A Dark Mirror

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Short story.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q. He is primarily remembered for the monumental "Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900" (later extended to 1918), and for his literary criticism. He guided the taste of many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of 84 Charing Cross Road, its sequel, Q's Legacy, and the putatively fictional Horace Rumpole via John Mortimer, his literary amanuensis.

Reviews

[Dustyloup · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed by this one after The Omnibus. I just didn't connect to the story even though it's also a slice of life type story, but it's the liver period of time and the ambiguity that didn't work for me with this one.

Why did i read this?
-follow-up to Q's legacy, reading a few stories of his. Also bc The Omnibus was a 4* for me.

Who should read this ?
People who like non traditional horror stories about the passage of time. The little drama of families growing older, changing, passing.

[Atul_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does appear as an odd read when you first started it but upon understanding by reading it over and over again, you'll find it not as weird but a morose chronicle of life 😢

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have arranged my thoughts into a haiku:

"Aware of its past,
What memories would you see
Caught in a mirror?"

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story struck me as quietly introspective. A Dark Mirror reads like a meditation on self-recognition rather than revelation. The mirror does not deceive—it clarifies. What stayed with me was the discomfort of seeing oneself without narrative. The reflection offers no excuses, no context. Reading this, I felt Quiller-Couch suggesting that identity is most disturbing when stripped of justification. The story’s restraint is its strength. It does not moralise. It allows unease to do the work. The mirror becomes not supernatural, but psychological—an encounter with the self we avoid articulating.

Recommended.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad look into the world of the Bronte family.
Short story online at: americanliterature.com

[Tym · Rating 2 out of 5]

It feels unintentionally silly and not very well thought out but that may be because my perspective is over a hundred years late.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cue Kate Bush.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird.