I've always thought that a fun way of relaxing during the summer months was to read spooky ghost stories. This could be because I'd rather picture cool, autumn days than the summer heat we're being hit with. Or maybe reading ghost stories makes me think of telling spooky tales around a fire at summer camp. It's not like I have a personal camp fire memory from my youth, but I still somehow have the nostalgia. I think I watched enough episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? to get campfire ghost story moments engrained in my memories.
Whatever the reason for my summer attraction to these kinds of stories, it recently seemed the perfect time to start reading The Body Snatcher and Other Classic Ghost Stories. I mentioned this collection of supernatural stories a few posts ago. So far I've read the first two stories in the book, and both were new to me. I'm going to skip describing the first story, because it was written in such a long-winded, old fashioned style, that I could barely understand it. Even after I did piece it together, I didn't particularly like the plot.
The second story was much better! It's titled The Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter and it was written by J Sheridan Le Fanu. Although, I wasn't familiar with Le Fanu, he is listed as "the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century" on Wikipedia. It turns out he was also the man who wrote Carmilla, that saucy female vampire story you're probably familiar with.
The illustration above depicts pretty much what I pictured in my mind while reading Schalken the Painter. If anyone else has read this ghost story, I'd like to discuss it with you. In a way, it's not entirely a ghost story. It could also be seen as a monster story or a story about Satan. I even ran across some reviews online that suggest this story is about a vampire. It all depends on how you interpret the villain.
I don't want to spoil the story by giving too much away, or influence your thoughts on the villain. I'll just give you a quick summary. In this story, Godfrey Schalken is an artist who is more or less apprenticing under a master artist named Gerard Douw. The characters are based upon Godfried Schalcken and Gerrit Dou who were actual seventeenth century artists. In fact, Dou was a pupil of Rembrandt's. Aside from the characters being based upon actual artists, the rest of the story is fiction. Let's hope.
The above painting was painted by the real Schalcken. It's titled Girl with a Candle and it hangs in the Pitti Gallery in Florence. Some people believe that this painting inspired Le Fanu in writing the Schalken tale.
In the story, Schalken falls in love with his boss Douw's niece, who is named Rose. Let's pretend that's Rose above. Douw is completely clueless about his apprentice's attraction.
One night, a strange cloaked figure appears at Douw's door asking for his niece's hand in marriage. Douw knows nothing of the strange man except that he is very wealthy. The man does not show his face, or reveal anything about himself. He more or less pressures Douw into giving his niece away in marriage. At the time this story takes place, it was common for a marriage to be arranged based on money. Still, this is a rather extreme situation, as the mysterious man wishes to remain mysterious.
I'll leave the rest of the story for you to read and interpret.
If you don't already own the book, you can read the story here:
The Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
Whatever the reason for my summer attraction to these kinds of stories, it recently seemed the perfect time to start reading The Body Snatcher and Other Classic Ghost Stories. I mentioned this collection of supernatural stories a few posts ago. So far I've read the first two stories in the book, and both were new to me. I'm going to skip describing the first story, because it was written in such a long-winded, old fashioned style, that I could barely understand it. Even after I did piece it together, I didn't particularly like the plot.
The second story was much better! It's titled The Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter and it was written by J Sheridan Le Fanu. Although, I wasn't familiar with Le Fanu, he is listed as "the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century" on Wikipedia. It turns out he was also the man who wrote Carmilla, that saucy female vampire story you're probably familiar with.
The illustration above depicts pretty much what I pictured in my mind while reading Schalken the Painter. If anyone else has read this ghost story, I'd like to discuss it with you. In a way, it's not entirely a ghost story. It could also be seen as a monster story or a story about Satan. I even ran across some reviews online that suggest this story is about a vampire. It all depends on how you interpret the villain.
I don't want to spoil the story by giving too much away, or influence your thoughts on the villain. I'll just give you a quick summary. In this story, Godfrey Schalken is an artist who is more or less apprenticing under a master artist named Gerard Douw. The characters are based upon Godfried Schalcken and Gerrit Dou who were actual seventeenth century artists. In fact, Dou was a pupil of Rembrandt's. Aside from the characters being based upon actual artists, the rest of the story is fiction. Let's hope.
The above painting was painted by the real Schalcken. It's titled Girl with a Candle and it hangs in the Pitti Gallery in Florence. Some people believe that this painting inspired Le Fanu in writing the Schalken tale.
In the story, Schalken falls in love with his boss Douw's niece, who is named Rose. Let's pretend that's Rose above. Douw is completely clueless about his apprentice's attraction.
One night, a strange cloaked figure appears at Douw's door asking for his niece's hand in marriage. Douw knows nothing of the strange man except that he is very wealthy. The man does not show his face, or reveal anything about himself. He more or less pressures Douw into giving his niece away in marriage. At the time this story takes place, it was common for a marriage to be arranged based on money. Still, this is a rather extreme situation, as the mysterious man wishes to remain mysterious.
If you don't already own the book, you can read the story here:
The Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
I also found a BBC special of this ghost story, which was very nicely narrated. I was going to post all of it here, but I wasn't completely impressed with it. I'm afraid that the villain my mind cooked up was a heck of a lot scarier than the bad guy in the BBC special.
What was in my mind as I read the story:
What was in the BBC Special:
It just goes to show how reading a ghost story is always scarier than seeing someone else's interpretation of it on film! The exception for me being The Shining, which I found equally scary in book and movie form.
It's obviously not the most convenient for us to meet around a campfire to share ghost stories. How about the next best thing? Let's have a virtual night around the campfire! I've already got us started with the Shalken story, and here are some virtual marshmallows for you to roast:
If you'd leave me a comment with link to a story or a YouTube clip of your favorite ghost story/urban legend, it would be much appreciated. Let's see what you've got!
