Charles Williams (1) (1886–1945)

I am a huge fan of Charles Williams. “All Hallow’s Eve” is a flawed but brilliant masterpiece. For me this was not as strong as the magnificent “All Hallow’s Eve.” But with “Descent Into Hell,” too many sentences read as solipsistic labyrinths of incoherence. The gestalt that pulled “All Hallow’s Eve” together couldn’t overcome the muddle of “Descent Into Hell.” It seemed like the idea for “Descent Into Hell” was never fully formed and that came across in the execution. I feel like it needed a vicious and ruthless editor.

That being said, it IS Charles Williams and, while the wording is cumbersome instead of dazzling, there are flashes of brilliance—such as his characterization of Gomorrah.

It took me two reads to fully grok All Hallow’s Eve; I may need another read-through for this one as well … I’m just not sure it’s worth it.… (mer)

Month of October 2022 - Spooky Classics

“All Hallow’s Eve” by Charles Williams (1945; 1960 Internet Archive PDF edition - FREE) 248 pages.

Link to book:

https://archive.org/details/allhallowseve00will/mode/1up?view=theater

Setting: London

Whew! I barely made it through this one. It’s deep. It’s complex. It’s all inside the author’s mind. He knew what he was talking about, but half the time, I didn’t.

I believe I got down the baseline of the story, but I sure didn’t read into it like other reviewers. So, here’s my amateur take on this spooky classic:

Two friends, Lester and Evelyn, are instantly and randomly killed by an airplane that has crashed to the ground during the war. They don’t realize at first they are dead. The two find themselves coming to terms with their mortality…and their new life after death.

Another of their friends, Betty, daughter of Simon the Clerk, who is obviously possessed by a demon and a master in dark magic, is being used by him and is being hypnotized to enter into the world of the dead. Betty doesn’t know or remembers being put into the trances, and she doesn’t remember entering the unseen world of the dead.

Clerk Simon is practicing in black magic with the living in order to make a connection to be “Master” of the dead and the living. He brings people into the dark side with miraculous healings and using words like love, peace and joy.

Simon seems to be having difficulties sending Betty’s soul to the dark side permanently, maybe because she was baptized as a child by her caregiver, unbeknownst to him, so he creates an immortal, deformed dwarfed soulless woman spirit, to act as a temporary go between. He entices the two spirits of both Lester and Evelyn, friends of Betty, into the dwarf soul, then kisses it, sealing their fates…he thought.

The two girls don’t actually reside in the false woman spirit, but they can no longer communicate with the living unless conjured up by Clerk Simon, who hopes they will help draw Betty in with them. [But, then they later do communicate with Betty because Lester directs the soulless dwarfed woman to Betty…so I was confused.]

It’s not enough for Simon to simply conjure up the dead. He wants to Master them, and Betty was to be his liaison.

In this horror novel, what ever evils you lived and spoke often while living, would show up in your death and follow you into hell. Simon the Clerk wasn’t dead yet, but as things were falling apart at the end, his two evil spirits showed up to greet him.

And if your heart was sweet and pure, as Betty’s was, evil couldn’t touch your soul.

Not too far from the truth, except that the Word does say you have to believe and have faith in Jesus Christ as well.

THE MEANING OF ALL HALLOW’S EVE

Halloween: contraction for All Hallow’s Eve, October 31…the day before All Saints (or All Hallow’s) Day, November 1. So, isn’t it strange that today Halloween is considered Satan’s holiday where satanic cults have taken over? I always thought it was free candy night. LOL!

Allhallowtide lasts for 3 days and is practiced by the Roman Catholics, feasting, celebrating, praying and remembering the saints of the past. The 3rd day, November 2nd, is called All Soul’s Day, a day for prayer of your loved ones. This day the Catholics believe that those who were baptized, but may have died from sin and stuck in purgatory, have a chance to be saved and have their soul cleansed, if prayed over by the faithful here on earth. This day they will usually go decorate and light up the graves of loved ones.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Halloween… (mer)

Book 1 of the 2020 Challenge. Story was engaging and played well to my love of vintage urban fantasy, similar to Lewis' Space Trilogy. This is not surprising since the author was a contemporary and associate of Lewis.

However, the only print edition I could find was a print-on-demand version which was filled with typos (nearly every page), which, combined with the author's convoluted syntax, resulted in my skimming through a lot of the deep philosophical passages. If I could have gotten past these obstacles more effectively I would probably be writing now about the rich use of symbolism (water, light, etc).

There is an anti-Semitic theme, as the bad guy is a Jewish magician / alchemist and references to his Jewishness are frequent. That was unsettling, especially considering that the story takes place in post-WWII London.

I read it mainly for its milieu but I doubt if very many others without my love of this 'type' would stick it out. Given a do-over though, I would read it again.… (mer)