The
Horla
by
Guy de Maupassant
(unabridged)
(Audiobook) 
The
Horla
was first published in 1887 and the story is written in journal style.
The journal entries begin on May 8th and to begin with they are quite
normal. The narrator states what a lovely day it is and how much he
likes living where he does.
The
next entry is on May 12th and the narrator records that he has been a
little unwell and feeling feverish and ill at ease. The
situation gradually gets worse and the journal entries become more
paranoid.
By
June 3rd things have grown so bad that the narrator takes a trip to
Mount Saint-Michael and by the time he returns a month later he has
made a complete recovery and the journal entry for July 2nd is very
positive. By the following morning however, he is ill again and his
nightmares have returned. It is interesting to note
that during the narrator's absence his coachman, Jean, seems
to have been plagued by similar problems, and they clear up as soon as
his master returns. This fact suggests to me the presence of a
vampire-like entity that has been forced to find an alternative victim
to sap energy from while the narrator was away, and the narrator does
eventually come to the conclusion that he has an invisible foe.
Guy
de Maupassant did suffer from mental illness at times and many people
believe that when he wrote The
Horla he was drawing on personal experience
and that the story is about a man gradually going insane. Maybe Guy De
Maupassant did draw on personal experience when writing the story, I
rather imagine that he did, but I would argue that the story is about
an invisible adversary. The fact that Jean had problems for a month
certainly indicates this, as do other aspects of the story, including
the passing ships mentioned at the beginning of The
Horla and their true
significance is not revealed until very much later on in the story.
The
Horla is quite a scary story.
Not so much for the idea of being stalked by an invisible monster, but
because the narrator begins to doubt his own sanity and few things are
as frightening as the thought of losing ones mind.
The
Classic Tales audiobook of
this story has a runtime of one hour and seventeen minutes and, as
usual, B.J. Harrison
provides a clear and entertaining narration. I must admit
though, that I am not a fan of this story. It is very long and I found
it a little cumbersome. This is nothing to do with Harrison's narration
of the story. I just feel that the original story drags on for too long
and it could have been improved by being shortened. That is
just my opinion and I am sure that many
people will love the story just as it is. In fact the writer H.P.
Lovecraft was apparently a
big fan of this story and it is believed to have proved
inspirational to him when he wrote his story The
Call of Cthulhu.
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