of a troubled man who tries to make sense of his life and tries to deal with what happened to the soldier he tried to save.
The characterisation works well, because the characters come wonderfully alive on the pages of this novella. All of the important characters are wonderfully drawn and there are intriguing tensions between them.
Dennis Beaumont is an interesting and realistic protagonist whose life has changed a lot, because World War One interrupted everything that he was about to do. He had to put his life on hold because of the war. When he returned from the war, he was a different man and darkness had taken hold of him. He noticed that his relationship with Lucy changed during the war, because there was a distance between them.
I like the way the author writes about Beaumont's life and his problems. She has created a protagonist who is haunted and troubled by what happened during the war. It was interesting for me to read about his problems, because he had been altered by the war. All the violent acts that he witnessed changed him permanently - he was mentally scarred by what he experienced in the trenches.
I enjoyed reading about what happened between Beaumont and a man called Vladek, because they tried to save the soldier in the ambulance. These scenes were excellent.
It's nice that the author doesn't glorify violence and the horrors of war in this novella, but describes everything as realistically as possible. The horrors of World War One are described in a vivid way as the protagonist reminisces about the happenings. The author writes excellently about these things, because she never resorts to using overly sentimental prose that would ruin the story. She keeps the story stark and realistic, but deftly hints at something strange.
The brutal and murderous act committed by Beaumont is one of the highlights of this novella. It shows how much Beaumont has changed as a person and how far he can go when facing an impossible situation. The events leading to this heinous act were handled perfectly, because Beaumont suddenly had to deal with something unexpected and felt cornered.
One of the best things about this novella is that Nina Allan masterfully evokes a distinct sense of place and time and leads the reader into early 20th century England with her prose. She writes about the places, people and happenings with confidence and style. I can guarantee that when you read this novella, you'll be totally immersed into it and you'll be caught by surprise by the passing of time while reading it.
It was a pleasure to read Nina Allan's prose, because she writes engaging prose with an emphasis on creating a realistic and unsettling atmosphere. The prose is full of nuances that emphasise the gradually deepening atmosphere and the protagonist's descent into darkness. The gradually deepening atmosphere and the descriptions of the protagonist's life and actions captivated me throughout the story.
In my opinion, the author writes observant prose and her descriptions of different people are fascinatingly accurate and believable. She has a talent for creating good characters in novella-length stories.
This novella is akin to classic weird tales, because Nina Allan builds up the atmosphere in a similar way as old masters of weird fiction did in their works and hints at certain things, but never underlines anything or underestimates her readership's intelligence by giving easy answers. This novella has a faint touch of Arthur Machen and Robert Aickman, so it will please those who have read classic weird tales. It's kind of like a sophisticatedly modern yet old-fashioned take on classic weird fiction with a strong nod towards literary fiction.
This novella also reminded me slightly of the atmospheric and excellently acted British horror film Deathwatch (2002). The story is totally different from the film in terms of characters and happenings, but there are a few fascinating similarities between them, because they both tell of what happened during World War One.
If you've never read anything by Nina Allan yet, The Harlequin is a perfect entry point to the author's fiction. If you enjoy find yourself enjoying this novella, please take a look at the author's other works, because they're worth reading.
Nina Allan's The Harlequin is a fascinating, unsettling and memorable glimpse into the mind of a man whose life has been altered by war and whose experiences have deeply scarred him. Don't hesitate to read this novella, because it's something special.
Highly recommended!
Nina Allan's The Harlequin is a harrowingly dark novella that won The Novella Award 2015. It's one of the finest novellas I've read this year. It's a beautifully written and elegantly told story that kept me spellbound until the last word.
This novella has quiet and tender beauty that is nicely balanced by darkness and brutality. Because this kind of a combination has always appealed to me, I was impressed by the story and its atmosphere. I found the story touching, beautiful and harrowing, and I enjoyed its speculative fiction elements.
The Harlequin is a story about Dennis Beaumont and his gradual descent into darkness. It's a gripping story that hooks the reader with its realistic vision of post-WWI England. As you read it, it grows on you and you'll notice that you won't be able to forget about what you've read, because the author writes effectively about the protagonist and his feelings.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
Dennis Beaumont drove ambulance in World War One and tried desperately to save a soldier called Stephen Lovell. After the war he returns to his house on Kennington Lane and meets his fiancée, Lucy, who seems to have changed and matured since he last saw her. A bit later Beaumont goes to see the woman whom the dead soldier loved and tells her of his final moments, because he promised to do so. He meets a woman called Billie and has a secret affair with her. Billie's porcelain harlequin intrigues and terrifies him... This is the beginning of a dark story.
The Harlequin showcases Nina Allan's strengths and writing skills in a perfect way, because it's firmly rooted in reality, but is speckled with darkness. It's a haunting glimpse into the mind of a troubled man who tries to make sense of his life and tries to deal with what happened to the soldier he tried to save.
The characterisation works well, because the characters come wonderfully alive on the pages of this novella. All of the important characters are wonderfully drawn and there are intriguing tensions between them.
Dennis Beaumont is an interesting and realistic protagonist whose life has changed a lot, because World War One interrupted everything that he was about to do. He had to put his life on hold because of the war. When he returned from the war, he was a different man and darkness had taken hold of him. He noticed that his relationship with Lucy changed during the war, because there was a distance between them.
I like the way the author writes about Beaumont's life and his problems. She has created a protagonist who is haunted and troubled by what happened during the war. It was interesting for me to read about his problems, because he had been altered by the war. All the violent acts that he witnessed changed him permanently - he was mentally scarred by what he experienced in the trenches.
I enjoyed reading about what happened between Beaumont and a man called Vladek, because they tried to save the soldier in the ambulance. These scenes were excellent.
It's nice that the author doesn't glorify violence and the horrors of war in this novella, but describes everything as realistically as possible. The horrors of World War One are described in a vivid way as the protagonist reminisces about the happenings. The author writes excellently about these things, because she never resorts to using overly sentimental prose that would ruin the story. She keeps the story stark and realistic, but deftly hints at something strange.
The brutal and murderous act committed by Beaumont is one of the highlights of this novella. It shows how much Beaumont has changed as a person and how far he can go when facing an impossible situation. The events leading to this heinous act were handled perfectly, because Beaumont suddenly had to deal with something unexpected and felt cornered.
One of the best things about this novella is that Nina Allan masterfully evokes a distinct sense of place and time and leads the reader into early 20th century England with her prose. She writes about the places, people and happenings with confidence and style. I can guarantee that when you read this novella, you'll be totally immersed into it and you'll be caught by surprise by the passing of time while reading it.
It was a pleasure to read Nina Allan's prose, because she writes engaging prose with an emphasis on creating a realistic and unsettling atmosphere. The prose is full of nuances that emphasise the gradually deepening atmosphere and the protagonist's descent into darkness. The gradually deepening atmosphere and the descriptions of the protagonist's life and actions captivated me throughout the story.
In my opinion, the author writes observant prose and her descriptions of different people are fascinatingly accurate and believable. She has a talent for creating good characters in novella-length stories.
This novella is akin to classic weird tales, because Nina Allan builds up the atmosphere in a similar way as old masters of weird fiction did in their works and hints at certain things, but never underlines anything or underestimates her readership's intelligence by giving easy answers. This novella has a faint touch of Arthur Machen and Robert Aickman, so it will please those who have read classic weird tales. It's kind of like a sophisticatedly modern yet old-fashioned take on classic weird fiction with a strong nod towards literary fiction.
This novella also reminded me slightly of the atmospheric and excellently acted British horror film Deathwatch (2002). The story is totally different from the film in terms of characters and happenings, but there are a few fascinating similarities between them, because they both tell of what happened during World War One.
If you've never read anything by Nina Allan yet, The Harlequin is a perfect entry point to the author's fiction. If you enjoy find yourself enjoying this novella, please take a look at the author's other works, because they're worth reading.
Nina Allan's The Harlequin is a fascinating, unsettling and memorable glimpse into the mind of a man whose life has been altered by war and whose experiences have deeply scarred him. Don't hesitate to read this novella, because it's something special.
Highly recommended!
November 6, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyed this novella from Nina Allen which contains just the lightest touch of the (possible) supernatural but which is predominantly a tale of guilt and regret, reinvention and war, love and what passes for love. Set just after the First World War, Beaumont drifts back to England and the life he once had, however his experiences jar with the reality that everyone else is trying to wear to return to normal and he struggles to know where or how he might fit. As usual with Allen, both her characters and their experiences feel authentic with no easy solutions or resolutions. I found it excellent.
May 24, 2019
Allan's writing is great even when the theme or story isn't quite to my taste. I am not quite sure what to make of this novella, and at the end of the day I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was evocative, gripping and sad.
(TW for intimate partner violence like whoa though.)
(TW for intimate partner violence like whoa though.)
October 14, 2019
‘The Harlequin’ is an unsettling novella following the return of Dennis Beaumont from the battlefields of the First World War. A conscientious objector, he was nonetheless on the front lines as an ambulance driver and is haunted by the appalling suffering he witnessed. Although the narrative isn’t in the first person, it sticks very closely to Beaumont, in fact too close for comfort. Also included are excerpts from his writing, in which he attempts to make sense of what he witnessed during the war. The divergences between the two strands are revealing and create a sense of shattered reality. The recurring figure of the harlequin seems to represent the damage the war has done to normal reality, for Beaumont and everyone else. His struggles to comprehend the world he has returned to are uncomfortable to read, particularly his dynamics with several women he knows. Nina Allan has a deft touch, however, and makes Beaumont sympathetic and his actions comprehensible only up to a point. The denouement of the story is genuinely shocking and casts all that proceeded it in a different light. The novella is thus well structured and powerful, making the most of its short length. A memorable reflection on how the trauma of war is not confined to those who actually fought in it.
August 8, 2023
Allan brings a powerful prose style to this enigmatic, tragic, and morbidly fascinating tale. Quite emotionally powerful, this one, as Allan brings the horror of war close to the foreground, but ever so slightly keeps moving it off to the sides, then circles it back around to hit you with a lot of emotional strength. Not that this is about war, or The Great War (what a fucking abomination to label such atrocities with that adjective...), but more of a piece of writing about what violence, desire, and expectations can do to someone unprepared for life's harsh realities. It seems from reviews many readers wanted something more final, or maybe something less hard to grasp or explain, but I think Allan has done a masterful job of making this one rather more complex and yet still quite simple. I wouldn't say you can make of it what you wish (though you could, I guess), as I tend not to rave about books so open-ended as to be nearly pointless reading endeavors. This just hits all the proper notes and left me devastated at the way it evaded my attempts to hold on to its tethers.
October 25, 2017
A beautifully written novella of almost perfect pace and length, detailing the return of a demobbed WWI soldier to an England he no longer recognises or feels part of; also, a subtly unnerving tale of uncanny, almost Faustian, events, capped with a subtly pitched ending.
July 5, 2022
What is the point of this novella? I mean, seriously, what's the author trying to say? Appreciate if anyone can help me out.
February 26, 2017
More a contrivance than a yarn.
January 1, 2016
A grim and somber (and freshly award-winning) novella about a man's return home from WWI. Haunted by specters real and possibly unreal, he struggles to adjust to a life that no longer fits, if it ever did. Written by one of the finest writers I've ever encountered, this story defies labels of horror and SF, while at the same time invoking those senses. Allan has this way of getting into the heads of her characters, of exploring completely and compactly, and, like her last acclaimed novel, The Race, toys with the reader's memories while also toying with the fictions of reality. In Harlequin, Allan's approach is simultaneously gentle and brutal.
February 12, 2024
A neat little novella with some good ideas, themes and images. There's no chapter breaks so you zoom through it, unfortunately I think so much I would have like to have been shown but instead was told - maybe it could have had a bit more time stewing, especially exploring such a complex thing as the aftermath of war. I liked the colours within it and the touch of the supernatural.
March 5, 2016
A subtle and disquieting story documenting a man's slide into madness and from there to darker places still. The characters are rich, real in their troubles, and the shift that transforms the tale is masterfully gripping.
April 29, 2016
A clever and imaginative speculative story about the catastrophic effects of war (Great War) on its survivors. Had I’d been told that this had been written in the 30s or 40s by one of the leading writers of the time, I’d have believed it.
December 22, 2015
Unpleasant, in a good way.
June 13, 2016
Intricate, harrowing, demanding. The story of an unsettling peacetime nightmare experienced by a man who never escaped from the nightmare of war. An excellent read.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews