Carnacki
Thomas Carnacki is a fictional occult detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in The Idler magazine and The New Magazine.
These stories were printed together as Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder in 1913. A 1947 Mycroft & Moran edition of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder edited by August Derleth added three stories: "The Haunted Jarvee", published posthumously in The Premier Magazine in 1929; "The Hog", published in Weird Tales in 1947; and "The Find", a previously unpublished story.
General structure
The stories are presented using a framework: Carnacki periodically invites four friends to dinner, to be followed by a description of his latest case. One of the guests, Dodgson, is the actual narrator of the stories, though the audience comprises an extremely minimal part of the narrative. Carnacki forbids discussion of the case in question until dinner is over; the group move to the parlor, everyone settles into a favourite chair, Carnacki lights his pipe, and the adventure proceeds without interruption.Each of Carnacki's tales relates an investigation into an unusual haunting, which Carnacki is charged to identify and to end. He employs a variety of scientific methods in his work, including up-to-date technologies such as photography and his own fictional invention, the Electric Pentacle; he also has a wide knowledge of folklore and the occult. Never presumptuous, Carnacki is careful to gather solid evidence before drawing a conclusion regarding the authenticity of a haunting; unlike many other occult detectives, several of his cases turn out to be only human fakery. This variety helps endow the stories with suspense, as the audience cannot be sure whether the ghosts are real or not: of the nine Carnacki stories, one contains no supernatural elements, four feature authentic paranormal activity, two have the appearance of the supernatural as a disguise for mundane human activity, and two contain manmade hoaxes in parallel with an actual haunting.
After the tale is complete, Carnacki usually answers a few questions from his guests and may hand around a relevant memento, but does not discuss the case at great length. He then dismisses his guests with the genial phrase "Out you go!"
Inventions
In addition to the trademark electric pentacle, Hodgson invented several rituals and ancient texts that feature in the Carnacki stories.Carnacki uses a fictional ancient text, the "Sigsand Manuscript", as a resource to protect himself against supernatural influences. Carnacki refers to "Aeiirii" and "Saiitii" manifestations, the latter being more dangerous and capable of overcoming Carnacki's protective devices, and several rituals, including the "Saaamaaa Ritual", with its mysterious "eight signs" and "unknown last line" that is invoked in "The Whistling Room" by a mysterious power.
There are references to even more arcane fictional works, including the "Incantation of Raaaee", but no further information is provided in the stories.
Influence
The stories influenced later horror and fantasy writers, notably Seabury Quinn, who had his own supernatural detective character. Simon R. Green pays homage to Hodgson with his Ghost Finders series, where the protagonists work for the mysterious Carnacki Institute. Judas Ghost, a film based on Green's series, was released November 2013.Critical opinion
Unlike some of Hodgson's work, the Carnacki stories remain very accessible to a modern audience. A. F. Kidd and Rick Kennett in their introduction to No. 472 Cheyne Walk: Carnacki, the Untold Stories pose the question: "What is it about Thomas Carnacki that fascinates so many people?" According to Kidd and Kennett, the series' enduring attraction comes more from Hodgson's capacity for world-building than any special appeal of Carnacki himself:It certainly isn't his dynamic personality. Not much character is evident in Hodgson's creation: he is your generic stiff upper-lip Edwardian Englishman... but the exotic landscapes he inhabits are supernatural... it's his exploits, and the carefully constructed milieu in which they take place, that continue to intrigue. They are quite timeless.
Although a self-proclaimed fan of Hodgson's work, H. P. Lovecraft considered Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder "vastly inferior" to his earlier novels, calling it "his poorest work" and Carnacki himself "very weak, artificial and stereotyped", "surely only a mediocre echo of John Silence".
In an article about supernatural fiction, William Rose Benét stated "I remember delighting in the stories in "Carnacki, the Ghost Finder," recommended to me by Elinor Wylie, though I see that Howard P. Lovecraft rates
this book below Hodgson's others."
Ellery Queen praised the character as a "ghost-breaker after Houdini's own heart", and listed the 1947 edition of Carnacki as No. 53 in the Queen's Quorum of key detective works.
China Miéville lauded the Carnacki stories as "vigorous Edwardian psychic-detectiviana".
Summaries of Hodgson's Carnacki stories
The first six stories are covered here in sequence of their original publication, five in 1910 monthly issues of The Idler and "The Thing Invisible" in The New Magazine, January 1912."The Thing Invisible" is first as the stories were collected in 1913, and again as collected in 1947. Most if not all collections follow that sequence, prior to Project Gutenberg Ebook #10832, which contains the first six stories alone, in their magazine sequence.
"The Thing Invisible" was revised, and expanded by about half, presumably for the 1913 or 1947 collection. The collection as presented by Forgotten Futures contains both versions of "The Thing Invisible" and publishing history notes that identify some minor differences in the other stories.
"The Gateway of the Monster"
In an ancient mansion, the bedroom known as the Grey Room was the site of a grisly murder generations ago. Carnacki is summoned to investigate a noisy spirit that tears off the bedclothes and slams the door. The manifestation is far more powerful than he expects, and he spends a miserable, terrified night in his electric pentacle while a horrible apparition in the form of a giant human hand pounds at his defences. The next day, Carnacki finds the fabled "luck ring", and he brings it with him into the pentacle. This proves unwise, as when night falls the vicious entity pours from the ring itself and Carnacki is inside the pentacle with it. He barely escapes with his life, while the entity is trapped. He ends the haunting by melting down the ring into a lump of slag within his protective barrier."The House Among the Laurels"
A deserted mansion in Ireland displays signs of haunting, including what appears to be blood dripping from the ceiling, and several men have been found dead in the house. Is it a prank or a haunting? Carnacki recruits a group of burly local men to investigate, along with several dogs, and they attempt to stay the night within the mansion. During their ordeal doors slam, the fire goes out, a dog is killed, and the entire group bolts from the house in terror. Upon studying his photograph, Carnacki realises that he and the men have been played for fools. His photograph shows a wire, too fine to see in the dark, lowered from the ceiling to remove the hook holding the door open. The "blood drip" is coloured water, and the "ghosts" are actually a criminal gang living in secret rooms in the mansion and playing a trick on him, taking advantage of the local legends to frighten away interlopers."The Whistling Room"
When a chamber in a mansion manifests a loud, eerie whistling, Carnacki is called to investigate. He makes an exceedingly thorough search of the room, but can find no explanation. He is still not convinced of the supernatural nature of the sound until he climbs a ladder outside and peers into the room through the window: the floor of the room itself is puckering like a pair of grotesque, blistered lips. He hears Tassoc, the mansion's owner, calling for help, and enters the room via the window. But Tassoc is not in the room—only an extraordinarily dangerous supernatural entity. Carnacki is saved only by the intervention of an unknown, second being, which utters the unknown last line of the Saamaa ritual, temporarily rendering the whistling entity powerless. With that, Carnacki throws himself through the window to escape. He then has the room demolished, and all parts burned in a blast furnace within a protective pentacle including an ancient inscription in Celtic. According to legend, a court jester was once killed in the room's fireplace, and whistled as he was roasted to death."The Horse of the Invisible"
According to Hisgins family tradition, any first-born female will be haunted by a ghostly horse during her courtship. This story has been long considered a legend, but now for the first time in seven generations there is a first-born female, and her fiancée has just suffered a broken arm after an attack by a mysterious assailant. Carnacki is summoned to investigate. He and the woman, Mary, and her fiancée, Beaumont, hear hoofbeats in the night, but no horse is seen. Many people present hear the hoofbeats, but no one can find an explanation; Carnacki sets up the electric pentacle around Mary's bed. The hoofbeats are heard again during the night, but nothing else happens. No marks of hooves can be found around the grounds the next morning. The following evening, hoofbeats and neighing are heard on the grounds, and Mary is heard screaming. Carnacki rushes out with his camera, and snaps a picture, but sees nothing after the blinding flash. Beaumont is struck in the head, but not badly injured; he claims that he has seen an enormous horse's head. The hoofbeats are again heard during the night. The decision is made to accelerate the wedding plans, in the hopes that the haunting will disappear with the successful conclusion of the courtship.The next day, Carnacki takes Mary around the house, snapping photographs to see if any manifestation can be seen on film. In the cellar a horrible neighing is heard, but nothing is seen. In one of the developed photographs, however, an enormous hoof can be seen. The night again passes uneventfully. The next morning, though, hoofbeats and neighing can be heard almost immediately, in what seems a direct assault by the invisible horse; Carnacki fires his weapon and Mary's father attacks with his sword. As a light is brought they discover a rejected suitor, Parsket, wearing an enormous costume horse head and hooves. As they interrogate Parsket, hoofbeats are again heard in the house, and this time it is not a trick; Parsket dies of fright. The marriage goes on as planned, and the manifestation is never heard again.