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Pallinghurst Barrow
Pallinghurst Barrow is a novel by the British author Grant Allen, first published in 1886. The story is set in the English countryside and follows the lives of two families, the Pallings and the Hursts, who have been feuding for generations. The main character is a young man named Julian Palling, who inherits the family estate of Pallinghurst Barrow and becomes embroiled in the ongoing conflict with the Hursts. Julian is torn between his loyalty to his family and his desire to end the feud and live in peace. Along the way, he falls in love with a young woman named Janet Hurst, further complicating the situation. The novel explores themes of family loyalty, love, and the destructive nature of long-standing grudges. It is a classic example of Victorian-era literature, with detailed descriptions of the English countryside and a focus on the moral dilemmas faced by the characters. Allen's writing style is elegant and engaging, making Pallinghurst Barrow a timeless work of fiction.""Oh! Mr. Cameron, how can you?"" Mrs. Bouverie-Barton cried, quite pettishly; for even advanced ladies are still feminine enough at times to be distinctly pettish. ""I take the greatest trouble to keep all such rubbish out of Joyce's way; and then you men of science come down here and talk like this to her, and undo all the good I've taken months in doing.""This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
26 pages, Hardcover
Published May 23, 2010
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About the author
Grant Allen
1,189 books32 followersCharles Grant Blairfindie Allen (February 24, 1848 – October 25, 1899) was a science writer and novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution.
He was born near Kingston, Canada West (now incorporated into Ontario), the second son of Catharine Ann Grant and the Rev. Joseph Antisell Allen, a Protestant minister from Dublin, Ireland. His mother was a daughter of the fifth Baron of Longueuil. He was educated at home until, at age 13, he and his parents moved to the United States, then France and finally the United Kingdom. He was educated at King Edward's School in Birmingham and Merton College in Oxford, both in the United Kingdom. After graduation, Allen studied in France, taught at Brighton College in 1870–71 and in his mid-twenties became a professor at Queen's College, a black college in Jamaica.
Despite his religious father, Allen became an agnostic and a socialist. After leaving his professorship, in 1876 he returned to England, where he turned his talents to writing, gaining a reputation for his essays on science and for literary works. One of his early articles, 'Note-Deafness' (a description of what is now called amusia, published in 1878 in the learned journal Mind) is cited with approval in a recent book by Oliver Sacks.
His first books were on scientific subjects, and include Physiological Æsthetics (1877) and Flowers and Their Pedigrees (1886). He was first influenced by associationist psychology as it was expounded by Alexander Bain and Herbert Spencer, the latter often considered the most important individual in the transition from associationist psychology to Darwinian functionalism. In Allen's many articles on flowers and perception in insects, Darwinian arguments replaced the old Spencerian terms. On a personal level, a long friendship that started when Allen met Spencer on his return from Jamaica, also grew uneasy over the years. Allen wrote a critical and revealing biographical article on Spencer that was published after Spencer was dead.
After assisting Sir W. W. Hunter in his Gazeteer of India in the early 1880s, Allen turned his attention to fiction, and between 1884 and 1899 produced about 30 novels. In 1895, his scandalous book titled The Woman Who Did, promulgating certain startling views on marriage and kindred questions, became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent woman who has a child out of wedlock.
In his career, Allen wrote two novels under female pseudonyms. One of these was the short novel The Type-writer Girl, which he wrote under the name Olive Pratt Rayner.
Another work, The Evolution of the Idea of God (1897), propounding a theory of religion on heterodox lines, has the disadvantage of endeavoring to explain everything by one theory. This "ghost theory" was often seen as a derivative of Herbert Spencer's theory. However, it was well known and brief references to it can be found in a review by Marcel Mauss, Durkheim's nephew, in the articles of William James and in the works of Sigmund Freud.
He was also a pioneer in science fiction, with the 1895 novel The British Barbarians. This book, published about the same time as H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, which includes a mention of Allen, also described time travel, although the plot is quite different. His short story The Thames Valley Catastrophe (published 1901 in The Strand Magazine) describes the destruction of London by a sudden and massive volcanic eruption.
Many histories of detective fiction also mention Allen as an innovator. His gentleman rogue, the illustrious Colonel Clay, is seen as a forerunner to later characters. In fact, Allen's character bears strong resemblance to Maurice Leblanc's French works about Arsène Lupin, published many years later; and both Miss Cayley's Adventures and Hilda Wade feature early female detectives.
Allen was married twi
He was born near Kingston, Canada West (now incorporated into Ontario), the second son of Catharine Ann Grant and the Rev. Joseph Antisell Allen, a Protestant minister from Dublin, Ireland. His mother was a daughter of the fifth Baron of Longueuil. He was educated at home until, at age 13, he and his parents moved to the United States, then France and finally the United Kingdom. He was educated at King Edward's School in Birmingham and Merton College in Oxford, both in the United Kingdom. After graduation, Allen studied in France, taught at Brighton College in 1870–71 and in his mid-twenties became a professor at Queen's College, a black college in Jamaica.
Despite his religious father, Allen became an agnostic and a socialist. After leaving his professorship, in 1876 he returned to England, where he turned his talents to writing, gaining a reputation for his essays on science and for literary works. One of his early articles, 'Note-Deafness' (a description of what is now called amusia, published in 1878 in the learned journal Mind) is cited with approval in a recent book by Oliver Sacks.
His first books were on scientific subjects, and include Physiological Æsthetics (1877) and Flowers and Their Pedigrees (1886). He was first influenced by associationist psychology as it was expounded by Alexander Bain and Herbert Spencer, the latter often considered the most important individual in the transition from associationist psychology to Darwinian functionalism. In Allen's many articles on flowers and perception in insects, Darwinian arguments replaced the old Spencerian terms. On a personal level, a long friendship that started when Allen met Spencer on his return from Jamaica, also grew uneasy over the years. Allen wrote a critical and revealing biographical article on Spencer that was published after Spencer was dead.
After assisting Sir W. W. Hunter in his Gazeteer of India in the early 1880s, Allen turned his attention to fiction, and between 1884 and 1899 produced about 30 novels. In 1895, his scandalous book titled The Woman Who Did, promulgating certain startling views on marriage and kindred questions, became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent woman who has a child out of wedlock.
In his career, Allen wrote two novels under female pseudonyms. One of these was the short novel The Type-writer Girl, which he wrote under the name Olive Pratt Rayner.
Another work, The Evolution of the Idea of God (1897), propounding a theory of religion on heterodox lines, has the disadvantage of endeavoring to explain everything by one theory. This "ghost theory" was often seen as a derivative of Herbert Spencer's theory. However, it was well known and brief references to it can be found in a review by Marcel Mauss, Durkheim's nephew, in the articles of William James and in the works of Sigmund Freud.
He was also a pioneer in science fiction, with the 1895 novel The British Barbarians. This book, published about the same time as H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, which includes a mention of Allen, also described time travel, although the plot is quite different. His short story The Thames Valley Catastrophe (published 1901 in The Strand Magazine) describes the destruction of London by a sudden and massive volcanic eruption.
Many histories of detective fiction also mention Allen as an innovator. His gentleman rogue, the illustrious Colonel Clay, is seen as a forerunner to later characters. In fact, Allen's character bears strong resemblance to Maurice Leblanc's French works about Arsène Lupin, published many years later; and both Miss Cayley's Adventures and Hilda Wade feature early female detectives.
Allen was married twi
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 24, 2023
Every year on Michael’s Night, Pallinghurst Barrow burneth bright.
In this odd and delightful Victorian spook story, a modern young man of science encounters the primal specters of ancient rites and savagery. It is not a story that will frighten modern readers (if it was ever intended to frighten at all) but it has other virtues.
The story opens with young Rudolph Reed sitting by an ancient barrow in the evening, enjoying a sunset, and dreading the approaching necessity of dressing for dinner to join the table of the inflexible old warhorse, Mrs. Bovery-Barton. His sensitive nature suddenly makes him feel that he is surrounded by malignant spirits, and he beats a retreat back to the manor house quickly enough to be punctual for dinner and avoid the wrath of his hostess.
Dinner conversation turns to the barrow, and Mrs. Bovery-Barton’s young daughter fills Reed in on the local superstition about the barrow. Reed retires for the night with a wicked headache (for which the doctor treats him with cannabis) but he is still haunted by thoughts of the barrow.
Reed eventually makes his way back out to the ghostly barrow, now glowing blue in the eerie night, and using wisdom from an old fairy tale, manages to enter it, only to discover, and be menaced by a crowd of hideous, pagan, Stone Age specters ready to make him a yearly sacrifice.
While it is sometimes fey and uncanny, this story never rises to the level of frightening. It seems to be more concerned with showing the romantic longing that still lingers in the heart of moderns who feel shackled to the necessity of modern reality that offers nothing more intriguing than grim dinner parties given by activists society matrons. It contains a subtle, tongue in cheek humor, as well as a warning that those romantic longings could ultimately prove to be dangerous.
In this odd and delightful Victorian spook story, a modern young man of science encounters the primal specters of ancient rites and savagery. It is not a story that will frighten modern readers (if it was ever intended to frighten at all) but it has other virtues.
The story opens with young Rudolph Reed sitting by an ancient barrow in the evening, enjoying a sunset, and dreading the approaching necessity of dressing for dinner to join the table of the inflexible old warhorse, Mrs. Bovery-Barton. His sensitive nature suddenly makes him feel that he is surrounded by malignant spirits, and he beats a retreat back to the manor house quickly enough to be punctual for dinner and avoid the wrath of his hostess.
Dinner conversation turns to the barrow, and Mrs. Bovery-Barton’s young daughter fills Reed in on the local superstition about the barrow. Reed retires for the night with a wicked headache (for which the doctor treats him with cannabis) but he is still haunted by thoughts of the barrow.
Reed eventually makes his way back out to the ghostly barrow, now glowing blue in the eerie night, and using wisdom from an old fairy tale, manages to enter it, only to discover, and be menaced by a crowd of hideous, pagan, Stone Age specters ready to make him a yearly sacrifice.
While it is sometimes fey and uncanny, this story never rises to the level of frightening. It seems to be more concerned with showing the romantic longing that still lingers in the heart of moderns who feel shackled to the necessity of modern reality that offers nothing more intriguing than grim dinner parties given by activists society matrons. It contains a subtle, tongue in cheek humor, as well as a warning that those romantic longings could ultimately prove to be dangerous.
July 15, 2022
my fave one so far, the celestial imagery was top notch
January 13, 2023
The narrator of this short story discusses over dinner an encounter he has had with a group of ghosts from the Stone Age, before again heading out to the barrow where he first encountered them. At the second encounter, the cave men attack him with their flint tools, when the narrator gets advice from a 16th century ghost to "show them steel". As the narrator draws his pocket knife, the cavemen withdraw in fear and respect.
Superficially more a supernatural ghost story than an SF tale, "Pallinghurst Barrow" is an interesting rumination both on the mechanics of time travel and the supernatural, as well as on SF notions such as progress. It picks apart the idea of ghosts by dragging up spectres from the ancient past, rather than the recent past, as is usually the case. At dinner, the guests posit that it is interesting that people seeing ghosts always see ghosts of the fairly recently deceased, as our imagination limits us to the familiar. This can be seen as an argument for the fact that ghosts exist only in our imagination, and that if, in fact, all generations would have left a host of ghosts to wander the world for eternity, them the planet would be completely overrun with them. This was a notion that Grant Allen's contemporary H.G. Wells even name-checked the author on in his seminal novel "The Time Machine" (1895).
Three years later Wells would take his protagonist 800,000 years forward in time, pointing to the potentially devastating effects of current-day social progress (the class system). Allen instead takes us something like 800,000 years back in time, also bringing up the idea of progress, through the protagonist's modern technology, which makes him superior to the cavemen. This juxtaposition between the two time travel stories by the British SF pioneers makes "Pallinghurst Barrow" interesting.
First published in the London Illustrated News' Christmas edition in 1892, it is also included in my collection "The British Barbarians and Other SF Stories by Grant Allen" (2019).
Superficially more a supernatural ghost story than an SF tale, "Pallinghurst Barrow" is an interesting rumination both on the mechanics of time travel and the supernatural, as well as on SF notions such as progress. It picks apart the idea of ghosts by dragging up spectres from the ancient past, rather than the recent past, as is usually the case. At dinner, the guests posit that it is interesting that people seeing ghosts always see ghosts of the fairly recently deceased, as our imagination limits us to the familiar. This can be seen as an argument for the fact that ghosts exist only in our imagination, and that if, in fact, all generations would have left a host of ghosts to wander the world for eternity, them the planet would be completely overrun with them. This was a notion that Grant Allen's contemporary H.G. Wells even name-checked the author on in his seminal novel "The Time Machine" (1895).
Three years later Wells would take his protagonist 800,000 years forward in time, pointing to the potentially devastating effects of current-day social progress (the class system). Allen instead takes us something like 800,000 years back in time, also bringing up the idea of progress, through the protagonist's modern technology, which makes him superior to the cavemen. This juxtaposition between the two time travel stories by the British SF pioneers makes "Pallinghurst Barrow" interesting.
First published in the London Illustrated News' Christmas edition in 1892, it is also included in my collection "The British Barbarians and Other SF Stories by Grant Allen" (2019).
September 25, 2023
A creepy Victorian era supernatural horror story published in The Illustrated London News, November 28, 1892.
The story is set on the evening of the autumnal equinox when a modern young man of science Rudolph Reeve a journalist and a man of science, finds himself captivated by the sunset and the lights on the bracken at Pallinghurst Common while sitting beside the Old Long Barrow he suddenly encounters the primal specters of ancient rites and savagery of thousands of years ago.
"They were spirits, yet savages. Eagerly they jostled and hustled him, and crowded round him in wild groups..."
"Rudolph shrank with a terrible shrinking from his own impulse to enter this grim black hole, which led at once, by an oblique descent, into the bowels of the earth. But he couldn’t help himself. For, O God! looking round him, he saw, to his infinite terror, alarm, and awe, a ghostly throng of naked and hideous savages."
"The child came creeping in with an ashen face. 'Well?' she murmured, soft and low, taking her seat by the bedside; 'so the King of the Barrow very nearly had you!' 'Yes,' Rudolph answered, relieved to find there was somebody to whom he could talk freely of his terrible adventure."
The story is set on the evening of the autumnal equinox when a modern young man of science Rudolph Reeve a journalist and a man of science, finds himself captivated by the sunset and the lights on the bracken at Pallinghurst Common while sitting beside the Old Long Barrow he suddenly encounters the primal specters of ancient rites and savagery of thousands of years ago.
"They were spirits, yet savages. Eagerly they jostled and hustled him, and crowded round him in wild groups..."
"Rudolph shrank with a terrible shrinking from his own impulse to enter this grim black hole, which led at once, by an oblique descent, into the bowels of the earth. But he couldn’t help himself. For, O God! looking round him, he saw, to his infinite terror, alarm, and awe, a ghostly throng of naked and hideous savages.""The child came creeping in with an ashen face. 'Well?' she murmured, soft and low, taking her seat by the bedside; 'so the King of the Barrow very nearly had you!' 'Yes,' Rudolph answered, relieved to find there was somebody to whom he could talk freely of his terrible adventure."
February 6, 2018
Original rating: 1.5 stars.
This was a short story I was asked to read for my upcoming Vamps & Villains assignment. I'm not too sure what to think of it.
Essentially, on Autumn Equinox a male scientist is absentmindedly sat on a moors when all of a sudden he feels spirits and invisible beings surround him. In a flurry, he's run back to a big Manor House he's staying at. He talks over his experience with the gentlemen of the house, but only the landowner's child is sympathetic. That night, he reads up on folklore. Whilst on some sort of drugs, he dreams of being transported back in time to where savaged people plan to sacrifice him to the gods. He manages to escape, but he is left in a fever.
One thing I didn't like about this was the ambiguity. Now, I know gothic fiction thrives off making you question if things were real or not, but I really couldn't decide with this story. So, when I finished it, I wasn't left feeling doubtful or suspicious, but annoyed and frustrated. Upon reflection, I probably side more with the hallucinating theory, but I would have liked more of push towards one or the other.
Another thing I didn't particularly like was how the story panned out; it felt rushed and quite boring in some areas, which could have been sorted easily by making it into a longer story. Not a novel, but perhaps a novella or simply just a few extra pages that added important information to some of the plot points. Short stories never work for me, and this was a perfect example of why.
Other than that, I liked the blurred distinctions between science and the gothic. You have the scientist, arguably a rational person, being freaked out by supernatural activities; and instead of questioning them, he believed and went along with them. You also had the degenerative side of the story, which the savages natives. It was all very interesting; it had a lot of potential, and needed to be expanded in a much larger space than 11 or so pages.
This was a short story I was asked to read for my upcoming Vamps & Villains assignment. I'm not too sure what to think of it.
Essentially, on Autumn Equinox a male scientist is absentmindedly sat on a moors when all of a sudden he feels spirits and invisible beings surround him. In a flurry, he's run back to a big Manor House he's staying at. He talks over his experience with the gentlemen of the house, but only the landowner's child is sympathetic. That night, he reads up on folklore. Whilst on some sort of drugs, he dreams of being transported back in time to where savaged people plan to sacrifice him to the gods. He manages to escape, but he is left in a fever.
One thing I didn't like about this was the ambiguity. Now, I know gothic fiction thrives off making you question if things were real or not, but I really couldn't decide with this story. So, when I finished it, I wasn't left feeling doubtful or suspicious, but annoyed and frustrated. Upon reflection, I probably side more with the hallucinating theory, but I would have liked more of push towards one or the other.
Another thing I didn't particularly like was how the story panned out; it felt rushed and quite boring in some areas, which could have been sorted easily by making it into a longer story. Not a novel, but perhaps a novella or simply just a few extra pages that added important information to some of the plot points. Short stories never work for me, and this was a perfect example of why.
Other than that, I liked the blurred distinctions between science and the gothic. You have the scientist, arguably a rational person, being freaked out by supernatural activities; and instead of questioning them, he believed and went along with them. You also had the degenerative side of the story, which the savages natives. It was all very interesting; it had a lot of potential, and needed to be expanded in a much larger space than 11 or so pages.
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August 30, 2023Koncepcja bardzo w stylu "The White People" Arthura Machena, chociaż nie tak niepokojąca jak oryginał, tekst wyraźnie pod patronatem tych samym tendencji intelektualno-kulturalnych, które dyktowały "Złotą gałąź" Frezera. Jest dolina, w dolinie jest kurhan, z kurhanem wiąże się legenda, jest równonoc jesienna, dzieją się złowrogie rzeczy związane z innym światem, wyobrażeniami o archaicznych religiach itd., ale wszystko może też być majakiem po przedawkowaniu przeciwbóli (konopii indyjskiej), więc nie bójcie się dzieci. W sumie dość zabawny tekst. Jestem pewna, że Kingfisher zrobiłaby na jego podstawie świetny horror.
February 2, 2022
"Pallinghurst Barrow" haunted me for days after I finished reading it. The story's richness, the dreamlike procession of scenes and events, is beautifully done by author Grant Allen. Allen's achievement in balancing (albeit imperfectly) country house drollery with "lurking millennial horror"* is well worth celebrating.
It's a pleasure to note "Pallinghurst Barrow" has been included in the recent anthology Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology edited by Richard Wells.
___________
*https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...
It's a pleasure to note "Pallinghurst Barrow" has been included in the recent anthology Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology edited by Richard Wells.
___________
*https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...
September 8, 2024
Nicely done. Part social comedy at country house with domineering hostess part kind of ghosts in the flesh horror inside a nearby barrow where one of the guests is lured. Savages prepare to sacrifice him to a skeletal king. Atmospheric story.
July 19, 2021
3,5 klimacik fajny, chociaż narracja średnia i te seksistowskie wstawki 🙄
February 21, 2023
Very Victorian, and not in the fun way. Depressingly misogynistic and strangely managing to be racist about preChristian Britons.
November 21, 2023
A barrowing tale.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews