The Judge's House

by Bram Stoker

A scholar takes up residence in the former home of a judge with a very evil reputation. He finds the place infested with rats, but it suits his purposes... until one of the rats grows too bold, and the scholar realizes the horror he's stumbled into.

Genres: Horror, Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Gothic, Audiobook, Paranormal

24 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 1891

About the author

Irish-born Abraham Stoker, known as Bram, of Britain wrote the gothic horror novel Dracula (1897).

The feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornely Stoker at 15 Marino crescent, then as now called "the crescent," in Fairview, a coastal suburb of Dublin, Ireland, bore this third of seven children. The parents, members of church of Ireland, attended the parish church of Saint John the Baptist, located on Seafield road west in Clontarf with their baptized children.

Stoker, an invalid, started school at the age of seven years in 1854, when he made a complete and astounding recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years."

After his recovery, he, a normal young man, even excelled as a university athlete at Trinity college, Dublin form 1864 to 1870 and graduated with honors in mathematics. He served as auditor of the college historical society and as president of the university philosophical society with his first paper on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society."

In 1876, while employed as a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879) and theatre reviews for The Dublin Mail, a newspaper partly owned by fellow horror writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. His interest in theatre led to a lifelong friendship with the English actor Henry Irving. He also wrote stories, and in 1872 "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock.

In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde. The couple moved to London, where Stoker became business manager (at first as acting-manager) of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among other notables, James McNeil Whistler, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker got the chance to travel around the world.

The Stokers had one son, Irving Noel, who was born on December 31, 1879.

People cremated the body of Bram Stoker and placed his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders green crematorium. After death of Irving Noel Stoker in 1961, people added his ashes to that urn. Despite the original plan to keep ashes of his parents together, after death, people scattered ashes of Florence Stoker at the gardens of rest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker

Reviews

[Nika · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I took a shot of martini every time the word "rat" appears in this short story, I would be drunk long before it ends. I can't say that I truly enjoyed this read, but it was worth the time and quite atmospheric. The author effectively conveyed the eerie atmosphere of an isolated old house where something terrible was about to happen. The story culminates on a stormy night, with a wild wind raging through the old building's many chimneys.

What else can I say without giving too much away? I wish the main character had not met such a destructive end.

Around 3.5 stars

[Steven Serpens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcolm Malcolmson necesita con suma urgencia la más silenciosa y serena tranquilidad que pueda haber, para que esto le permita enfocarse en sus estudios matemáticos; por ende, se mudará de forma temporal a un aislado y tranquilo pueblo, con la intención de obtener tal quietud. Y en efecto, allí encontrará satisfactoriamente la morada con los requerimientos que buscaba: una gran y vieja casona, completamente alejada de los demás lugareños. Pero esta casa es famosa por ser temida y evitada por gran parte de los habitantes de la zona, ya que alberga un macabro pasado.

La casa del juez es una lectura muy fluida y atrapante, realmente se hace amena y ligera; a pesar de que la trama que presenta es y se desarrolla de forma bastante básica y sin que haya algo muy especial o relevante, cumple totalmente su cometido: el de entretener y atrapar al lector. Además de su muy buen ritmo, también está el interés que nos genera el curso con el que se va desenvolviendo la trama, ya que lo principal e interesante recae en las noches de estudio que se hacen en la mencionada casa, lo cual es algo que se nos presenta correctamente.
Aquí se narra cómo Malcolmson pasa un par de noches estudiando hasta que cada vez esté más perturbado que en la sesión anterior, por los extraños hechos que allí suceden y que él presencia. Si bien en un principio se mostraba escéptico, cada vez irá cayendo más y más en el juego que esta sugestiva casa se encarga de ofrecerle.

Esta antigua vivienda cuenta con una cuerda para una supuesta campana, pero considerando de que fue la morada de un famoso juez conocido por sus despiadados juicios, era de suponer el propósito real de tal artilugio, que es mencionado con una sutil pista antes de tiempo: «Cuando tomó la cuerda en sus manos no pudo menos que notar lo flexible que era, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta su grosor y el tiempo que llevaba sin usar. Se podría colgar a un hombre de ella, pensó». Así que, efectivamente, aquella cuerda era la horca para los enjuiciados. Y no tomen esto como un spoiler, ya que de antemano era bastante obvio, evidente y predecible; es por eso por lo que no censuro esta información, debido a lo que acabo de argumentar. Y, como ya mencioné, mientras más detalles se van descubriendo, el protagonista irá cayendo cada vez más ante esta malévola presencia, sin que pueda hacer mucho al respecto.
Creo que uno de los puntos clave de la historia es el hecho de haber dado la orden de desempolvar los viejos cuadros, ya que ahí verá un retrato del juez; lo cual es la puerta de entrada para otros acontecimientos.
Posterior a esto, tengo que mencionar que el juego del lazo entre Malcolmson y el juez es una clara referencia o alusión a cuando el protagonista intentaba acabar a librazos con la misteriosa gran rata que lo acosaba durante las noches previas a esto último.

Con respecto al final, es oscuro, tal como debe ser el de una obra de estas características. Sin embargo, me deja con la gran duda si es que efectivamente los nervios y la sugestión del estudiante sucumbieron tanto ante las anormalidades que presenciaba, que resolvió suicidarse con la afamada cuerda; o, si realmente el fantasma del juez se manifestó ante él e hizo esto de algún modo. El trasfondo de este desenlace es algo que queda totalmente a merced de nuestra interpretación personal.
También me hubiese gustado saber más detalles acerca de ese supuesto ‘’viejo diablo’’ que se asociaba con los hechos paranormales de la casa; y más información acerca de las leyendas tejidas sobre la propiedad del juez, ya que poco se sabe y/o menciona sobre esto último, y no hubiera estado demás para darle más lore y organicidad a este título.

Habiendo aclarado todo lo que tenía por decir sobre este cuento, mi calificación es de ★★★★☆. Estamos ante una lectura totalmente apta para recomendársela a cualquiera, ya que es agradable y cumplidora.
Asimismo, es lo primero que leo de Bram Stoker, pero me dejó con ganas de leer más sobre él. Por suerte, tengo un ejemplar de La guarida del gusano blanco, aunque todavía no es su momento, porque quiero dejar ese título al último; pues, quiero darle un lugar más prioritario a su magnum opus de Drácula, para luego leer alguna recopilación que también incluya El huésped de Drácula y luego de esto por fin poder leer la obra que mencioné. Así que, del modo que sea, todavía tengo para rato con este autor.

Para otras reseñas de la colección Clásicos del terror, de editorial Planeta:

• 1) Historia de un muerto contada por él mismo, de Alexandre Dumas: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 2) El mortal inmortal, de Mary Shelley: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 3) La novia del espectro, de Washington Irving: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 4) El vampiro, de John Polidori: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 5) El cuento de la vieja niñera, de Elizabeth Gaskell: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 6) La marca de la bestia, de Rudyard Kipling: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 7) Markheim, de Robert Louis Stevenson: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 8) El modelo de Pickman, de Howard Phillips Lovecraft: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 9) La casa del juez, de Bram Stoker
• 10) La mujer alta, de Pedro Antonio de Alarcón: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 11) El convidado de las últimas fiestas, de Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 12) El Horla, de Guy de Maupassant: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcolm is a scholar who wants to be left alone for a while. He just wants to enjoy some quiet time and read some books. He finds his dream house, an old fortified creepy place infested with rats that was once occupied by an evil judge. The landlady thinks he’s making a horrible mistake by wanting to move in, but Malcolm is determined.


Oh, this is such a good short horror story. The isolated setting feels creepy enough by itself, but the plot is also pretty strong. It grabs you from the start. It’s creepy without overdoing it. The tension slowly but surely builds up throughout the story and intensifies near the end. The characters are worth mentioning too. It’s easy to relate to someone who just wants to sit down and read a book. And the protagonist is a rational scholar, which clashes with the story’s flirting with the supernatural. This makes it very gripping. And the antagonist is quite scary and memorable. Definitely a good Halloween read.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcomson needs time for his studies and rents a deserted old house. It was once owned by a mean judge. At late hours he always hears rats in the wainscot. Besides he's irritated when he sees an extremely large rat near the cord for the alarm bell. That cord has a very eerie pre-history and plays an important part in the later part of the story. An extremely eerie gothic tale by the old master. I liked the plotting and the fine crafted character. Also the characterization of the judge is extremely well done. And the eyes of the rat. Nothing for people who are afraid of rats or of mean judges. Recommended!

[Bionic Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Judge’s House is a classic ghost story by the Irish author Bram Stoker. It was first published in the special Christmas issue of the weekly “Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News” magazine, on December 5th 1891. It was later republished in “Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories” in 1914, and has since appeared in many anthologies.

The story centres on Malcolm Malcolmson, a graduate student who is studying for his final examinations in Mathematics. He arrives in a small town called Benchurch, looking for a quiet place to stay and work, while preparing for his final examinations. Determined to have privacy, he rents a rambling Jacobean mansion, surrounded by high brick walls, which has been uninhabited for many years. The lawyer acting as agent for the house is delighted to hear that Malcolmson wants to rent it, but warns him that the house has been empty for so long that the locals have developed an “absurd prejudice” about it. Malcolmson makes light of these local rumours and superstitions. He pays his rent and asks for the name of someone who might act as his housekeeper.

At the local inn, the landlady, Mrs. Witham, is shocked to hear that Malcolmson will be living in what was known as the “Judge’s House”. She tells him that a hundred or more years ago, a judge had lived there who was notorious for his harsh sentences. Mrs. Witham admits that she does not know why this should bother her unduly, but she is worried for him. Malcolmson brushes this aside, so Mrs. Witham offers to secure the necessary provisions for him, while Malcolmson goes out to engage the old woman recommended by the agent.

With help from Mrs. Dempster, the woman he has engaged to cook and clean for him, Malcolmson settles in to the huge dining room of the old house. Mrs. Dempster says that she is not afraid of any “bogies” in the house, because there are always strange noises in an old house, and there are many rats in the old wainscoting: “Rats is bogies, I tell you, and bogies is rats.” With that, Mrs. Dempster sets to work, and by the time she leaves for the night, the room is clean and tidy, with a good fire made up, and Malcolmson’s supper on the table.

After supper, Malcolmson takes out his books and is absorbed in his study all evening. Taking a break at eleven o’clock, he then becomes aware of the rats, gnawing, scratching, and racing up and down behind the old wainscoting. He takes his lamp and walks around the room. There are old pictures on the walls, but they are coated with dust and grime, and he cannot see any details. He can see rats peeking through cracks and holes in the beautifully carved oak wainscoting. In the corner of the room, to the right hand side of the fireplace Malcolmson notices a rope hanging from a great bell on the roof. Settling down to his studies again, Malcolmson gets used to the noises and soon becomes immersed in his mathematics.

Approaching dawn Malcolmson becomes aware of the sudden quiet. He look up to see on an enormous rat glaring at him from a high-backed oak chair. He tries to scare it away by brandishing a poker, but the rat bares its teeth and stays put. When Malcolmson grabs the poker, the rat runs up the rope and disappears into the darkness. At the same moment, the clamour of the other rats begins again. As a cock crows announcing the day, Malcolmson decides to go to bed, sleeping soundly until Mrs. Dempster wakes him for breakfast.

He spends most of the next day walking and studying, stopping at the inn on the way back. As he chat to Mrs. Witham he mentions the rats in a jocular way, including “one wicked-looking old devil” that sat on his chair by the fire. Mrs. Witham takes this seriously, urging him to be careful:

““An old devil! The old devil, perhaps. There! sir, you needn’t laugh,” for Malcolmson had broken into a hearty peal. “You young folks thinks it easy to laugh at things that makes older ones shudder.”

On the second evening, the rats seem to be even noisier, and to begin with Malcolmson finds it difficult to concentrate. Eventually he becomes engrossed in his Mathematics, until he notices that the room has become quiet. He sees the bell rope move slightly, and spies the giant rat again, back on the fireside chair. Malcolmson begins to throw books at it, but the rat dodges them easily. He stands up to threaten the rat with another book, and the rat cowers. Pleased at this, he throws the book accurately and hits the rat. It gives a terrible squeak, looks at him malevolently and then runs up the rope. The rat disappears through a hole in one of the pictures, the third from the fireplace. Malcolmson makes a mental note of the position, as he cannot see the pictures by candlelight. He picks up the book which had hit its target, and is startled to see that it was the Bible which his mother had given him. The rats begin to make noises again, but now Malcolmson is too on edge to work.

After a disturbed night, full of dreams, Malcolmson awakes late in the morning. He asks Mrs. Dempster to clean the pictures, and then repeats his walk of the day before, stopping at the inn again on his way back. Mrs. Witham introduces him to a Dr. Thornhill, whom it transpires she has consulted, with Malcolmson in mind. The doctor listens to Malcolmson’s story about the enormous rat, and tells him that the rope the rat ran up is the very rope that had been used to hang the Judge’s victims. The doctor advises him to give up strong tea and not to study so late in the evening. Mrs. Witham had not intended him to mention the rope, but the doctor says he hopes Malcolmson will use it to call for help, if he needs to.

By the time Malcolmson arrives back at the house, Mrs. Dempster has already left. He is pleased to find the place ready for him, with a welcome fire. Malcolmson sits down to dinner in good spirits, not minding the noises of the rats as they keep him company. During his evening’s study, the winds swell into a storm and the house begins to shake with the gale. The rope rises and falls, as the bell swings on the roof. This puts in mind what the doctor had told him about the rope. Malcolmson gets up and crosses the room, taking the rope in his hand. He begins to think about the Judge and his victims, when suddenly, the rope begins to shake. Malcolmson looks up and sees the great rat running down the rope itself. Cursing, Malcolmson drops the rope, and the rat runs back up it and disappears.

Determined to see where the rat has run to, Malcolmson holds a lamp up to the picture into which the rat disappeared the previous night. It has now been cleaned, and the shock of seeing it nearly makes Malcolmson drops his lamp. It is a portrait of the Judge in his scarlet robes:

“His face was strong and merciless, evil, crafty, and vindictive, with a sensual mouth, hooked nose of ruddy colour, and shaped like the beak of a bird of prey. The rest of the face was of a cadaverous colour. The eyes were of peculiar brilliance and with a terribly malignant expression”

They are the same baleful eyes as the giant rat, who looks at him with a “fiendish leer”. The Judge is seated in the high-backed oak chair to the right of the fireplace, with the rope hanging down from the ceiling. Malcolmson looks towards that corner of the room, cries out, and drops his lamp. There in the chair sits the great rat leering at him with the Judge’s baleful eyes.

Pulling himself together, Malcolmson mixes himself a drink to calm his nerves and sits down to work. An hour later, everything falls silent, and he looks up. He can hear the faint sound of the giant rat gnawing through the rope. As Malcolmson watches, the rat chews right through the rope, and the severed end falls on the floor. Malcolmson now realises that he can no longer ring the great bell to call for help. Terrified and angry, he throws his book at the rat, which disappears into the shadows.

Malcolmson decides to track the rat down. He takes the shade off the lamp, and the bright light illuminates all the pictures. Malcolmson’s eyes are drawn to the third painting from the fireplace. However, right in the centre, there is a patch of blank canvas where the Judge should have been. “The figure of the Judge had disappeared.” Horrified, Malcolmson slowly turns around. Sitting there in the high-backed oak chair, he sees the Judge in his scarlet robe. Malcolmson stands frozen with terror as with a cruel smile, the Judge lifts up the black cap in his hand. On the stroke of midnight, the Judge triumphantly puts the black cap on his head: a sentence of death.

Rising slowly from his chair, the Judge picks up the cut piece of rope and ties one end to make a noose. He blocks the doorway, throwing the noose over and over again. Malcolmson manages to dodge, but the Judge is relentless. He tries again and again, his eyes fixed on Malcolmson who only just manages to avoid being trapped by the rope each time. Looking around in despair, Malcolmson sees the rats peeking out of their holes watching. Then he notices that the rope of the alarm bell is covered with rats. As more and more rats get on the rope, the bell begins to sway. The Judge hears the sound:

“and a scowl of diabolical anger overspread his face. His eyes fairly glowed like hot coals, and he stamped his foot with a sound that seemed to make the house shake. A dreadful peal of thunder broke overhead as he raised the rope again”.

He approaches Malcolmson with the noose held open, and Malcolmson find he is paralysed with fear, as as the noose is tightened around his neck. The Judge then carries his rigid body to the oak chair. Placing the body standing on the chair, the Judge climbs next to it and grabs the rope hanging from the bell. The rats squeak and flee. The Judge ties the end of the noose to the bell rope, and then he steps down, and pulls the chair away.

The story end with the alarm bell sounding, and a crowd gathering outside. They knock at the door but receive no reply. Led by Dr. Thornhill, they break down the door and run into the house. There they find the body of the student hanging from the bell rope, and the portrait of the Judge with a malignant smile on his face.

What is intriguing to a modern reader of course, is how much of this was real, and how much the product of imagination. The penultimate events are ambiguous. Ghosts do not usually become solid flesh and blood, able to move objects. Even poltergeists can only move objects in a controlled way, and certainly not aim and throw a rope with precision, carry a body, etc. Nowadays we are well used to stories where the scientifically minded, arrogant male hero ends up knowing he should have taken notice of the old ways, which he cast off as mere superstitions. The Judge’s House is a disturbing analysis of the perils of self-isolation, self-reliance, and intellectual hubris, and as such, stands a little outside most Victorian fiction.

Bram Stoker was of course, to go on to write “Dracula”, and here in The Judge’s House we can already see his skill in slowly building tension. In some ways the story is similar, with its naive protagonist, blindly going into a spooky house, and the hanging Judge, clearly based on the notorious 17th Century Judge Jeffreys (George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys) is every bit as malevolent as Count Dracula.

The story feels familiar, as all classic stories do, because of their imitations. Nevertheless The Judge’s House is not original. It is a combination of two stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: “Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street” and “Mr Justice Harbottle”. Both stories revolve around a house which is haunted by the malevolent spirit of a Georgian hanging judge. The first story features two overworked students who rent a cheap house, horrible nightmares, a giant rat which is a reincarnations of the dead judge, a haunted portrait of the previous owner, and the hideous sight of the judge casually coming towards one of the young renters with a noose in hand! A few elements would not need comment, but this is so similar that it is virtually a retelling, except for the ending. J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s first story had been written in 1853, nearly forty years earlier.

It is a trope in Victorian ghost stories that a lone male character is beset by indefatigable enemies. Throughout the 1890s, Bram Stoker wrote several such stories, where a solitary male characters is plagued by a supernatural enemy, because of a slight mistake he has made and which he must be punished for. In The Judge’s House the sin is one which would also become a favourite of M.R. James later: the cynicism and arrogance of intellectualism. An extraordinarily heavy price seems to have to be paid for such a trivial crime. M.R James was also to use the notorious Judge Jeffreys in his short story “Martin’s Close”, and several of the themes in The Judge’s House are used in other short stories by him. They too all seem to feature bookish loners, who end up mentally tortured in some way.

The Judge’s House is a slow burning tale of dread and horror; an effective ghostly tale.

“Tonight the rats disturbed him more than they had done on the previous night. How they scampered up and down and under and over! How they squeaked, and scratched, and gnawed! How they, getting bolder by degrees, came to the mouths of their holes and to the chinks and cracks and crannies in the wainscoting till their eyes shone like tiny lamps as the firelight rose and fell.”

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles van Buren

One of Bram Stoker's best stories

December 9, 2019

Review of Kindle edition
Publication date: December 6, 2017
Language: English
ASIN: B077ZH38QH
52 pages

The Judge's House is considered by many to be Bram Stoker's greatest short story and one of Britain's finest ghost stories. It was first published in the December 5, 1891, special Christmas issue of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News weekly magazine. In 1914, it was published in the collection, Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories. It has since appeared in many anthologies. This edition is illustrated with small and, in my opinion, not particularly good drawings.

If you have a phobia concerning or just a serious dislike for rats you may want to skip this one. Or maybe read it early in the morning so that you have the entire day to get over it before the witching hour approaches.

A well written creepy story which has aged well. At least it has for most of us. There is a review on Amazon which reads in part, "Words inserted which had no meaning, no sense!! Was there an editor?" I can only surmise and hope that the author of this review read a different edition which contained many printing errors. That is certainly a better alternative than suspecting a limited vocabulary.

[Keith Bruton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The electricity went out in my area so I decided to read this spooky short story by Bram Stoker who is known for his iconic book Dracula.

This is a wonderful, haunting tale which I heard Stephen Fry discuss online. He said it was one of his favourite ghost stories from the Victorian age. I would agree - chilling, dark and perfect on a cold October night next to a candlelight.

[Amina (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

First review : 3 stars

Well, it wasn't that frightening being a Bram Stoker story, not even a single chill, but the end wasn't what I expected, which made it for the three stars!

Second review: 4 stars

I still don't find it that creepy but I guess it's just because I am safe in my house with my family.
When you put yourself in the student's shoes, I think that the situation changes dramatically! 🤤👻

[Saranya ⋆☕︎ ˖ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creaky floorboard and flickering candle!!!
🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Malcolm Malcolmson (yes, really), is a studious lad who just wants peace and quiet to prep for exams. So naturally, he rents a creepy old house!!

The house once belonged to a judge—one of those stern, no-nonsense types who probably sentenced kittens for jaywalking. And guess what? He’s not quite done judging. As Malcolm settles in, eveything spirals into a deliciously eerie crescendo involving rats, bells and one seriously vengeful ghost.

The gothic setting is textbook perfect: dusty tomes, candlelight and a sense that the wallpaper is watching you.

[Aishu Rehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

গল্পটি ম্যালকম ম্যালকমসন নামে এক অন্তর্মুখী ভদ্রলোককে নিয়ে। যিনি একাকী নিরিবিলি পরিবেশে পড়াশোনা করতেই বেশি পছন্দ করেন। হঠাৎ তার বাতিক উঠলো গোপনে একদম একাকী কোন এক বাড়িতে উঠে মন খুলে পড়াশোনা করবেন, অঙ্ক নিয়ে ডুবে থাকবেন। তারপর অনেক খোঁজা খুঁজি করে পেয়েও গেলেন জুৎসই এক বাড়ি, যা ছিল কোন এক কুখ্যাত উকিলের বসবাসের যায়গা। কুখ্যাত ক���ন? সেটা গল্পের প্রতিবেশী ভদ্রমহিলার থেকে জেনে নিয়েন। তো এই প্রতিবেশি ভদ্রমহিলার অনেক অনুরোধ সত্ত্বেও ভদ্রলোককে নিষ্ক্রিয় করা গেল না। অংক আর বিজ্ঞান জানা লোকগুলোকে নিয়ে এই এক মুশকিল। যত ভুতের গল্পই শোনান না কেন ভয় জিনিসটা সে আমলে নেবে না। তারপর শুরু হলো তার রাত্রিযাপন। আর অদ্ভুত ভুতুড়ে সব কান্ডকারখানা। কিন্তু আসলেই কি তাই? জানতে হলে পড়ে ফেলুন দারুণ এই গথিক হরর গল্পটা। তয় শেষটা কিন্তু মন ভেঙে দেবে।

বুক ফার্ম থেকে এবছর প্রকাশিত অভিজ্ঞান গাঙ্গুলি মশাইয়ের ঝরঝরে অনুবাদ 'ভয় সমগ্র - ব্রাম স্টোকার' থেকেই গল্পটি পড়েছি। উনি অনুবাদক হিসেবেও বেশ উৎকৃষ্ট।

[Gerberaliteraria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sencilla, rápida de leer y da miedito jeje. La recomiendo, he de admitir que he pasado un poco de miedo, no como para morirme pero ha sido una breve pero buena historia.

[Helga · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short classic ghost story by the author of Dracula.

[Tom Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story remains as creepy now as it did when I first read it as a teenager. It is still my favorite work by Bram Stoker.

An online copy of the story can be found here (ignore the picture. It's for a different story.) In addition, an audiorecording can be found copy of the story can be found here.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m binge reviewing my best-read Horror / Gore short stories of all time.

This one feels like one of those stories that crawls out of Victorian respectability with a lantern in one hand and a noose in the other. It’s not just Gothic in tone; it’s moral, mathematical, and haunted by an almost puritanical sense of consequence. Written in 1891, it stands as one of Stoker’s finest short works outside of *Dracula*, a compact parable of intellect pitted against superstition — and, inevitably, losing. If *Dracula* was about seduction and contagion, *The Judge’s House* is about reason’s last, pitiful gasp before the machinery of judgment crushes it.

The setup is as deceptively simple as a problem in Euclid: a studious young scholar named Malcolm Malcolmson rents an isolated house to prepare for his examinations. The townspeople warn him that the house is cursed, once belonging to a cruel hanging judge. Naturally, he dismisses this as village gossip — a man of logic who believes in measurable things. It’s classic Gothic arithmetic: intellect + arrogance + isolation = catastrophe. Stoker uses the scholar’s rationality as both his weapon and his blindfold. Every creak of the house, every movement of the shadows, every inexplicable noise is met with a shrug — until the house itself begins to think.

The story’s most unsettling motif is the rat — or rather, the infestation of rats that populate the Judge’s House like living punctuation marks in the silence. Rats, in Stoker’s hands, are not vermin but heralds — they signal spiritual contamination, a form of organic justice. When the scholar notices one “particularly old and malevolent-looking” rat staring down at him from the portrait of the Judge, the story’s moral skeleton snaps into focus. The portrait, the rat, and the rope form a trinity of doom, mocking the very idea of rational mastery. It’s as if the old Judge has never left, merely changed shape, diffused himself into the walls and the vermin that scuttle through them. The supernatural, here, isn’t metaphor; it’s moral recursion. The past repeats itself, quite literally, in the present tense.

What’s fascinating — and deeply modern — is how the story reads as a critique of Enlightenment arrogance. Malcolm believes knowledge will exorcise fear, that studying in a haunted house will prove his rational superiority. But Stoker, ever the Irish skeptic, knows better. The Judge’s House becomes a kind of purgatorial architecture — a place where reason itself is tested, and found wanting. The climax, when the spectral Judge materializes and hangs the scholar with his own study rope, feels less like horror and more like divine symmetry. The act is absurdly bureaucratic, almost comic in its inevitability: judgment executed, case closed.

The postmodern delight of reading this story now lies in its self-awareness. It’s not simply a ghost story — it’s a parable about reading itself. The scholar’s hubris mirrors the reader’s: both believe they can interpret and control the text. But the text (like the house) resists. Meaning escapes, transforms, and turns predator. The “house” becomes a meta-space — a page, a mind, a history — where the rational intruder is devoured by what he thought he could analyse.

Stoker’s prose here is leaner than in *Dracula*, almost claustrophobic in its restraint. He doesn’t waste time on ornate description; instead, he builds unease through rhythm and repetition. The candles, the ticking of the clock, the sound of scurrying — these form a mechanical chorus of dread. Time itself becomes the Judge’s accomplice. Every tick brings the scholar closer to the sentence. When the end arrives, it feels as mathematically perfect as it is horrifying. There is no melodrama, only equilibrium — the moral order restored with brutal precision.

And yet, for all its 19th-century gothic scaffolding, *The Judge’s House* hums with an almost existential resonance. Strip away the ghosts and you’re left with a meditation on guilt, solitude, and the futility of intellect against the weight of the past. Malcolm is punished not for sin, but for indifference — for treating fear as superstition, history as rumour, life as experiment. The Judge, in his spectral persistence, represents what the modern mind tries hardest to deny: that morality is not a construct but a force, that reason cannot legislate against memory.

In its quiet way, the story prefigures Kafka and Borges more than Conan Doyle. The haunted house becomes a courtroom without walls; the sentence, an inevitability written long before the protagonist arrived. Stoker’s genius lies in not explaining too much. The Judge’s presence is never fully defined; the terror lies in the gap between imagination and evidence. That gap — where skepticism becomes belief — is the true haunted space.

Reread today, the story feels eerily contemporary. Swap the candle for a desk lamp, the rope for burnout, and the rat for a notification light, and you have a parable of modern intellect undone by the ghosts it refuses to name. The Judge’s House is no longer just a place — it’s the modern condition. We live, study, scroll, and work inside it, pretending the ticking clock means progress when it might just be counting down.

Stoker ends not with spectacle but with silence. The scholar’s body is found the next day; the townspeople’s superstition vindicated. The irony is complete — the man of reason has become a moral anecdote for those he dismissed. That’s the true cruelty of Oedipal horror: knowledge leads not to freedom but to confirmation of the oldest fear. The story closes, the Judge’s portrait remains, and the rats, one imagines, keep moving in their steady judicial rhythm.

*The Judge’s House* may seem a minor Gothic tale compared to *Dracula*, but it distills Stoker’s moral vision to its purest form. It’s about the terror of structure — of law, logic, and language turning against the human spirit. Beneath its haunted parapets lies a terrifying question: what if judgment doesn’t come from beyond, but from within the systems we build to escape it? Stoker answers with a smirk from the dark — the verdict was never in doubt.

Give it a go.

[Just Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky. A Good ol’ classic spooky tale.

A student in England decides he needs a little quiet time for him to study, and ends up in a very old house that hasn’t been inhabited for years. Strange and mysteries things happen. Let me just say this, I fucking hate rats.

Read: 08/04/2019
1st rating: 4 stars
Genre/sub-genres: Horror/Classic
Cover: 1 star
POV: Single - 3 person (Malcolmson)

[debbicat *made of stardust* · Rating 4 out of 5]

As expected, creepy!

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of you may have heard of the writer known as "Bram Stoker."

He also wrote this short story, where a young man studying for his examination rents a house that is full of rats. There are rats everywhere, chewing and rustling and the young man does not mind so much, but there is one very large rat, who sits in a high-backed carved oak chair, and when the large rat is about all the other rats are silent. When this large rat is chased away (by throwing books at it) he disappears up the rope to the alarm bell.

That rope was used by the judge to hand condemned prisoners.

Is that enough foreshadowing for you?

[Daniel Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Judge’s House is an old tale about a hanging judge reincarnated into a rat. House guests beware.

[Koala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...
My heart was beating fast and I loved it.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertainig fantasy listening 🎧

I istented to this as part of a nine short story of Bram Stoker stories. Each of the stories was different with interesting well developed characters lots of action and misdirection leading to each conclusion. The nine short stories was a surprise but enjoyable listening which I would highly recommend to readers of fantasy, horror, and mystery stories. 2023 😎👻☠❤✨

Entertaining horror listening🎧

I listened to this as part of Classic Tales of Horror - 500+ Stories. This story is very interesting with will developed characters.

I would recommed this individual story and box set to readers of horror stories. 2023

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is quite a short story it is as full of gripping tension, foreboding and anticipation as you would expect from Stoker. It follows a young student who rents an old empty house in a small English village for peace and quite so he can study. Unfortunately that's not quite what he gets as the house is invested with rats...and something/someone else. This story will certainly make you think the next time your looking at the photographs of people past if you go a-wandering through the rooms of historic houses, especially those that have ropes hanging beside their fireplaces.

[Asha Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMFG! Was this scary!
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My skin went crawling at the appearance of the judge, finally. And how terrible an outcome for Malcolm!
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And rats! Those goddamn rats! Never hated them more. Now that I think of it, perhaps, this story with the prominent presence of those creepy rodents was the inspiration behind the ratly horror in Stephen King's 1922.
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Must read! Must read!

[Andrea Vivanco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una historia corta, pero intrigante hasta el final. Admito que no me ha dado miedo, pero la he disfrutado bastante.

[midnightfaerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written horror that will give you chills. Stoker has always been one of my favorite writers ever since I read Dracula, and when I saw this, I had to give it a try. I decided not to read the description and loved that I knew nothing about it. So I will not tell you about the story, in case you'd like to do the same. All the way up until the end, I was constantly surprised, and wasn't quite sure how things would end. Loved it. Highly recommended.

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There at the end of the rope of the great alarm bell hung the body of the
student, and on the face of the Judge in the picture was a malignant smile."

I didn't know Stoker wrote short tales and now I want more!

[🦇Iliana🥀 Mi biblioteca espectral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un relato espeluznante, no apto para los que no quieren nada a las ratas.

Stoker nos ubica en una mansión antigua, casi deshabitada, donde el protagonista se instala con el afán de estudiar en tranquilidad. Pero ese lugar tiene una oscura historia, y el joven no tardará en darse cuenta de ello.

Stoker y su prosa le hacen un bien enorme a este mundo. Es increíble como con pocas páginas logra tantas cosas.

[Colleen Houck]

If rats and mice didn't scare me enough before this short story sure did the trick. Pick this one up if you're looking for a quick scare. The ending was not expected. Loved it!

[Nicolás Ortenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un cuento tan macabro y escalofriante, como pocos he leído. Bram Stoker hace una descripción excelente y vivida del juez con la horca en la mano y un final quizás por lo menos para mi, inesperado.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg. This short story was published after Stoker's death.

Malcolm Malcolmson discovers the truth of 'absurd prejudices' which have accrued around an empty property.
Stars Nigel Havers as Malcolmson, Nancy Nevinson as Mrs Dempster and Jane Thompson as Mrs Witham. With David Timson and Alexander John.
Dramatised by Patricia Mays.
Directed by Derek Hoddinott

https://archive.org/details/TheJudges...

[Allyson (Belle) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this (in The Oxford Book of Ghost Stories) for my ghost stories English class and loved it. It's exactly the kind of scary stories I like. Since it's told in the present from his perspective, the reader has no idea whether the character lives or dies like many of the other ghost stories we've been reading this class. Definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of scary stories.