Review of The Shape of Fear by Elia W. Peattie
New York: The Macmillan Co., 1898.

Print Version:
The Bookman 8
(Jan. 1899): 492

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Page 492

THE SHAPE OF FEAR. By Elia W. Peattie. New York: The Macmillan Co. 75 cts.

The cover of this little book looks to be woven of mists and moonbeams, as mystical and as exquisite as the tales themselves. Exquisite may seem a singular term to apply to a volume of ghost lore, but no other word could so well convey an idea of the first impression of the work. Sweetness, beauty and grace are its earliest effects, and these are not the usual characteristics of the shapes of fear assumed to revisit the glimpses of the moon. The conventional ghost story deals almost exclusively with horror and crime, and its gruesome fascination has an unwholesome show. These unconventional sketches deal mostly with goodness and love, yet there is no loss, rather an increase, of the unknowable's charm. They are such slender, shadowy delicate little studies of the unknown that the effect which they produce appears at first out of proportion to the size of the work. But as it is examined more closely, its real importance shows through its slightness. There could be nothing greater than the motive of the titular tale; nor anything making more universal appeal than the second story. "The Loom of the Dead" also touches some of the deepest, tenderest chords of human nature, and the spiritual humour of two of the stories illuminates the beautiful seriousness of the spirit of the whole. In truth the little book takes such hold of the heart, as well as the imagination, that one scarcely dares trust one's self to speak of it in deliberate criticism. Yet unstinted praise may be given the work from a purely critical point of view. The stories are works of art; the spirit of the work is of the noblest; the style is of the best and the simplest, so simple that only the very greatest is more simple.

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