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The Light Invisible
The Light Invisible presents a series of interconnected supernatural short stories by the celebrated and prolific English author Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914), a member of the famed Benson literary clan. The author's brother Arthur remarked of this volume, "The Light Invisible always seemed to me a beautiful book .... It was the first book in which he spread his wings, and there is, I think, a fresh and ingenuous beauty about it, as of a delighted adventure among new faculties and powers." Robert Hugh Benson enjoyed a career that lasted little over a decade. In addition to a great many non-fiction works, he authored a series of twenty novels and short story collections that combined a specific moral orientation with an astonishing popularity among the general public of the early twentieth century. As an Anglican and later a Catholic priest, Father Benson was in great demand as a speaker in both England and the United States. The most sensational English convert from the Anglican Communion to Catholicism since John Henry Newman, Benson was a son of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He wrote from a Catholic perspective, but with real understanding and sympathy for the Protestant position.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1903
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122 people want to read
About the author
Robert Hugh Benson
320 books186 followersMrsgr. Robert Hugh Benson AFSC KC*SG KGCHS was an English Catholic priest and writer. First an Anglican pastor, he was received into the Catholic Church in 1903 and ordained therein the next year. He was also a prolific writer of fiction, writing the notable dystopian novel Lord of the World, as well as Come Rack! Come Rope!.
His output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction, children's stories, plays, apologetics, devotional works and articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed through the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to Pope Pius X in 1911, and gain the title of Monsignor before his death a few years later.
His output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction, children's stories, plays, apologetics, devotional works and articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed through the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to Pope Pius X in 1911, and gain the title of Monsignor before his death a few years later.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 15, 2023
3.25⭐
The Light Invisible published in 1906 is an episodic collection of chilling stories told to the narrator by an elderly priest. With its curious mixture of faith, history and assassination, we are presented with quite a satisfactory piece of supernatural fiction.
Preface ✔
The Green Robe 3⭐
The Watcher 3⭐
The Blood-Eagle 3⭐
Over the Gateway 3⭐
Poena Damni 3⭐
Consolatrix Afflictorum 3⭐
The Bridge over the Stream 3.5⭐
In the Convent Chapel 3.25⭐
Under which King? 3.25⭐
With Dyed Garments 3.25⭐
Unto Babes 2.5⭐
The Traveller 3.5⭐
The Sorrows of the World 3.5⭐
In the Morning 3.25⭐
The Expected Guest 3.25⭐
The Light Invisible published in 1906 is an episodic collection of chilling stories told to the narrator by an elderly priest. With its curious mixture of faith, history and assassination, we are presented with quite a satisfactory piece of supernatural fiction.
Preface ✔
The Green Robe 3⭐
The Watcher 3⭐
The Blood-Eagle 3⭐
Over the Gateway 3⭐
Poena Damni 3⭐
Consolatrix Afflictorum 3⭐
The Bridge over the Stream 3.5⭐
In the Convent Chapel 3.25⭐
Under which King? 3.25⭐
With Dyed Garments 3.25⭐
Unto Babes 2.5⭐
The Traveller 3.5⭐
The Sorrows of the World 3.5⭐
In the Morning 3.25⭐
The Expected Guest 3.25⭐
December 24, 2018
A surprising and thought provoking book, but I'm struggling to think who I would recommend it to.
Firstly, this is not a book of ghost stories, as some reviews bill it. Of the dozen or so short vignettes, only one has a ghost proper (and even then, the story challenges us to decide which interpretation of the events we believe). Two or three have, perhaps, visions of malevolent spirits but they are not really there to scare us.
Suppose you were granted eyes to see, sometimes, beyond the surface of things and into the spiritual world. What would you see? Modern fantasy sees sexy, bohemian bad-boy vampires. Horror and ghost stories see the dark things of our imaginations. This book is attempting the opposite: to depict something of the light and work of God in the world, and the various imperfect ways people respond to it, embedded in some lovely prose vignettes about the English countryside. The result is unsettling, unexpected and sometimes electric but not intended to frighten us for the entertainment of it. All the visions are consistent with an orthodox Catholic theology and understanding of mysticism, even the controversial 'guardian angel and wagon' story.
I can understand the comparison to Frank Peretti, who has similar aims but a very different style. A better comparison would be George Macdonald, whose luminous but dreamlike Phantastes has some similarity of style. Yet those who love the earnestly nonconformist Macdonald may be put of by the Catholic aspects here, and I think non-Christians will just find this book puzzling or incomprehensible - there are number of dots to join for it to really make sense. Yet I found it a powerful book despite that sketchiness.
Firstly, this is not a book of ghost stories, as some reviews bill it. Of the dozen or so short vignettes, only one has a ghost proper (and even then, the story challenges us to decide which interpretation of the events we believe). Two or three have, perhaps, visions of malevolent spirits but they are not really there to scare us.
Suppose you were granted eyes to see, sometimes, beyond the surface of things and into the spiritual world. What would you see? Modern fantasy sees sexy, bohemian bad-boy vampires. Horror and ghost stories see the dark things of our imaginations. This book is attempting the opposite: to depict something of the light and work of God in the world, and the various imperfect ways people respond to it, embedded in some lovely prose vignettes about the English countryside. The result is unsettling, unexpected and sometimes electric but not intended to frighten us for the entertainment of it. All the visions are consistent with an orthodox Catholic theology and understanding of mysticism, even the controversial 'guardian angel and wagon' story.
I can understand the comparison to Frank Peretti, who has similar aims but a very different style. A better comparison would be George Macdonald, whose luminous but dreamlike Phantastes has some similarity of style. Yet those who love the earnestly nonconformist Macdonald may be put of by the Catholic aspects here, and I think non-Christians will just find this book puzzling or incomprehensible - there are number of dots to join for it to really make sense. Yet I found it a powerful book despite that sketchiness.
February 10, 2022
I enjoyed these thought-provoking short stories of private apparitions.
December 28, 2011
This is described as "a series of interconnected supernatural short stories" which made me think of ghost stories. However, it might more properly be called a series of connected vignettes displaying God in all circumstances, using a variety of images. It wasn't a bad book if that is what you were expecting but I felt it was like a series of sketches rather than anything fully developed. The imagery was lovely and I appreciated what the author was communication. It definitely was a quick read.
September 8, 2018
Along the lines of A Mirror Of Shalott: Being A Collection Of Tales Told At An Unprofessional Symposium in that it is a collection of supernatural tales, but in this case they are all told or revolve around an elderly priest. It is an early one by Benson and not so good as his later ones.
February 17, 2015
I really enjoyed these inter-connected short stories written by Catholic priest Robert Hugh Benson in the late 19th century. The stories blur the line between the spiritual plane and our everyday life.
September 29, 2017
There were a few fine stories in this collection and those ones deserve more than 3 stars but I'm quite certain that guardian angels don't shove small children under the hooves of runaway horses. I appreciate the oddness of Victorian Catholicism, but really...
August 11, 2015
Interesting trip to the border were sobrenatural reality can be glanced for a moment. A cristian view of the beyond-phisics things around us.
August 6, 2019
This review was previously posted on the Side Real Press website in 2012.
It is hard to imagine that anyone will be unaware of the ghost stories of the Benson Brothers, Arthur, Robert and Edward. Many put their best works on a par with M.R. James (they attended his Christmas story readings at Eton). All wrote some ghost stories though Robert and Arthur are overshadowed by Edward whose ghost tales are amongst the most anthologized and with good reason.
All were also somewhat 'odd', possibly due to the cruelty inflicted by their father (who was Archbishop of Canterbury), their mother who came out after their fathers death, and a criminally insane sister. Critics expend a lot of ink seeking meanings in their many texts.
Robert (1871-1914) was ordained by his father as a C. of E. priest but later 'batted for the opposition' and joined the Catholic Church (he was also very friendly with Frederick Rolfe). There are two books of ghost stories, many of which suffused with the Catholic sensibility, of which 'The Light Invisible'(1903) is the first. I had previously read some of the tales in anthologies and they seemed to me to be what I term 'ghost-lite'. By this I mean that whilst nicely written and pleasant to read they are really a bit dull in the old spooky department, in a similar way to the (in my opinion vastly over-rated) 'genial' ghost stories of E.G. Swain. Still, a nice, and cheap, copy via ebay made it seem rude not to pick it up and read the rest.
I am glad I did, because in the context of the book as a whole everything makes a lot more sense. The framing device is that of a visitor meeting an old priest in the twilight of his years who tells him tales of his life. They are largely what might be classed as 'omens and portents', in which Gods hand is manifest through the various narratives. For example; in one, our narrator visits a convent and thinks of the 'wasted' lives of the nuns there - especially those in the closed section. That is until he goes to the chapel and feels the power between a nun at prayer and the altar before which she kneels. In another he goes to visit a sinner who asks for repentance, which the priest gives even though he sees that the person is already irredeemably dammed. Perhaps the oddest is where he sees a ghostly and beatific figure push a child in front of a carriage with the result that...
Benson writes these tales as if they are everyday occurrences, (after all God is everywhere at all times) and it is this very mundanity that makes the volume work as a sum of its parts and places the tales which I had previously read in a better context. Benson is not really trying to produce chills and once that is realised you cease to feel cheated by their absence and enjoy them for what they are.
Coachwhip Publications have republished 'Light...' together with his more supernatural volume, 'A Mirror of Shallot' as 'The Supernatural Stories of Monsignor Robert H. Benson: The Light Invisible / A Mirror of Shalott'.
For those seeking stronger stuff again, then E.F. Benson is perhaps your first of the brothers to try.
It is hard to imagine that anyone will be unaware of the ghost stories of the Benson Brothers, Arthur, Robert and Edward. Many put their best works on a par with M.R. James (they attended his Christmas story readings at Eton). All wrote some ghost stories though Robert and Arthur are overshadowed by Edward whose ghost tales are amongst the most anthologized and with good reason.
All were also somewhat 'odd', possibly due to the cruelty inflicted by their father (who was Archbishop of Canterbury), their mother who came out after their fathers death, and a criminally insane sister. Critics expend a lot of ink seeking meanings in their many texts.
Robert (1871-1914) was ordained by his father as a C. of E. priest but later 'batted for the opposition' and joined the Catholic Church (he was also very friendly with Frederick Rolfe). There are two books of ghost stories, many of which suffused with the Catholic sensibility, of which 'The Light Invisible'(1903) is the first. I had previously read some of the tales in anthologies and they seemed to me to be what I term 'ghost-lite'. By this I mean that whilst nicely written and pleasant to read they are really a bit dull in the old spooky department, in a similar way to the (in my opinion vastly over-rated) 'genial' ghost stories of E.G. Swain. Still, a nice, and cheap, copy via ebay made it seem rude not to pick it up and read the rest.
I am glad I did, because in the context of the book as a whole everything makes a lot more sense. The framing device is that of a visitor meeting an old priest in the twilight of his years who tells him tales of his life. They are largely what might be classed as 'omens and portents', in which Gods hand is manifest through the various narratives. For example; in one, our narrator visits a convent and thinks of the 'wasted' lives of the nuns there - especially those in the closed section. That is until he goes to the chapel and feels the power between a nun at prayer and the altar before which she kneels. In another he goes to visit a sinner who asks for repentance, which the priest gives even though he sees that the person is already irredeemably dammed. Perhaps the oddest is where he sees a ghostly and beatific figure push a child in front of a carriage with the result that...
Benson writes these tales as if they are everyday occurrences, (after all God is everywhere at all times) and it is this very mundanity that makes the volume work as a sum of its parts and places the tales which I had previously read in a better context. Benson is not really trying to produce chills and once that is realised you cease to feel cheated by their absence and enjoy them for what they are.
Coachwhip Publications have republished 'Light...' together with his more supernatural volume, 'A Mirror of Shallot' as 'The Supernatural Stories of Monsignor Robert H. Benson: The Light Invisible / A Mirror of Shalott'.
For those seeking stronger stuff again, then E.F. Benson is perhaps your first of the brothers to try.
May 10, 2021
These 1903 stories by Robert Hugh Benson, the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury who was gay and became a Roman Catholic Priest, are an attempt to imagine a Roman Catholic version of the supernatural tale popular around the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The stories are distinctive in their brevity and their ability to suggest disorientation and menace while still, it would seem, steering clear of any content that would be considered blasphemous. Some of the early stories reminded me of Machen because they have some inclination towards awareness of pagan forces. There are elements of an overarching narrative here, given that each story is told by an aging Catholic priest to a younger man that has been visiting him. The aging priest has an instinct for seeing the supernatural (compared with an instinct for seeing beauty) and he shares anecdotes about moments of supernatural and spiritual acuity throughout his life. There is, however, some development in the story of the relationship between the priest and his friend, especially as the priest nears death. I had read Benson's _Lord of the World_ before and will certainly continue to read his prose, which is precise and almost surgical in its attempts to depict just enough of the needed information about the supernatural.
January 22, 2019
A good book
The author knows how to tell a story. The stories are short and somewhat mysterious but engaging. Some readers may find them a little old fashioned but I enjoyed everyone of them.
The author knows how to tell a story. The stories are short and somewhat mysterious but engaging. Some readers may find them a little old fashioned but I enjoyed everyone of them.
September 5, 2021
Great non-fiction catholic stories
What I like about this book is that stories show aspects of the spiritual life in day-to-day living. Try it.
What I like about this book is that stories show aspects of the spiritual life in day-to-day living. Try it.
January 7, 2019
This is a collection of religious short stories written by a Catholic priest in 1903. It's a lot better than it sounds. Benson was clearly influenced by the supernatural fiction of his era - M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Barry Pain, etc. - and his depictions of heavenly beings and other manifestations of God's will are genuinely weird. A very unique book.
December 9, 2019
80/100 (= 4.5/6) ≈ 4 Stars
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Similar to Mirror of Shalott, but not as good. I just didn't seem to get pulled into the individual stories the same way I did with Mirror. He connected them in a similar way by creating a character who told all the stories, and describing some happenings in the storyteller's present, which really helps to turn it into a book instead of just a collection of short stories, but all in all I thought it was just great, not excellent.
-----------------------------------------
Similar to Mirror of Shalott, but not as good. I just didn't seem to get pulled into the individual stories the same way I did with Mirror. He connected them in a similar way by creating a character who told all the stories, and describing some happenings in the storyteller's present, which really helps to turn it into a book instead of just a collection of short stories, but all in all I thought it was just great, not excellent.
January 10, 2011
Maybe this wasn't meant to be read by a Protestant? The Light Invisible is a fascinating Catholic predecessor to Frank Peretti and, even though it's never a surprise when I have theological hangups with religious books, let me just share this nugget: one of the short stories features an angel shoving a child under the hooves of a galloping horse to die, smiling sadly because it's just God's will, after all, and it must happen. Barf.
May 18, 2011
Another mind boggler.....
July 4, 2011
A really subtle story of ghosts typical of late 1800's/early 1900's English writing.
November 2, 2016
Mno... nedokazala jsem se do pribehu vcitit, prisly me umele pospojovane... ale vyborny format knihy do kabelky.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews