THE DEEP ONES: "Man-Size in Marble" by E. Nesbit

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THE DEEP ONES: "Man-Size in Marble" by E. Nesbit

2paradoxosalpha
Jul 13, 2022, 9:44 am

The unflinching dire resolution and traditional setup of this story sort of reminded me of Wakefield's work. The protagonist Jack seemed awfully dense and dismissive in light of the information he'd been given, but I guess he was telling the tale with the clarity of hindsight.

3papijoe
Jul 13, 2022, 4:58 pm

This hit all the marks for me. Relatable characters that gave the reader a stake in what happened to them, good plotting, paid off at the end, if sadly so. No surprise ending but Nesbit did the work to get us there.
My only quibble was something pretty common for writers of that period: the need for physical evidence that the supernatural event actually happened. The actual reveal seemed pretty implausible. But it didn’t detract from the story.
Overall a great pick!

4housefulofpaper
Jul 19, 2022, 7:29 pm

This is certainly an effective and affecting story, but it's not one that I can find much to say about. Just a couple of thoughts really:

Despite the narrator's early comments about the newlyweds' lack of funds, they are able to shop at Liberty to furnish the cottage.

In his essay (linked in the miscellany) M. Grant Kellermeyer describes the narrator finding "his dead, ravished wife". Is he reading too much into the story, despite what we are told of the Normans' evil reputation in life? On this and previous readings I had understood that she had died of shock. Or is this just Victorian reticence, and the astute reader is supposed to put two and two together (is her loosened hair a hint in that direction, for example?).

5papijoe
Jul 21, 2022, 6:30 pm

>4 housefulofpaper: Wow, the “ravished” interpretation, while probably a bit of a stretch, certainty adds a whole other dimension of horror to the ending.
You’ll have to explain what shopping at Liberty means, for us Yanks who don’t get the reference.
I’ve really appreciated your British perspective on these stories. How about some M.R. James, Saki, and E.F. Benson next season?

6AndreasJ
Jul 22, 2022, 9:02 am

Reading time's been in short supply this summer, but I'm now making up some omissions. I rather liked this one, conventional perhaps but competent.

Regarding relatability and lack of funds, I did reflect that I can't easily relate to considering oneself poor while affording to retain a servant. The narrator's socio-economic environment is certainly quite different from mine.

I also wondered how much force is needed to break off an animated marble finger. A dainty woman like Laura could hardly be expected to succeed in tearing off the finger of an ordinary man.

7housefulofpaper
Jul 24, 2022, 3:17 pm

>5 papijoe:
Liberty is a high-end department store selling clothing and furnishings. It's been around since the 1870s, and was associated with the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements. The fact that the couple shop there tells the reader that they are Modern and a bit Bohemian (I looked on the Liberty website today, and a man's shirt in a "Liberty" print costs £175/$210).

Obviously they are aspirational, and better off than many (my ancestors of around that time: domestic staff, agricultural workers, one in the police force) wouldn't shop a Liberty, that's for sure. But it's tricky to judge the past by current standards. I'm sure more people had at least one servant when housework was so much more manual and time-consuming (applying L. P. Hartley's "The past is a foreign country" line backwards, so to speak, a comparison comes to mind. We currently have an Indian lady on our team at work, and she's mentioned a couple of times that her family have always had servants/domestic staff.)

>6 AndreasJ:
I suppose - although this is drifting over into special pleading - being animated by evil spirits might affect the structure of the marble, and make it more brittle?