The Clock

by W.F. Harvey

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Classics, Audiobook

Unknown Binding

About the author

William Fryer Harvey was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the macabre and horror genres. Among his best-known stories are "August Heat" and "The Beast with Five Fingers", described by horror historian Les Daniels as "minor masterpieces".

Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he attended the Quaker schools at Bootham in Yorkshire and at Leighton Park in Reading before going on to Balliol College, Oxford. He took a degree in medicine at Leeds. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted himself to personal projects such as his first book of short stories, Midnight House (1910).

In World War I he initially joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit, but later served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and received the Albert Medal for Lifesaving.[4] Lung damage received during the rescue leading to the award troubled him for the rest of his life, but he continued to write both short stories and his cheerful and good-natured memoir We Were Seven.

Harvey was a practicising Quaker.

Before the war he had shown interest in adult education, on the staff of the Working Men's College, Fircroft, Selly Oak, Birmingham. He returned to Fircroft in 1920, becoming Warden, but by 1925 ill-health forced his retirement. In 1928 he published a second collection of short stories, The Beast with Five Fingers, and in 1933 he published a third, Moods and Tenses. He lived in Switzerland with his wife for much of this time, but nostalgia for his home country caused his return to England. He moved to Letchworth in 1935 and died there in 1937 at the age of 52. After a funeral service at the local Friends Meeting House Harvey was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Old Letchworth.

The release of the film The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), directed by Robert Florey and starring Peter Lorre, inspired by what was perhaps his most famous and praised short story, caused a resurgence of interest in Harvey's work. In 1951 a posthumous fourth collection of his stories, The Arm of Mrs Egan and Other Stories, appeared, including a set of twelve stories left in manuscript at the time of his death, headed "Twelve Strange Cases".

In 2009 Wordsworth Editions printed an omnibus volume of Harvey's stories, titled The Beast with Five Fingers, in its Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series (ISBN 978-1-84022-179-4). The volume contains 45 stories and an introduction by David Stuart Davies.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._F....]

Reviews

[Pamela Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short ghost story. The narrator has been tasked to go to a woman's house and retrieve a clock. When he gets there, he feels he's not alone. There's someone there with him. My first impression is there's a dog as I listened to it. However, there's something or someone that lives there. The story is a good dose of horror and makes you think... but its too short for anything to happen or for it to have more meaning. Simple and short.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good spooky vibe but a bit underwhelming generally. Still, given that it's about 5 pages long at the most, it's not a great investment of time. Has the potential to go interesting places if it was longer, which it isn't 🫡

[Forked Radish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clocks aren't very scary, unless you're late for work, court, or a wedding. It was just Monsieur on the stairs.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is nothing groundbreaking. But I gave it an extra star for efficiency. A very short story that was able to creep me out. Just a little creepy. Not the type of terror that will keep you up. But, Harvey tapped into that feeling we’ve all likely had when we are frightened by silence of an environment outside of our comfort zone.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very atmospheric; there is a heavy feeling here - but one is left to wonder how much of this story is just projected angst. A man volunteers to retrieve a clock from the house of a recently departed woman. When he finds the clock it is running - as if it had been wound up very recently. Then he hears something 'hopping' up the stairs. Then there is a sound as if something is running nails/claws against the walls/doors. That is about it - tinged with creepy introspection on the part of the reader!

[KateJoanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short but I read this before bed and that turned out to be a mistake, super creepy and atmospheric, works really well at holding tension. Wish it was longer and had more to it but stjll reads and wraps up nicely despite being so short.

[Michelle Raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't quite understand what this tale is really about. It's short and to the point. Kinda feels like this is something you would tell a friend to fill a quiet gap.

[Aimée · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well written but didn’t really have much of a point to it.

[Issy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

[Augurey · Rating 2 out of 5]

short scary story to accompany you on a lonely hour.