THE DEEP ONES: "The Doll" by Algernon Blackwood

"The Doll" by Algernon Blackwood

Discussion begins February 8, 2016.

First published in The Doll and One Other (1946).



ONLINE VERSIONS

nightgallery.net/wp-content/uploads/Doll.doc

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?63825

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

Wolf's Complete Book of Terror
The Haunted Dolls
Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural

MISCELLANY

http://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/01/wfrs-101-weird-writers-19-algernon-blackwo...
http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/dliterature/authors/blackwood/bio/abbio1...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-datlow/creepy-dolls-literature_b_6852416.htm...
http://tinyurl.com/zdcbepq

I didn't realize until now that the above first publication was an Arkham House edition! If I can't dig out my copy of Wolf's, I'll read from the document link posted above.

I've got this in a cheap (albeit hardback) collection from 1977 called Tales of Terror & Darkness which I found a couple of years ago. It seems to contain the stories from Blackwood collections Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural and Tales of the Mysterious and Macabre.

It's not the same collection as Tales of Terror and the Unknown although they've been combined on LT...even stranger, they've managed to get linked to Faucet Fish as well!

Another story without much mystery as to where it is headed, the effect realised in the telling and not the plot. There's much to commend it, as long as the almost Jamesian prose doesn't bother the reader. For my part, I found it rather tense reading, reminding me of the Alfred Hitchcock aphorism on suspense versus surprise: the tension derives precisely from the lack of mystery. (Here's a slightly different take, with Hitch explaining in his inimitable delivery.)

There are many effective passages in the story. I found this paragraph perhaps the most gruesome, and yet also droll (a morgue humour to be sure):

A doll! But for the maternal suggestion, a doll was a pathetic, even horrible plaything, yet to watch a child busy with it involved deep reflections, since here the future mother prophesied. The child fondles and caresses her doll with passionate love, cares for it, seeks its welfare, yet stuffs it down into the perambulator, its head and neck twisted, its limbs broken and contorted, leaving it atrociously upside down so that blood and breathing cannot possibly function, while she runs to the window to see if the rain has stopped or the sun has come out. A blind and hideous automatism dictated by the Race, provided nothing of more immediate interest interferes, yet a herd-instinct that overcomes all obstacles, its vitality insuperable. The maternity instinct defies, even denies death. The doll, whether left upside down on the floor with broken teeth and ruined eyes, or lovingly arranged to be overlaid in the night, squashed, tortured, mutilated, survives all cruelties and disasters, and asserts finally its immortal qualities. It is unkillable. It is beyond death.

I think Hitchcock would have appreciated the excuse for so extensive a description of physical trauma and body horror. It's effective here, I think, because it foreshadows how lethal of a force the doll will prove to be.

>4 elenchus:

I had highlighted the same passage.

Thoughts about the story in a day or so, but I thought this would be a good place to post these links. I hope they can be seen outside the UK...

On the back of Blackwood's popularity reading his stories on television, he was approached to make similar short films to be shown in cinemas. By all accounts his performances weren't as assured, but two complete films survive and have been uploaded to YouTube by the British Film Institute (BFI).

Here they are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRy4D11qc8I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATAOHgHJv3E

>4 elenchus:
That was the standout passage for me as well. I'm afraid the story itself struggled to grip me. I think it's because none of the characters rose above the level of cliché (the superstitious Irish cook, and so on). It's true that the "Jamesian prose" disguises this to an extent, but there was a point at which I felt I'd "seen through it", and after that it rang false. It's a bit of a shame because I certainly came to the story wanting to enjoy it.

Edited to add: that final sentence is far too harsh. I did enjoy this story but felt that Blackwood's unconscious prejudices were a little too much on display, and it affected the story because it wasn't limited to a comment or two from the omniscient narrator, but fed into the nature of the characters.

I was reminded how much Blackwood depends on slow process and a concentration on interior states for his effect.

I liked the development of Madame Jodzka into a protective maternal figure for the Colonel and even, in the midst of terror, realizing she is sexually attracted to him. I thought Blackwood handled that well.