"Schalken the Painter" (1839)

With a story as old as this one by Sheridan Le Fanu there are always going to be problems of antiquated writing, but this is not bad overall—well conceived and with some very effective scenes. The original title, "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter," has a 19th-century wordiness. But the edit (as it appears in The Dark Descent and elsewhere) brings its own distortions because Godfrey Schalken is a fairly minor character here, more of a witness for whom we have sympathies. He's not even really "the painter" in this story. That's his master Gerard Douw. Schalken is merely a student, and haplessly in love with Douw's niece. Both Douw and Schalken are actual historical figures, by the way, but there's no word about Douw's niece in the Wikipedia article. In the long perspective of this story, as in life, Schalken eventually becomes a great painter in his own right, noted for his use of candlelight. In the 17th century, when this story takes place, arranged marriages were very much the norm. Douw cannot offer much of a dowry for his niece so he hopes for a man of means for her, although Schalken with his raw talent still might have a chance if love has anything to do with it. But then the mysterious man of means shows up. He comes by night. His hat is pulled down over his face and he has a box of gold whose value is to be verified by a nearby Jew (note clonking antisemitism). He's also in a huge hurry to close this deal—it has to be tonight or never. This is not going to turn out well for Rose, obviously (yes, as happens remarkably often, the woman gets it), but aside from that the story has a lot of surprises and effective moments. The marriage takes place, in all its haste, and then bride and groom disappear entirely. It turns out the groom is not from Rotterdam, as he had said. No one there has ever heard of him. Then, one night, Rose shows up in a terrible state—bedraggled, starving, frightened out of her mind. She keeps saying things like "The dead and the living cannot be one: God has forbidden it" and "Rest to the wakeful—sleep to the sleep-walkers." Real spooky shit. It's obvious what's happening, but still ambiguous enough to leave gaps where the imagination can dwell and fester. So, right, the guy is dead all along. There's a curious detail here about how he doesn't breathe. I wonder if I would notice that about someone because I don't think I particularly notice people are breathing—hard to test that one. As a kind of ghost our dead guy is an interesting conception, a dark shape that speaks but does not breathe, is fabulously wealthy, and wants a bride. Pretty good story all around.

The Dark Descent, ed. David G. Hartwell
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