Robert Aickman Readers discussion

It's funny you say it "certainly was not frightening" because for me this remains the single most frightening story I have read by Aickman. It sent shivers down my spine when I first read it and did so again when I re-read it today.

Why do I find it terrifying rather than merely sad? Well, what happened exactly to Mary when she first encountered that dog behind the gate? What was the "incident" in which she had supposedly been interfered with and mauled to death but obviously hadn't been? When I contemplate these questions, and the implications of the possible answers, I feel terrified.

i think the 'monster' could be a werewolf or weredog, but in a way i think that is besides the point. the dog is an agent of forceful change, of diverging paths in life. i agree completely with this:

The paths we take in life, the decisions we do or don't make, often have profound consequences we don't see ahead of time

i thought the mansion's difference in appearances were particularly unsettling.

One of my favourites. The ending completely wrong-footed me the first time I read it.

I couldn't help but think of it when I read Ian McEwan's Black Dogs - totally different stories, but both with dogs that are simultaneously realistic animals, and symbolic of something darker.