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18th out of 63 books
—
97 voters
The Seance
by
John Harwood (Goodreads Author)
Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside, has a sinister reputation. Once, a family disappeared there. And now Constance Langton has inherited this dark place as well as the mysteries surrounding it. Having grown up in a house marked by the death of her sister, Constance is no stranger to mystery, secrets, and the dark magic around us. Her father was di...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
April 3rd 2008
by Jonathan Cape, Vintage Publishing
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Nov 01, 2009
Blair
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical,
ghostly-and-magical
After a somewhat dry and uninspiring start, this book developed into an excellently crafted and superbly chilling cross between a period mystery and a ghost story. I was impressed with the author's handling of both plot and characterisation; though the narrative is composed of personal accounts written by different characters at different times, it flows perfectly, and the ending ties up a great deal of loose ends without seeming implausible. The only thing I was unsure about was the juxtapositi...more
Aug 09, 2011
Hannah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Hannah by:
Amy S
I rated John Harwood's debut novel, The Ghost Writer, 2 stars, but this second novel is definitely a big improvement, and kept me interested (and creeped out) the entire time I was reading it.
The Seance is certainly a send up of all the classic Victorian gothics of the 19th century, (without all the flowery and overly melodramatic dialogue). Harwood's prose is almost flawless in it's execution, and he is a master in drawing the reader into an implausible world and making them believers in it.
Fro...more
The Seance is certainly a send up of all the classic Victorian gothics of the 19th century, (without all the flowery and overly melodramatic dialogue). Harwood's prose is almost flawless in it's execution, and he is a master in drawing the reader into an implausible world and making them believers in it.
Fro...more
8 likes · like · see review
Review from Badelynge
The Seance by John Harwood is set in the 1880s and is the story of Constance Langton. She becomes involved in spiritualism in an effort to lift her mother from the crippling grief of losing a child. Constance, due to the lack of regard and love from her parents has always had the nagging feeling that there is some mystery about her heritage, believing herself to be a foundling. Through diaries and journals and the aid of a world weary solicitor called Mr Montague she discove...more
The Seance by John Harwood is set in the 1880s and is the story of Constance Langton. She becomes involved in spiritualism in an effort to lift her mother from the crippling grief of losing a child. Constance, due to the lack of regard and love from her parents has always had the nagging feeling that there is some mystery about her heritage, believing herself to be a foundling. Through diaries and journals and the aid of a world weary solicitor called Mr Montague she discove...more
John Harwood's debut novel The Ghost Writer was one of those novels that will go down as a favorite of mine, so naturally when Harwood's second novel , The Séance, was recently released, I could not wait to read it.
The Séance is set in Victorian England and has all the elements which make for a great gothic mystery. There is a cursed run down mansion, a ghostly suit of armor, lightening bolts that strike out the blue, apparitions and other strange phenomena.
Constance Langton is introduced early...more
The Séance is set in Victorian England and has all the elements which make for a great gothic mystery. There is a cursed run down mansion, a ghostly suit of armor, lightening bolts that strike out the blue, apparitions and other strange phenomena.
Constance Langton is introduced early...more
Mar 09, 2009
Lori
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Suspense, Gothic, Victorian
Shelves:
mystery-suspense-crime-fiction,
haunted-house
Just as it appears Winter may be releasing the shores of Lake Erie from its death grip, I have found the perfect late autumn/winter read. In The Seance, John Harwood has recreated the best aspects of gothic dread. As in Harwood's freshman novel, The Ghost Writer, a major character in this story is a place: the decrepit Wraxford Hall...permeated by the stain of a violent past and filled with ominous secrets.
The troubled young woman who inherits Wraxford Hall has also inherited abilities as a spir...more
The troubled young woman who inherits Wraxford Hall has also inherited abilities as a spir...more
"sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plough the earth with salt if you will; but never live there." This is the advice to Miss Constance Langton from John Montague, the solicitor who as advised Miss Langton of her inheritance of Wraxford Hall.
The Seance is set in Victorian England, and Constance Langton has lost her mother and her cold and distant father has moved away. Living with her uncle, she notices an advertisement asking her to reply. It is then that she learns she has inheri...more
The Seance is set in Victorian England, and Constance Langton has lost her mother and her cold and distant father has moved away. Living with her uncle, she notices an advertisement asking her to reply. It is then that she learns she has inheri...more
6 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Victorian England is the perfect place to hatch a ghost story and thus an ideal setting for John Harwood's, The Seance.
The book is written in six long sections and starts with Constance Langton's narrative. Constance is a young woman who has always felt disconnected from her family and is in the midst of dealing with a mother who has been devastated by the untimely death of Constance's toddler sister more than a decade before. Constance is eventually compelled to seek the advice of a spirituali...more
The book is written in six long sections and starts with Constance Langton's narrative. Constance is a young woman who has always felt disconnected from her family and is in the midst of dealing with a mother who has been devastated by the untimely death of Constance's toddler sister more than a decade before. Constance is eventually compelled to seek the advice of a spirituali...more
This was a dark, suspenseful, atmospheric, "gothic" tale, complete with ghosts, mysterious disappearances, a haunted house and a tragic death or two.
John Harwood carefully builds his mystery by offering the reader the history of Constance Langton's childhood. Her sister, Alma, died when she was not yet four years old, her mother, devastated by the loss, never recovered enough to develop a loving relationship with Constance. As a young woman Constance inherits Wraxford Hall.
The Hall is believe...more
John Harwood carefully builds his mystery by offering the reader the history of Constance Langton's childhood. Her sister, Alma, died when she was not yet four years old, her mother, devastated by the loss, never recovered enough to develop a loving relationship with Constance. As a young woman Constance inherits Wraxford Hall.
The Hall is believe...more
3 likes · like · see review
“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 main characters. Told in part through diary entries - much the same way Bram Stoker fashioned his classic “Dracula” - the story unfolds over var...more
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 main characters. Told in part through diary entries - much the same way Bram Stoker fashioned his classic “Dracula” - the story unfolds over var...more
Oct 25, 2011
El Templo de las Mil Puertas
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
07-eltemplo,
no-solo-para-adultos
"Fantasmas, poderes sobrenaturales, sesiones de espiritismo y una mansión con un oscuro y misterioso pasado son algunos de los ingredientes de esta novela que nos lleva a las brumas del Londres del siglo XIX, para todo lector, joven o adulto, que se atreva a adentrarse en ella. “Venda Wraxford Hall sin verla, quémela entera y are la tierra con sal, si ese es su deseo; pero jamás viva allí". Éstas son las instrucciones que recibe Constance junto con una herencia inesperada: una lúgubre mansión, p...more
Aug 03, 2011
Mebhe
added it
"Angleterre, fin de l'ère victorienne. Constance Langton reçoit la visite d'un avocat, John Montague. Celui-ci lui annonce qu'elle vient d'hériter d'un manoir de famille dans le Suffolk, Wraxford Hall, et lui conseille de vendre la propriété sans perdre une seconde. Wraxford Hall jouit en effet d'une sinistre réputation : ses précédents propriétaires y sont morts dans d'étranges circonstances et une jeune femme, Eleanor Unwin, y a mystérieusement disparu avec sa fille. Quels terribles secrets re...more
Almost the best thing I can say about this book is "I liked the cover". It's a pastiche of the great Victorian Gothic novel, with overtones of Wilkie Collins. Sadly, the great Victorian public had more patience and more time on their hands than I do, and had also been less exposed to popular culture (there having been less of it around at the time) and were thus possibly less able to predict every. Last. Word of the storyline. There are no twists and no surprises: it does exactly what it says on...more
2 likes · like · see review
I really enjoyed the author's excellent use of multiple narrators. The various narrations rested in each other like nesting boxes and each moved seamlessly into the other.
What I also so hugely appreciated is that the author grasped the reader's intelligence. Maybe it's what I've been reading as of late but I'm sick to death of being pound over the head by whatever details the author deems significant.
No words are wasted in "The Seance" and just as much, there's no over simplification or charact...more
What I also so hugely appreciated is that the author grasped the reader's intelligence. Maybe it's what I've been reading as of late but I'm sick to death of being pound over the head by whatever details the author deems significant.
No words are wasted in "The Seance" and just as much, there's no over simplification or charact...more
This book has no literary merit whatsover, but don't let that stop you from reading it! If you like eerie old mansions, thick English fogs, strange glowing lights, tapping by invisibie hands, missing bodies, ghosts, love unrequited and requited, suits of armor with magical power, women who can see the future and the past, in short, Gothic novels, you'll get a kick out of this. Even if Gothic is not your usual fare, Harwood's tale is fine for a rainy night, preferably one with howling winds rattl...more
John Harwood really knows how to write the perfect gothic ghost story. He's got all of the elements - a decaying mansion in a spooky, isolated wood, a damsel (or two) in distress, charming villains, journals that appear at appropriate times to give readers pieces of secrets to help unravel the mystery (or to throw out red-herrings) ... He writes great gothic characters who converse as if Wilkie Collins gave them the words. He creates an atmosphere of gloom and describes scenes with pitch perfect...more
There is a good story here but it is buried beneath the tedium of excessive Victorian pleasantries and feints too clever for their own good. The late Nineteenth Century setting is perfect for this sort of story as superstition and mystery are still commonplace although being gradually worn away by the advance of science and technology. The characters attempt to provide rational and scientific explanations for phenomena but retain the hopes or beliefs that something supernatural may account for t...more
5 likes · like · see review
I gave Mr. Harwood's second book 4 stars. This book delivered in all fronts. Mystery, murder -including the alleged one of an infant-, apparitions, romance and of course, the inheritance of the sinister mansion upon which the stories and personages revolve around.
The author manages to keep his readers wondering and guessing what could have happened without being predictable and he manages to tie the ends smoothly without rushing to the final unraveling of the mysteries.
The beginning was a bit ob...more
The author manages to keep his readers wondering and guessing what could have happened without being predictable and he manages to tie the ends smoothly without rushing to the final unraveling of the mysteries.
The beginning was a bit ob...more
This is a hard book to describe, so I'm just going to steal the jacket description:
"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 seance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a bequest that will blight her life.
So begins T...more
"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 seance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a bequest that will blight her life.
So begins T...more
I always think the sign of a good book is when one reaches the end and feels a sense of loss that the experience of reading it is at an end. Note I said GOOD book and that's my problem believe it or not. This book was good but should have been great.
With subject matter like seances and manor houses, Victorian London and mysterious deaths and visitations this book should have been sinister, gripping and dripping in atmosphere but unfortunately it lacked the ambience and thrills one expected. The...more
With subject matter like seances and manor houses, Victorian London and mysterious deaths and visitations this book should have been sinister, gripping and dripping in atmosphere but unfortunately it lacked the ambience and thrills one expected. The...more
4 likes · like · see review
Alright...the title makes it sound a little (or a lot) on the dark side. And I admit that I normally stay away from scary stories that even hint about the occult. I don't like being afraid. However, I picked this up because I wanted a little bit of a fright (it is October, after all, and I feel culturally obligated...that or I was feeling some nostalgia for my childhood days and the ghost stories I loved to read then). I promised myself I would stop reading it if it went too far down the occult...more
I put this on request from the library and promptly forgot why, so when it came I had no feelings of eagerness to jump in or anything like that. I enjoy a good gothic novel now and then and this doesn't disappoint.
I can't properly summarize the plot, it's so full of twists and turns and characters. The story is told in six installments, each a story of its own, and from a different character's point of view. I wish I'd read this in December or January - the weather would've been perfect for th...more
I can't properly summarize the plot, it's so full of twists and turns and characters. The story is told in six installments, each a story of its own, and from a different character's point of view. I wish I'd read this in December or January - the weather would've been perfect for th...more
Set in England in the 1800s, this Victorian thriller had some great spooky elements, including a run-down mansion, an unexpected inheritance, thunder, lightening, and a questioned identity. The story is told through written “testaments” of several characters.
Constance Langton begins attending séances with the hope that maybe her depressed mother will be able to contact Constance’s sister, who died as a baby. However, her plan doesn’t quite work out the way she expects, and she finds herself with...more
Constance Langton begins attending séances with the hope that maybe her depressed mother will be able to contact Constance’s sister, who died as a baby. However, her plan doesn’t quite work out the way she expects, and she finds herself with...more
This Gothic mystery/supernatural thriller is written in the Victorian style. Set in late 19th century England, it begins with a young woman taking her mother to a seance to conjure the spirit of her younger sister who died in early childhood. When her mother commits suicide following the seance, the young woman becomes estranged from her remaining family. Later, she learns that she is to inherit an old, ruined manor house that has been the site of several mysterious events and is said to be haun...more
Jul 06, 2010
Sira Yvonne
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who enjoys mystery and a bit of horror
Two generations trying to find truth and essentially love in their own ways. A young Constance, trying to aid her depressed mother, attends a seance. Soon after, the horrific past of her family proves to not just be a rumor but very real and very dark. She is given an abandoned hall that is plagued in mystery and only she holds the keys to the truth of what happened there.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It has bits of horror and mystery and is set in my favorite era. I felt pity and pain for...more
I really enjoyed reading this book. It has bits of horror and mystery and is set in my favorite era. I felt pity and pain for...more
October, Halloween, what better than a Victorian ghost story with female heroines? I quickly picked this up for some seasonal-eerie reading.
Nicely paced, strangely constructed and interesting story of a young woman whose mother has recently died, a mother trapped in a nearly 15 year depression over the death of her 2nd child. The mother (and father's) lack of sympathy and caring for her eldest daugher, Constance, is a striking question in the first 3rd of the book? Is Constance even their natura...more
Nicely paced, strangely constructed and interesting story of a young woman whose mother has recently died, a mother trapped in a nearly 15 year depression over the death of her 2nd child. The mother (and father's) lack of sympathy and caring for her eldest daugher, Constance, is a striking question in the first 3rd of the book? Is Constance even their natura...more
This book was simply brilliant. This is foremost a mystery set in gothic fiction times.
Constance Langton is a devoted daughter to her mother who was grief stricken after her younger sister died at age 3. Her father was a cold and distant man who barely spoke to his daughter. After her father leaves her mother, Constance becomes involved in seances to communicate with the dead thinking that her mother will be somewhat restored knowing her child is safe in Heaven. Her mother suicides and Constance...more
Constance Langton is a devoted daughter to her mother who was grief stricken after her younger sister died at age 3. Her father was a cold and distant man who barely spoke to his daughter. After her father leaves her mother, Constance becomes involved in seances to communicate with the dead thinking that her mother will be somewhat restored knowing her child is safe in Heaven. Her mother suicides and Constance...more
A gothic mystery set in the late Victorian period. Constance Langton inherits an old manor house from a distant relative. The manor in question has been the scene of several mysteries deaths and disappearances through the years. The woods that surround it are believed to be haunted. Like a true Victorian mystery, the story is told through various first person accounts recorded in diaries and letters. The story is interesting and held my attention throughout but, something was lacking. By the end...more
This story was told in 6 parts by 3 different characters. I really enjoyed the narratives of the two female characters, but found John Montague's narrative rambling.
Constance Langston’s first-person story of her lonely childhood and strained relationship with her parents in Part 1 was perfectly paced and seemed to be building up to something really interesting.
John Montague’s narrative started out with much atmosphere and promise of strange and exciting mysteries to be revealed in Part 2. Unfor...more
Constance Langston’s first-person story of her lonely childhood and strained relationship with her parents in Part 1 was perfectly paced and seemed to be building up to something really interesting.
John Montague’s narrative started out with much atmosphere and promise of strange and exciting mysteries to be revealed in Part 2. Unfor...more
1 like · like · see review
I absolutely had to read this when I saw several critics had compared John Harwood to Wilkie Collins. Is it as good as Collins' novels? No, yet I think this is as close as any modern writer could ever get. The Victorian setting is dead on-- for a majority of the novel, it was easy to forget that Harwood is a modern day author and not Victorian. And the style is very Collins-ish.
There were a few problems, though. The narratives didn't flow together as well as in Collins' work and other novels su...more
There were a few problems, though. The narratives didn't flow together as well as in Collins' work and other novels su...more
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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.
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Nov 06, 2009 08:37am