1semdetenebre
"Mr. Kempe" by Walter de la Mare
Discussion begins July 19, 2023.
First published in the November 1925 issue of London Mercury and Harper's Magazine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1029289
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
The Connoisseur and Other Stories
Strangers and Pilgrims
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Mr._Kempe
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iIwoheaF8s
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_de_la_Mare
http://tartaruspress.com/d8.htm
https://tinyurl.com/mr2cvums
Discussion begins July 19, 2023.
First published in the November 1925 issue of London Mercury and Harper's Magazine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1029289
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
The Connoisseur and Other Stories
Strangers and Pilgrims
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Mr._Kempe
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iIwoheaF8s
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_de_la_Mare
http://tartaruspress.com/d8.htm
https://tinyurl.com/mr2cvums
2AndreasJ
The 2nd misc. link says this story is not always considered supernatural. I'm not sure why it'd ever be considered supernatural?
It's creepy enough, though, and I'm happy to grant it status as honorary Weird.
It's creepy enough, though, and I'm happy to grant it status as honorary Weird.
3RandyStafford
I think you could consider it supernatural if you think the "three Kempes" refer to Mr. Kempe and his dead wife and child. Or maybe Kempe, as stated earlier, is dead too.
Maybe you could think of the three Kempes as just three personalities of the titular character? I'm not sure and think I need to read the story again.
In either case, I found this story creepy too and liked it quite a lot, probably second to "Seaton's Aunt" in the four de la Mare's I've read.
Maybe you could think of the three Kempes as just three personalities of the titular character? I'm not sure and think I need to read the story again.
In either case, I found this story creepy too and liked it quite a lot, probably second to "Seaton's Aunt" in the four de la Mare's I've read.
5semdetenebre
Not as enjoyable as the author's "All Hallows", which also featured a narrator undergoing an arduous journey to get to the meat of the tale, but I can see why HPL admired it. I really liked the dangerous cliff's edge crawl and could feel the vertigo of the sequence, since I've experienced it often enough myself! The following passage is really striking and nicely sets the stage for what follows.
"I took another look at my map, enjoyed a prolonged 'breather,' and went on. Steadily up and inward now and almost due north-northwest. And once more untended thickets rose dense on either side, and the air was oppressed with a fragrance as sickly as chloroform. Some infernal winter tempest or equinoctial gale must have lately played havoc here. Again and again I had to clamber over the boles or through the head-twigs of monster trees felled by the wind, and still studded with a few sprouting post-mortem pale-green buds. It was like edging between this world and the next.
"I took another look at my map, enjoyed a prolonged 'breather,' and went on. Steadily up and inward now and almost due north-northwest. And once more untended thickets rose dense on either side, and the air was oppressed with a fragrance as sickly as chloroform. Some infernal winter tempest or equinoctial gale must have lately played havoc here. Again and again I had to clamber over the boles or through the head-twigs of monster trees felled by the wind, and still studded with a few sprouting post-mortem pale-green buds. It was like edging between this world and the next.
