The Mist in the Mirror

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Okay--I would like someone to explain some things to me. First, why on earth is that mirror in Pyre (the home of the Quincebridges and NOT of Monmouth and certainly not any relation of that innkeeper at the beginning of the story)? Second, we basically know why Monmouth is haunted by the boy's ghost, the misty mirror and all the rest, but why would our narrator start seeing things in the mirror? Just because he read Sir James Monmoth's notebooks? I also wish we were given a clearer picture of how the boy is related to Sir James. Obviously, they're kin of some sort, but what sort? Is that all related to the death of Monmouth's parents? If not, what really happened there? And why did Conrad Vane curse all the Monmouth men? (And--apparently anyone interested in them if we take our narrator's final vision as a preview of things to come.)

A terrible curse has been passed down through the generations for hundreds of years. Concerned priests, elderly librarians, hysterical psychics — even total strangers counsel him with dire warnings: moving in front of my eyes all the time - the mist is impossible to grasp. This seems to reflect the shifting and unstable nature of the place and ultimately of the effect Jennet Humfrye's ghost has on men's minds.There had been only heat and dryness for month after month, followed abruptly by monsoon, when the sky gathered and then burst like a boil and sheets of rain deluged the earth, turning it to mud, roaring like a yellow river, hot, thunderous rain that made the air sweat and steam. Rain that beat down upon the world like a mad thing and then ceased, leaving only debris in its wake.

My future,’ I said blankly. I had no idea what that might be. Everything I had been planning, and the book I meant to write… seemed to be part of another life altogether. I wondered if any of it would ever interest me again, my mental powers seemed so debilitated. But if not that, then what? What purpose had I? I had none, and could not imagine what the future… might possibly be”.I settled into my chair, turning off all the lights save for one shaded lamp beside me. I suppose that I intended to read for an hour at most, expecting drowsiness to overtake me again, but I became so engrossed in the story that unfolded before me that I rapidly forgot all thought of the time, or my present surroundings.”

I was startled - the verb 'startled' makes us feel nervous and anticipate more sudden ghostly happenings. Susan Hill is a born story-teller of considerable talent. She can take a trope such as a mysterious, malevolent curse, mix it with her carefully described turn of the century London, plus the evocative North Yorkshire moors, imbue it with a feeling of doom and torment — the draughty, musty library, the sinister and threatening church — and a dash of something else. enveloped everything - this alliteration emphasises how completely the mist has descended and creates a sense of entrapment. Disappointingly, Hill never fully develops these existential themes. For want of meaning, Monmouth works, and researching Vane, he uncovers the mystery of his past and of the hauntings he has been experiencing.For the last twenty years Sir James Monmouth has journeyed all over the globe in the footsteps of his hero, the great pioneering traveler Conrad Vane. Such carefully controlled mounting tension creates a feeling of an earlier time, perhaps the 19th century, when in most classic novels of English literature, fear was merely a suggestion in the mind. And it continues: I]went to the spiral staircase nearest to me, and began to climb, my steps echoing harshly in the stillness of the room. Before long he realises he is being followed too. A pale, thin boy is haunting his every step but every time he tries to confront the boy he disappears. And what of the chilling scream and desperate sobbing only he can hear? And as he learns more about his hero’s past, he discovers that they are only the beginning, for Kittiscar Hall is hiding terrible secret that will bind their lives together in ways he could never have imagined.

The soft breathing came again, from a different place, in the darkness just ahead of me and I began to edge forwards, and then to stop, move and stop, but it was always just out of reach. I looked down into the great barrel of the room below. Every shadow seemed like a crouched, huddled figure, every corner concealed some dreadful shape. There was no one there. There was nothing ... I wanted to run but could not and knew that this was what was intended, that I should be terrified by nothing, by my own fears, by soft breathing, by the creak of a board, by the very atmosphere which threatened me.”Intent on uncovering the secrets of his childhood hero, the mysterious Conrad Vane, he begins to investigate Vane’s life, but he finds himself warned off at every turn. It throws out every cliche in the British Ghost Story Handbook.Old houses,aristocratic families,exploration of the Empire,ghostly children, gentleman's clubs, and unspeakable evil figure prominently. I really enjoy Susan Hill's ghost stories, however, I did not enjoy this one. It is an extremely frustrating story because hardly any information is revealed, and it seems like the story is one big series of delays until the climax. The book is about James Monmouth, a man in his mid thirties who has spent all of his life overseas travelling after spending his boyhood in Africa. His travelling was inspired by his boyhood hero, Conrad Vane, in whose footsteps he was following. Now Monmouth, having no recollection of his parents or early years, has returned to England to find his roots. So far so good.