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The Seance Hardcover – February 3, 2009

by John Harwood (Author)

4.0 449 ratings

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A haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of The Ghost Writer Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there . . .” Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance’s sister, the child she lost.Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance takes her to a séance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life.
So begins The Séance, John Harwood’s brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late-Victorian England.
It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains—and murder. For Constance’s bequest comes in two parts: a house and a mystery. Years before, a family disappeared atWraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation.Now the Hall belongs to Constance. And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of theWraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The Ghost Writer

“Elegantly paced and delightfully macabre, [The Ghost Writer] celebrate[s] the Victorian school and its obsession with the past’s authority over the present, the thin line between affection and obsession, the glimpse of the lurid from the corner of the eye.”—Washington Post Book World

“The Ghost Writer manages to evoke both the confident past and the more anguished present of the genre, and even to suggest, slyly, that although the illustrious tradition of the genteel British ghost story remains with us, we need to be very, very careful about disturbing its rest.”—New York Times Book Review

About the Author

John Harwood is the author of two previous novels of Victorian Gothic suspense. Aside from fiction, his published work includes biography, poetry, political journalism and literary history. His acclaimed first novel, The Ghost Writer, won the International Horror Guild's First Novel Award. He lives in Hobart, Australia.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Many of the creepy late Victorian familiars abound in The Seance: the dark woods of the English countryside, the ruined mansion with secret passages and hidden chambers and fog on the moors. There's even a sarcophagus in a dead fireplace, a tricked-out suit of armor and some apparatus for collecting electricity when lightning strikes. Drafts blow out candles at the most inopportune times.

The literary conventions of the Victorian suspense novel are present as well: the nested narratives that arrive in mysterious packets, abandoned diaries and even a family tree -- complete with married cousins. Australian John Harwood, whose Ghost Writer won an International Horror Award in 2004, writes with Poe and Dickens peering over his shoulders, shaking their wizened heads perhaps over one modern twist: The strongest characters in The Seance are two women of action.

Constance Langton, the narrator of the story, has known little but grief in her young life. Her younger sister dies of scarlatina at the age of 2, and her mother goes into perpetual mourning. Poor Constance is ignored and abandoned by her distant father, and her only succor becomes the chance that a medium at a seance might provide a way for her mother to contact the dead child.

But the dead rarely answer our calls, and when Constance pretends that they do, she brings down even greater sorrow. Her salvation seems to come from a sudden bequest by a distant relative. She inherits the foreboding Wraxford Hall and with it a packet of papers that reveals some of the reasons behind the disappearance, 25 years earlier, of Eleanor Unwin, her infant daughter and her mesmerizing and villainous husband. Eleanor's secret journal hints at the truth, and the two stories -- Constance's and Eleanor's -- mesh in the thrilling conclusion, the result of happy coincidences that devotees of Victorian novels may relish. Indeed, the ways in which Harwood plays with the conventions of the form provide the main source of delight.

Curiously, however, the seances themselves undermine the witty fun. The novel's epigraph gives away the trick of making a luminous vapor appear, and the seances to which Constance brings her mother are exposed as frauds. The final seance in the book hoodwinks us as well, elaborately revealing the man inside the monster, the spooks made out of fine gauze and suspended disbelief.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition (February 3, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0151012032
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0151012039
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,526,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,004 in Ghost Fiction
- #19,103 in Historical Thrillers (Books)
- #36,209 in Murder Thrillers

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4.0 449 ratings

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Guido Henkel

Simply wonderful

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2010

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"The Séance" is a wonderfully mysterious novel set in Victorian England. It is an utterly enchanting read that draws the reader into its magic and then takes them on a ride of apparitions and spooky encounters.

The most striking thing about the book is its voice. Very restrained and personable, the first-person narrative puts one right in the head of the man characters. Told in part through diary entries - much the same way Bram Stoker fashioned his classic "Dracula" - the story unfolds over various generations and through varying viewpoints as we learn about a strange family curse. Stylistically, this is the most delicately written book I have read in a long time, yet at the same time it is exactly this delicacy that makes you shudder at times, as evil perspires through the narrative and the characters slowly dive into the mysterious unknown that lies before them.

I have loved every minute of "The Séance" and cannot stop but shower it in praise. This is heartfelt, atmospheric gothic horror at its best with fine nuances and cool plot twists.

11 people found this helpful

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Smokey

Delightful Shudders

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2011

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"The Seance" by John Harwood is a deliciously old-fashioned gothic novel with a decaying mansion, heroines in distress, rumors of ghosts, clairvoyants, villains, a dark, spooky wood, and romance found and lost. It is told through journals, one written in "present" late 1880s and the others written in the "past" in the 1870s.

After her mother's passing, twenty-one -year-old Constance Langton finds herself keeping house for an uncle she previously did not know existed. It is at her uncle's home that John Montague, a solicitor, arrives to inform her she is heir to Wraxford, a crumbling mansion and large wood that seems to be permeated by evil. Constance is quite startled. She has never heard of the relative who left her the property or of the supposedly cursed property. Montague, struck by Constance's resemblance to the wife of one of the Wraxfords, Eleanor Unwin, sends her his own journal and that of Eleanor. The two documents reveal something of the strange history of the mansion, the mysterious disappearances of its previous occupants, the monk who haunts the woods, and Eleanor's fears and terrors as a member of the Wraxford family. Contacted by the son of a man whose reputation suffered when he became involved with some of the strange occurrences at Wraxford, Constance agrees to permit access to the mansion for psychical research and insists on being present at the experiment. She is, after all, not really a stranger to clairvoyance having had some troubling, possible psychic experiences herself, attended seances, and read about Eleanor's brushes with the occult.

John Harwood generates a creepy atmosphere in this novel. His descriptions of Wraxford and the woods are excellent. Using journals as a technique to tell the story adds an immediacy to the narrative and creates a bond between readers and the "journal authors". He hints, he insinuates, he muddies, to build tension, suspense, and shudders. The writing is consistently Victorian, and transports readers to and holds them in the era. Very, very good if you like this genre.

4 people found this helpful

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JAK

Not what it seems

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2011

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Harwood is a very skillful writer.He's also a trifle annoying.He manipulates ghost story conventions with consummate skill but unfortunately , he doesn't like ghosts. As a consequence his novels tend to degenerate into not quite plausible mystery stories.The Ghost Writer is a scarier, creepier novel in part because it has a crazed psycho sexual edge to it.This one is a Victorian Gothic , which while it drags at times, makes for generally compelling reading .It is not as ambitious as the Ghost Writer and that is in part a good thing.The Ghost Writer tends to be fascinating in a way this book is not .It wreaks of malevolence.Yet , when you reach the end , you are apt to say , well was that all there was .Precisely because this book is less ambitious , you don't feel quite as let down by the conventional mystery story ending.Still I'm tempted to say to Harwood , let the ghost be ghosts.Much as I genuinely enjoyed this novel , it felt a little too much like a superior episode of PBS Mystery.I'd like Harwood to let a little Shirley Jackson and M.R James in and I think he could do it.In all events ,I'm ready for more.

4 people found this helpful

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David West

Gothic thriller

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2024

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I forgot immediately that this is by a contemporary author. It has all the flavour of a Victorian Gothic thriller and none of the florid language. As much as I like the latter, you can get bogged down in its verbosity so this rips along at a cracking pace.
If you want a synopsis, read someone else's review. Better yet, buy the book and enjoy a thoroughly good read.

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S. Beck

Doubts disappeared after a few chapters....

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2010

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After being disappointed with The Ghost Writer by the same author --- I had my doubts with the first pages of this book. However grueling and slow the first 4th of the book was - the remainder was a very good read. Not long after thinking this was going to be a slow page turner, I suddenly found myself injected into the Wraxford mansion and it's history. This tale took me through a story that was dark with supernatural undertones in an interesting gothic atmosphere. It was easy to read, easy to keep track and didn't twist my mind like an involved mystery tale.
My point: When I'm reading a mystery I'm completely overtaken by the task of finding clues in the words. Since I didn't realize this was a mystery but thinking it was "something else", I was able to enjoy the read without fretting over clues and word twists. And surprisingly enough, it was just that - a very good mystery tale that this reader wasn't aware of until the very end. Definitely worth a few nights of your time....written in parts - it was a little confusing what perspective one was reading but in the end, it tied up quite nicely.

2 people found this helpful

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Nell

Most excellent writing!

Reviewed in Canada on June 1, 2022

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I so thoroughly enjoyed this book! The writing and dialogue is superb, very Victorian, very gothic and just flows beautifully. I read Mr Harwood’s “The Ghost Writer” just prior to this and just hated the story within a story muddled technique that he used but I was impressed with his writing style and his description of the dialogue so I read this next, right away. I’m so glad I did! Just brilliant! Anyone who enjoys a great mystery with many twists and turns, up until all is revealed in the last chapter, will appreciate this book. I also very much appreciate that there were no scenes of “horror” but just great mystery shrouded in mystery, the supernatural and very well thought out story. I’m now off to read the book that he wrote after this one and I’m hoping it’s a wonderfully written and “The Séance” was! Mr Harwood is now 76 years old and the last book he published is “The Asylum” - which I mentioned I will next be reading - in 2013. I do hope that he is doing well and still writing and will publish his next book in the very near future!

Perceptive Reader

Excellent Gothic Mystery

Reviewed in India on May 30, 2022

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This was truly a gripping and very gothic read. There were too many coincidences and unbelievable stuff. But the characters were fascinating. Setting was vividly dark. And the mystery was hugely enjoyable.
Only the underwhelming ending resulted in dropping of a star. Otherwise, recommended.

danton carole

trop fort

Reviewed in France on November 23, 2014

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bravo ! un livre palpitant et sombre, une lecture sans arrêt et une intrigue parfaite.
le livre est arrivé sans dommage et sera relus plusieurs fois.

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Rossi

Seriously creepy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2012

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This is the first novel I have read by John Harwood and it exceeded all my expectations. A gothic mystery, a little reminiscent of The Woman in Black and Bleak House, the story unfolds around the crumbling Suffolk mansion Wraxford Hall and the Victorian obsession with death and the afterlife. Harwood writes from the perspectives of lonely young Constance Langton the mystery benefactor of the Hall, the solicitor Mr Montague and Eleanor Unwin an unwitting clairvoyant and their stories weave together nicely.

The only improvement would be to have a Wraxford family tree to refer to at the start, as I did get slightly confused with them all at one point where Mr Montague was relaying their family history. The family tree appeared in the middle and I suppose that if I had the book version rather than the kindle, I would have discovered it. However, that certainly didn't spoil it for me - this book was seriously creepy, atmospheric and most beautifully crafted. I couldn't put it down and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

3 people found this helpful

Michaela Denny

I read the ghost writer which I enjoyed immensely, so now I am reading The Seance ...

Reviewed in Australia on December 13, 2015

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I read the ghost writer which I enjoyed immensely, so now I am reading The Seance getting towards the end and I am loving this book will read more from this author brilliant :-)

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