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The Story of a Panic
The Story of a Panic is a novella written by E.M. Forster. The book tells the story of a group of British tourists who are on holiday in Italy. The tourists are staying in a small village in the Italian countryside, and they are all struck by a sudden and inexplicable panic. The panic seems to be caused by a mysterious force that is affecting the village. The tourists are unable to leave the village, and they are forced to stay and confront their fears. As the panic intensifies, the tourists begin to turn on each other and become increasingly paranoid. The book explores themes of fear, isolation, and the breakdown of social order. It is a haunting and thought-provoking story that is sure to leave a lasting impression on readers. Forster's writing is masterful, and he creates a vivid and atmospheric world that is both eerie and captivating. Overall, The Story of a Panic is a must-read for fans of classic literature and anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller. It is a timeless tale that continues to resonate with readers today. THIS 48 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories by E. M. Forster, by E. M. Forster.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1911
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180 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Forster
697 books4,267 followersEdward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect".
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
March 12, 2025
'The Story of a Panic' is a brilliant story following a group of English tourists in Italy whose tranquil holiday is disrupted by un unexplainable/supernatural event. The unsettling event has a tremendous impact on a young boy who immediately becomes 'unsuitable' in this company of respectable ladies and gentlemen. What happened to the boy? Is he possessed? This question is never answered. The event and its consequences are surrounded by ambiguity and are open to interpretations. In any case, there is a stark contrast between the new world of transformed boy and the repressed orderly world of the English travellers. And here the author can't help providing a satirical social commentary. It especially concerns the narrator - an extremely unpleasant, arrogant snob and rasist.
'I have often seen that peculiar smile since, both on the possessor’s face and on the photographs of him that are beginning to get into the illustrated papers.'
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'I always make a point of behaving pleasantly to Italians, however little they may deserve it; but this habit of promiscuous intimacy was perfectly intolerable and could only lead to familiarity and mortification for all. Taking Miss Robinson aside, I asked her permission to speak seriously to Eustace on the subject of intercourse with social inferiors.'
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'Never have I listened to such an extraordinary speech. At any other time it would have been ludicrous, for here was a boy, with no sense of beauty and a puerile command of words, attempting to tackle themes which the greatest poets have found almost beyond their power. Eustace Robinson, aged fourteen, was standing in his nightshirt saluting, praising, and blessing, the great forces and manifestations of Nature.
He spoke first of night and the stars and planets above his head, of the swarms of fire-flies below him, of the invisible sea below the fire-flies, of the great rocks covered with anemones and shells that were slumbering in the invisible sea. He spoke of the rivers and water-falls, of the ripening bunches of grapes, of the smoking cone of Vesuvius and the hidden fire-channels that made the smoke, of the myriads of lizards who were lying curled up in the crannies of the sultry earth, of the showers of white rose-leaves that were tangled in his hair. And then he spoke of the rain and the wind by which all things are changed, of the air through which all things live, and of the woods in which all things can be hidden.
Of course, it was all absurdly high fainting: yet I could have kicked Leyland for audibly observing that it was ‘a diabolical caricature of all that was most holy and beautiful in life.’
'I have often seen that peculiar smile since, both on the possessor’s face and on the photographs of him that are beginning to get into the illustrated papers.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I always make a point of behaving pleasantly to Italians, however little they may deserve it; but this habit of promiscuous intimacy was perfectly intolerable and could only lead to familiarity and mortification for all. Taking Miss Robinson aside, I asked her permission to speak seriously to Eustace on the subject of intercourse with social inferiors.'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Never have I listened to such an extraordinary speech. At any other time it would have been ludicrous, for here was a boy, with no sense of beauty and a puerile command of words, attempting to tackle themes which the greatest poets have found almost beyond their power. Eustace Robinson, aged fourteen, was standing in his nightshirt saluting, praising, and blessing, the great forces and manifestations of Nature.
He spoke first of night and the stars and planets above his head, of the swarms of fire-flies below him, of the invisible sea below the fire-flies, of the great rocks covered with anemones and shells that were slumbering in the invisible sea. He spoke of the rivers and water-falls, of the ripening bunches of grapes, of the smoking cone of Vesuvius and the hidden fire-channels that made the smoke, of the myriads of lizards who were lying curled up in the crannies of the sultry earth, of the showers of white rose-leaves that were tangled in his hair. And then he spoke of the rain and the wind by which all things are changed, of the air through which all things live, and of the woods in which all things can be hidden.
Of course, it was all absurdly high fainting: yet I could have kicked Leyland for audibly observing that it was ‘a diabolical caricature of all that was most holy and beautiful in life.’
March 2, 2025
An Edwardian fable set in Ravello, near wooded hills and ravines, where a handful of upper class English tourists go for a picnic one May. They are suddenly overcome by a visceral sense of fear and foreboding amid terrible silence and stillness. They flee, leaving Eustace behind:
“I had been afraid, not as a man, but as a beast.”
When they return, the surly Eustace is transformed - and is still acting oddly, that night:
“Here was a boy, with no sense of beauty and a puerile command of words, attempting to tackle themes which the greatest poets have found almost beyond their power. Eustace Robinson, aged fourteen, was standing in his nightshirt saluting, praising, and blessing, the great forces and manifestations of Nature.”
I rather enjoyed this, but it’s not for everyone: the narrator does not have a kind word for anyone (not even his own daughter, let alone the dirty, simple, untrustworthy Italians, in whose county he is holidaying), and Forster makes no attempt to explain his story.
Image: Pan illustrated in the Flemish magazine Regenboog in 1918. (Source)
Transformation
The “panic” of the title is perhaps a play on the word picnic, but also on the name of Pan, the diabolic pipe-playing god of the countryside, with the hind legs of a goat and a libido to match. Perhaps it is the story of a Pan-ick?
I read it as encapsulating the upheaval of adolescent awakening, distilled into a few hours, where the only people who relate to Eustace's experience are of a similar age: Rose Tytler (who was not frightened, as the adults were) and then Gennaro (“I who have been in the woods and understood things too”). It’s a distinctly pagan angle, so that Eustace is pitted not just against the adults in general, but more specifically, Mr Sandback, a sickly curate.
Eustace’s overwhelming and profound joy in, and understanding of, the beauty of the natural world may not last. Leyland is a “would-be artist”, so presumably quite young, but he is already jaded:
“All the poetry is going from Nature… It is through us, and to our shame, that the Nereids have left the waters and the Oreads the mountains, that the woods no longer give shelter to Pan.”
Perhaps, unlike Eustace, Leyland can “make men out a bit”, but I’m not sure if that’s a good trade-off.
Quotes
• “How intolerably straight against the sky is the line of the hill. It would need breaking up and diversifying. And where we are standing the whole thing is out of perspective. Besides, all the colouring is monotonous and crude… You all confuse the artistic view of nature with the photographic.”
• “Those sweet chestnuts… clothed the contours of the hills and valleys in a most pleasing way, their veil being only broken by two clearings.”
• “He danced away into the darkening wood to the rhythm of his words.”
Mr Tytler is not a benevolent man:
• “I should always insist on prompt and cheerful obedience, if I had a son.”
• Eustace is “indescribably repellent”.
• Leyland is “conceited and odious”.
• “Rose never did express herself clearly.”
• Gennaro has an “ignorant animal nature”.
• “I always make a point of behaving pleasantly to Italians, however little they may deserve it.”
• “It is astonishing how the most dishonest of nations [Italians] trust us.”
• “The Southern dialects are execrable.”
• “The wretched down-trodden Italians have no pride.”
Image: The path that is said to have inspired this story, photo by Gerardo Russo. (Source)
See also
Forster is best known for his Edwardian novels, many of which have been adapted to lavish films and miniseries, especially by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. All have characters pushing societal boundaries, but always in a realistic context of his time:
• Howards End
• Where Angels Fear to Tread
• A Passage to India
• A Room with a View
• Maurice
However, Forster also pushed the boundaries of reality in his short stories, including this, which was published in 1911 in The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories and reputed to be the first he wrote, immediately after he went walking in the hills around Ravello (see here).
Even more impressive is his short story, The Machine Stops, written in 1909, and imagining a world where people are physically isolated but constantly connected and utterly dependent on the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Machine for their very survival. See my review (with a link to the story), HERE.
The pagan, animalistic, adolescent, and homoerotic themes reminded me somewhat of another Edwardian author, Saki. See HERE.
The overall plot has similarities with Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here.
“I had been afraid, not as a man, but as a beast.”
When they return, the surly Eustace is transformed - and is still acting oddly, that night:
“Here was a boy, with no sense of beauty and a puerile command of words, attempting to tackle themes which the greatest poets have found almost beyond their power. Eustace Robinson, aged fourteen, was standing in his nightshirt saluting, praising, and blessing, the great forces and manifestations of Nature.”
I rather enjoyed this, but it’s not for everyone: the narrator does not have a kind word for anyone (not even his own daughter, let alone the dirty, simple, untrustworthy Italians, in whose county he is holidaying), and Forster makes no attempt to explain his story.
Image: Pan illustrated in the Flemish magazine Regenboog in 1918. (Source)
Transformation
The “panic” of the title is perhaps a play on the word picnic, but also on the name of Pan, the diabolic pipe-playing god of the countryside, with the hind legs of a goat and a libido to match. Perhaps it is the story of a Pan-ick?
I read it as encapsulating the upheaval of adolescent awakening, distilled into a few hours, where the only people who relate to Eustace's experience are of a similar age: Rose Tytler (who was not frightened, as the adults were) and then Gennaro (“I who have been in the woods and understood things too”). It’s a distinctly pagan angle, so that Eustace is pitted not just against the adults in general, but more specifically, Mr Sandback, a sickly curate.
Eustace’s overwhelming and profound joy in, and understanding of, the beauty of the natural world may not last. Leyland is a “would-be artist”, so presumably quite young, but he is already jaded:
“All the poetry is going from Nature… It is through us, and to our shame, that the Nereids have left the waters and the Oreads the mountains, that the woods no longer give shelter to Pan.”
Perhaps, unlike Eustace, Leyland can “make men out a bit”, but I’m not sure if that’s a good trade-off.
Quotes
• “How intolerably straight against the sky is the line of the hill. It would need breaking up and diversifying. And where we are standing the whole thing is out of perspective. Besides, all the colouring is monotonous and crude… You all confuse the artistic view of nature with the photographic.”
• “Those sweet chestnuts… clothed the contours of the hills and valleys in a most pleasing way, their veil being only broken by two clearings.”
• “He danced away into the darkening wood to the rhythm of his words.”
Mr Tytler is not a benevolent man:
• “I should always insist on prompt and cheerful obedience, if I had a son.”
• Eustace is “indescribably repellent”.
• Leyland is “conceited and odious”.
• “Rose never did express herself clearly.”
• Gennaro has an “ignorant animal nature”.
• “I always make a point of behaving pleasantly to Italians, however little they may deserve it.”
• “It is astonishing how the most dishonest of nations [Italians] trust us.”
• “The Southern dialects are execrable.”
• “The wretched down-trodden Italians have no pride.”
Image: The path that is said to have inspired this story, photo by Gerardo Russo. (Source)
See also
Forster is best known for his Edwardian novels, many of which have been adapted to lavish films and miniseries, especially by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. All have characters pushing societal boundaries, but always in a realistic context of his time:
• Howards End
• Where Angels Fear to Tread
• A Passage to India
• A Room with a View
• Maurice
However, Forster also pushed the boundaries of reality in his short stories, including this, which was published in 1911 in The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories and reputed to be the first he wrote, immediately after he went walking in the hills around Ravello (see here).
Even more impressive is his short story, The Machine Stops, written in 1909, and imagining a world where people are physically isolated but constantly connected and utterly dependent on the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Machine for their very survival. See my review (with a link to the story), HERE.
The pagan, animalistic, adolescent, and homoerotic themes reminded me somewhat of another Edwardian author, Saki. See HERE.
The overall plot has similarities with Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here.
April 18, 2025
3★
“Leyland was simply conceited and odious, and, as those qualities will be amply illustrated in my narrative, I need not enlarge upon them here. But Eustace was something besides: he was indescribably repellent.
. . .
His aunts thought him delicate; what he really needed was discipline.”
This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, because the Englishman narrating this tale is dreadful himself. He tells of a visit to Italy with his family and what happened at a picnic, saying:
“I do flatter myself that I can tell a story without exaggerating, and I have therefore decided to give an unbiassed account of the extraordinary events of eight years ago. Ravello is a delightful place with a delightful little hotel in which we met some charming people.
. . .
To this little circle, I, my wife, and my two daughters made, I venture to think, a not unwelcome addition.”
I can't imagine his being a welcome addition anywhere I would want to be. The focus of his tale is a fourteen-year-old boy who doesn’t want to do anything – I mean anything. Lounging around, shuffling down the road, permanently bored and boring. (sound familiar?)
These delightful people gather themselves to go for a walk, taking a picnic and avoiding Italians as much as possible. They are far too lower class and sometimes don't even understand English.
The Short Story Club group discusses a number of interpretations of the sudden strange panic that takes hold during the party’s afternoon out and the incredible effect of it on the boy. It is okay, but I don’t feel inspired enough to dig into any deeper meanings, but others have enjoyed it.
If you’d like to read this wild tale yourself, you will find it and other stories free to read or copy here: https://www.online-literature.com/for...
You can join the Goodreads Short Story Club here:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
“Leyland was simply conceited and odious, and, as those qualities will be amply illustrated in my narrative, I need not enlarge upon them here. But Eustace was something besides: he was indescribably repellent.
. . .
His aunts thought him delicate; what he really needed was discipline.”
This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, because the Englishman narrating this tale is dreadful himself. He tells of a visit to Italy with his family and what happened at a picnic, saying:
“I do flatter myself that I can tell a story without exaggerating, and I have therefore decided to give an unbiassed account of the extraordinary events of eight years ago. Ravello is a delightful place with a delightful little hotel in which we met some charming people.
. . .
To this little circle, I, my wife, and my two daughters made, I venture to think, a not unwelcome addition.”
I can't imagine his being a welcome addition anywhere I would want to be. The focus of his tale is a fourteen-year-old boy who doesn’t want to do anything – I mean anything. Lounging around, shuffling down the road, permanently bored and boring. (sound familiar?)
These delightful people gather themselves to go for a walk, taking a picnic and avoiding Italians as much as possible. They are far too lower class and sometimes don't even understand English.
The Short Story Club group discusses a number of interpretations of the sudden strange panic that takes hold during the party’s afternoon out and the incredible effect of it on the boy. It is okay, but I don’t feel inspired enough to dig into any deeper meanings, but others have enjoyed it.
If you’d like to read this wild tale yourself, you will find it and other stories free to read or copy here: https://www.online-literature.com/for...
You can join the Goodreads Short Story Club here:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
February 25, 2025
E.M. Forster was inspired to write the story when he went on a yearlong tour of Italy in 1901 with his mother following his graduation from Cambridge. They stayed at pensiones that accommodated English middle-class tourists. He carried a small notebook and made notes of their expressions. This was very useful when writing the dialogue of an obnoxious English tourist narrator in this story. When he was in Rabello, on the hills overlooking the sea, he got the idea for "The Story of a Panic."
When the tourists are on a picnic, there is a visitation from the mythological Pan. The god infuses a fourteen-year-old boy with a love of nature and leads to a sexual awakening. It's a well-written story that has some mythological and Biblical references. There is also some humor in the dialogue of the tourists.
I read this story with the Short Story Club. "The Story of a Panic" is in the anthology, Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature.
When the tourists are on a picnic, there is a visitation from the mythological Pan. The god infuses a fourteen-year-old boy with a love of nature and leads to a sexual awakening. It's a well-written story that has some mythological and Biblical references. There is also some humor in the dialogue of the tourists.
I read this story with the Short Story Club. "The Story of a Panic" is in the anthology, Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature.
February 23, 2025
“Eustace Robinson, aged fourteen, was standing in his nightshirt saluting, praising, and blessing, the great forces and manifestations of Nature.”
We’ve all had those moments when, for some unknown reason, we feel deeply alive. This is a wonderful story about such an experience--about what fosters it and what represses it. It could be seen as a companion piece to A Room with a View, but a wonderful story on its own.
Is it supernatural, or is it the epitome of naturalness?
[Note to self: Reads and re-reads of this author must be prioritized.]
We’ve all had those moments when, for some unknown reason, we feel deeply alive. This is a wonderful story about such an experience--about what fosters it and what represses it. It could be seen as a companion piece to A Room with a View, but a wonderful story on its own.
Is it supernatural, or is it the epitome of naturalness?
[Note to self: Reads and re-reads of this author must be prioritized.]
June 11, 2016
Read here, or a safer version hereOpening: Eustace's career—if career it can be called—certainly dates from that afternoon in the chestnut woods above Ravello. I confess at once that I am a plain, simple man, with no pretensions to literary style. Still, I do flatter myself that I can tell a story without exaggerating, and I have therefore decided to give an unbiased account of the extraordinary events of eight years ago.
Something strange happened...
February 23, 2025
An enigmatic story from the pen of E.M. Forster. Some reviewers here bristle at the depiction of colonial attitudes; I read this as Forster poking fun at those who express these ideas.
All too often, we forget that the word "panic" has at its very root, PAN. And this story is about Pan, and the power the touch of wild nature has upon a sullen, lazy, unlikeable British boy.
Only another wild boy who has been touched by the true wilderness, "Gennaro was the stop-gap waiter, a clumsy, impertinent fisher-lad" unable to dress in the proper uniform, could appreciate and understand the nature of an encounter with Pan.
What does it all mean? Why did E.M. Forster write this story, and what was he really trying to say? Those all all questions which must for now remain in the wilderness, far from true understanding. For just like Gennaro, we might understand but cannot explain.
All too often, we forget that the word "panic" has at its very root, PAN. And this story is about Pan, and the power the touch of wild nature has upon a sullen, lazy, unlikeable British boy.
Only another wild boy who has been touched by the true wilderness, "Gennaro was the stop-gap waiter, a clumsy, impertinent fisher-lad" unable to dress in the proper uniform, could appreciate and understand the nature of an encounter with Pan.
What does it all mean? Why did E.M. Forster write this story, and what was he really trying to say? Those all all questions which must for now remain in the wilderness, far from true understanding. For just like Gennaro, we might understand but cannot explain.
August 25, 2025
E.M. Forster wrote genre fiction. Who knew?
I read this with the Short Story Group. We aren't done discussing in the group, but I can already say emphatically it was amazing for me!
The "panic" takes place when a group of generally obnoxious English tourists in Italy go on a picnic. After the group experiences an eerie panic, one of them, the one who did not flee, is quite transformed to the point of ecstasy. That transformation does not sit well with the fellow tourists.
This early work, you will recognize, includes Forster's later themes. Just today, I picked up this from astute reader, Fionnuala: Forster often includes a natural event that takes on a significance. That event challenges the idea that the stiff upper-lipped Englishman of the Empire is in full control.
You are so cool, Edward Morgan Forster. I need to read everything you wrote.
You can join The Short Story Group here:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
See my review cross-posted here: https://hardcover.app/books/the-story...
I read this with the Short Story Group. We aren't done discussing in the group, but I can already say emphatically it was amazing for me!
The "panic" takes place when a group of generally obnoxious English tourists in Italy go on a picnic. After the group experiences an eerie panic, one of them, the one who did not flee, is quite transformed to the point of ecstasy. That transformation does not sit well with the fellow tourists.
This early work, you will recognize, includes Forster's later themes. Just today, I picked up this from astute reader, Fionnuala: Forster often includes a natural event that takes on a significance. That event challenges the idea that the stiff upper-lipped Englishman of the Empire is in full control.
You are so cool, Edward Morgan Forster. I need to read everything you wrote.
You can join The Short Story Group here:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
See my review cross-posted here: https://hardcover.app/books/the-story...
March 23, 2025
Insufferable narrator witness to raw exultation of a repressed teen-ager.
September 15, 2015
The Story of a Panic is an encountering with the Supernatural, experienced by a teenage English boy Eustace, narrated through a pedantic English older man.
The viewpoint is the essential backdrop of this story. The narrator, a late middle-aged, middle-classed man of uneven mixture of snobbishness and specks of understanding, recorded the “event” and intervened in its aftermath with uncomprehending, fearful, and disastrous result.
Eustace, a fourteen-year-old, was a sullen, moody, largely withdrawn, taciturn boy touring Italy with his aunt. He obviously failed the standard of a bright-eyed, sports-loving, English public school boy. Plodded by the busy-body co-travelers, he endured the adults with acquiesce. Something strange, be it fearful or awesome, happened on a mountain clearing. The adults panicked into a flee, while Eustace stayed.
The boy is a different being afterward. Is he touched by the “Evil One” or the Spirit of Nature? Did his whistle draw out the elusive Pan into his lethargic being and transformed into a being of Joy and Dance? The footprints of goats is the only evidence that adults can see. The “touched” Eustace celebrated his new vision of the natural world but he could not “make out men”.
Because the men, those cultivated, proper, tucked in and polished smooth beings, are monstrosities against true life and beauty. Even the so-called artist Leyland is a mockery of aesthete who would modify Nature to suit his sense of proper artistic appreciation.
After the tragic consequence of interference and manipulation, the poor Italian fisher-boy Gennaro released Eustace from his English incarceration. Do the adults understand what had happened? Well, Panic is rooted in Pan. The deformed adults feel only the fear and shock, but not the touch of magic and joy.
The viewpoint is the essential backdrop of this story. The narrator, a late middle-aged, middle-classed man of uneven mixture of snobbishness and specks of understanding, recorded the “event” and intervened in its aftermath with uncomprehending, fearful, and disastrous result.
Eustace, a fourteen-year-old, was a sullen, moody, largely withdrawn, taciturn boy touring Italy with his aunt. He obviously failed the standard of a bright-eyed, sports-loving, English public school boy. Plodded by the busy-body co-travelers, he endured the adults with acquiesce. Something strange, be it fearful or awesome, happened on a mountain clearing. The adults panicked into a flee, while Eustace stayed.
The boy is a different being afterward. Is he touched by the “Evil One” or the Spirit of Nature? Did his whistle draw out the elusive Pan into his lethargic being and transformed into a being of Joy and Dance? The footprints of goats is the only evidence that adults can see. The “touched” Eustace celebrated his new vision of the natural world but he could not “make out men”.
Because the men, those cultivated, proper, tucked in and polished smooth beings, are monstrosities against true life and beauty. Even the so-called artist Leyland is a mockery of aesthete who would modify Nature to suit his sense of proper artistic appreciation.
After the tragic consequence of interference and manipulation, the poor Italian fisher-boy Gennaro released Eustace from his English incarceration. Do the adults understand what had happened? Well, Panic is rooted in Pan. The deformed adults feel only the fear and shock, but not the touch of magic and joy.
November 13, 2017
A sullen boy is touched by The Great God Pan while in a hidden Italian valley picnicking with others. It changes bin into a satyr like being.
Forster: what a writer. So English.
Forster: what a writer. So English.
October 3, 2025
Oh, to be the master of one’s action. Such a wish might be brought about on the backs of marooning vessels; the confidence to seek rightful ownership—agency over one’s body & soul appears in the modern age a pilgrimage worthy of screeching from mountain tops. Has one ever spent so much time thinking about oneself as the individual does now, in the current century, during a period of intellectualism which has been rendered destitute, & during which one’s independence has been volunteered in exchange for the Boogeyman in slinking orange flesh?
Classic ghost stories often bring about a penny for one’s thoughts, just in case the reader has been left pauper by their circumstances. One might suppose that in these stories, the vintage vantage point of the author allows for a plot that is insightful & eerily accurate. One must not forget the power the reader possesses in acknowledging the author & their feats. Indeed, while reading this particular story, one might prefer to forget all about one’s life, troubles, & turbulent hours. Forster has settled his prowess for the consumer of a starved & depraved desire, snuggled between every punctuation & line.
In essence, this is a story about possession. During their travels to the Italian countryside, a group of English tourists begins a friendship with each other. The group consists of an array of people, some with odd personalities, & others with none. The narrator is a man with children, a loving wife, & a firm constitution—if not a bit sullied by his rampant bigotry. On this particular day, the narrator recounts the events that led to the fourteen-year-old Eustace’s demonic possession. I should note that neither the author nor the narrator himself ever declares Eustace to be possessed. So begins the gallivanting charm of the panic.
To be clear, I enjoyed this story quite a bit. Recalling now my time with Forster, I found that this first exploration into his beloved talents has left me seeking more. It is always a treat to meet authors who have existed as giants in the periphery of my life. I admit to you now that I sought out this short story after profuse attempts & failures to purchase a copy of “Maurice” (1971). As all good stories do, I found myself sufficiently teased by the possibility of reading something written by Forster & having no luck winning the race against other eager readers. The Literature Network was my next bet.
For readers who are familiar with Forster, the nuance of his gargantuan reputation, evoked in the limited pages of this tale, will come as no surprise. It was a delight to be met with the narrator, as perfectly crafted by Forster, who presented himself to the reader as though exasperated by his experiences & yet, brave in his desire to share his secret. This choice in pacing allowed the narrative to flow quite seamlessly. Although at times, the story itself seems thick with detail, upon reflection, one notes the intentional despair of a character who does not want to forget anything, so as to never have to revisit the story.
I found this to be of particular interest. The narrator is noted as intervening in Eustace’s life, on occasion, dawning insight & rules like a guardian, though he is a stranger to the boy. Context here might help ease the bizarre nature of their relationship, yet I could not help but chuckle as the narrator remains in ignorance of himself & his actions.
That is not to say that the narrator is a man with a pompous ego or that he should be on the benefiting end of reprimand, rather, the narrator is so invested in the well-being of the group & his family while bolstering bigotry against the local engaged staff, that he forgets about the demonic entity entirely.
Self-reflection does not appear to be a strong suit of the narrator. He at times recalls that Eustace was spoilt rotten, while on other occasions seeming to realize that Eustace is a product of his environment; guided by misaligned adults, he could not help but become despondent.
This is perhaps where the reader’s mind might go as well. As the group adventures to the mountain for a casual afternoon, discussing the merit of the landscape while savouring a picnic, they encounter what can only be described as the sentiment of panic.
Never is this feeling expressed. I had to read this section twice, so void of explanation is the sequence. All at once, it seems the adults stand to attention & race down the hillside as quickly as they can. No one watches for Eustace, no one cares whether everyone else has made it down; all that is valued is one’s sole arrival to the base of the mountain, where, after some deep breaths, the group realizes that they have run out of a fear they cannot explain & begin to realize that something odd has overtaken them.
At this stage, one may be reminded of the classic & utterly dull story by Arthur Machen, “The Great God Pan” (1894). The natural progression of the living creatures as silence besots the landscape, rings a rather familiar tune. Unfortunately for me, this lasted two beats; at once, the adults find Eustace lying on the ground where lizards have waddled into his overcoat and & suddenly, he is devilish, sneaking smiles that are seldom noted before the great happening. I suspect a reader with an eager hunger for the paranormal might revel in the scene, noting that Eustace became possessed by Pan, who was, against noted mention, not dead.
The haunting aspect of Eustace’s change in behaviour, or perhaps, the heightened perception of his quirks—that which might lead a reader to wonder whether Eustace has ASD—links in an odd manner.
The narrator notes that Eustace became a different person entirely after descending from the mountain & maybe this is true. However, none of the adults seem to have paid any intentional interest in Eustace, so his galivanting in the garden does not seem as odd as it might have had they been critical of his person.
In earnest, the reader notes a similar aura in this story to the one I mentioned above. Twice now I have read about Pan, the mighty God of foolery & tricks; neither time left me with any great feelings of excitement or vanquished apathy. I wonder what led these writers, Forster in particular, to approach Pan in this way, from the side & without any specifics.
Was Pan a feature in society so much so that the authors of the nineteenth century needed an outlet to explore his invisible form? What made Pan such a proclivity for gothic readers was that they sought Him out like the hidden chocolate treat of Easter Sunday.
Ultimately, this was an interesting tale of sorrow & emotional worry, galvanized in the heart of a man who wanted to do the right thing but who remained intent on making the wrong choices throughout his everyday life.
I found the stylistic choices employed by Forster intriguing; they have left me with wiggle room for further exploration into the detached & semi-mechanical ravings of a father whose understanding of the youth was as flamboyantly flawed as Pan’s possession of the young.
If you would like to read this story, please visit this •LINK•
Classic ghost stories often bring about a penny for one’s thoughts, just in case the reader has been left pauper by their circumstances. One might suppose that in these stories, the vintage vantage point of the author allows for a plot that is insightful & eerily accurate. One must not forget the power the reader possesses in acknowledging the author & their feats. Indeed, while reading this particular story, one might prefer to forget all about one’s life, troubles, & turbulent hours. Forster has settled his prowess for the consumer of a starved & depraved desire, snuggled between every punctuation & line.
In essence, this is a story about possession. During their travels to the Italian countryside, a group of English tourists begins a friendship with each other. The group consists of an array of people, some with odd personalities, & others with none. The narrator is a man with children, a loving wife, & a firm constitution—if not a bit sullied by his rampant bigotry. On this particular day, the narrator recounts the events that led to the fourteen-year-old Eustace’s demonic possession. I should note that neither the author nor the narrator himself ever declares Eustace to be possessed. So begins the gallivanting charm of the panic.
To be clear, I enjoyed this story quite a bit. Recalling now my time with Forster, I found that this first exploration into his beloved talents has left me seeking more. It is always a treat to meet authors who have existed as giants in the periphery of my life. I admit to you now that I sought out this short story after profuse attempts & failures to purchase a copy of “Maurice” (1971). As all good stories do, I found myself sufficiently teased by the possibility of reading something written by Forster & having no luck winning the race against other eager readers. The Literature Network was my next bet.
For readers who are familiar with Forster, the nuance of his gargantuan reputation, evoked in the limited pages of this tale, will come as no surprise. It was a delight to be met with the narrator, as perfectly crafted by Forster, who presented himself to the reader as though exasperated by his experiences & yet, brave in his desire to share his secret. This choice in pacing allowed the narrative to flow quite seamlessly. Although at times, the story itself seems thick with detail, upon reflection, one notes the intentional despair of a character who does not want to forget anything, so as to never have to revisit the story.
I found this to be of particular interest. The narrator is noted as intervening in Eustace’s life, on occasion, dawning insight & rules like a guardian, though he is a stranger to the boy. Context here might help ease the bizarre nature of their relationship, yet I could not help but chuckle as the narrator remains in ignorance of himself & his actions.
That is not to say that the narrator is a man with a pompous ego or that he should be on the benefiting end of reprimand, rather, the narrator is so invested in the well-being of the group & his family while bolstering bigotry against the local engaged staff, that he forgets about the demonic entity entirely.
Self-reflection does not appear to be a strong suit of the narrator. He at times recalls that Eustace was spoilt rotten, while on other occasions seeming to realize that Eustace is a product of his environment; guided by misaligned adults, he could not help but become despondent.
This is perhaps where the reader’s mind might go as well. As the group adventures to the mountain for a casual afternoon, discussing the merit of the landscape while savouring a picnic, they encounter what can only be described as the sentiment of panic.
Never is this feeling expressed. I had to read this section twice, so void of explanation is the sequence. All at once, it seems the adults stand to attention & race down the hillside as quickly as they can. No one watches for Eustace, no one cares whether everyone else has made it down; all that is valued is one’s sole arrival to the base of the mountain, where, after some deep breaths, the group realizes that they have run out of a fear they cannot explain & begin to realize that something odd has overtaken them.
At this stage, one may be reminded of the classic & utterly dull story by Arthur Machen, “The Great God Pan” (1894). The natural progression of the living creatures as silence besots the landscape, rings a rather familiar tune. Unfortunately for me, this lasted two beats; at once, the adults find Eustace lying on the ground where lizards have waddled into his overcoat and & suddenly, he is devilish, sneaking smiles that are seldom noted before the great happening. I suspect a reader with an eager hunger for the paranormal might revel in the scene, noting that Eustace became possessed by Pan, who was, against noted mention, not dead.
The haunting aspect of Eustace’s change in behaviour, or perhaps, the heightened perception of his quirks—that which might lead a reader to wonder whether Eustace has ASD—links in an odd manner.
The narrator notes that Eustace became a different person entirely after descending from the mountain & maybe this is true. However, none of the adults seem to have paid any intentional interest in Eustace, so his galivanting in the garden does not seem as odd as it might have had they been critical of his person.
In earnest, the reader notes a similar aura in this story to the one I mentioned above. Twice now I have read about Pan, the mighty God of foolery & tricks; neither time left me with any great feelings of excitement or vanquished apathy. I wonder what led these writers, Forster in particular, to approach Pan in this way, from the side & without any specifics.
Was Pan a feature in society so much so that the authors of the nineteenth century needed an outlet to explore his invisible form? What made Pan such a proclivity for gothic readers was that they sought Him out like the hidden chocolate treat of Easter Sunday.
Ultimately, this was an interesting tale of sorrow & emotional worry, galvanized in the heart of a man who wanted to do the right thing but who remained intent on making the wrong choices throughout his everyday life.
I found the stylistic choices employed by Forster intriguing; they have left me with wiggle room for further exploration into the detached & semi-mechanical ravings of a father whose understanding of the youth was as flamboyantly flawed as Pan’s possession of the young.
If you would like to read this story, please visit this •LINK•
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2020
Yes!! You'll never be able to convince me that E.M Forster can't write, even if what he writes makes no sense sometimes. This one is about the god Pan, which I loved, because he references Pan in my favourite book of all time too, which is A Room with a View.
I've never read anything by Forster that was written in first person, but he did not disappoint. The protagonist could be considered an absolute asshole, but I can't lie, I love asshole characters. If this was the first thing you'd read of Forster, you'd think Forster himself was a horrible person.
Nah, it's called great writing.
Thank you, Forster, for existing!!
I've never read anything by Forster that was written in first person, but he did not disappoint. The protagonist could be considered an absolute asshole, but I can't lie, I love asshole characters. If this was the first thing you'd read of Forster, you'd think Forster himself was a horrible person.
Nah, it's called great writing.
Thank you, Forster, for existing!!
Read
September 20, 2018This short story by E. M. Forster is available free here: http://www.online-literature.com/fors...
June 21, 2021
3/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 5, 2024
Typical 19th century racist colonial discourse from the British master against any other people.
February 26, 2025
Mysticism and mythology plus a whole lot more. E. M. Forester writes a masterfully complex thought-provoking short story. So smoothly written, I read it twice.
sony-or-android
February 18, 2018written about the same time as Wind in the Willows, this also refers to the god Pan
October 4, 2022
He spoke first of night and the stars and planets above his head, of the swarms of fire-flies below him, of the invisible sea below the fire-flies, of the great rocks covered with anemones and shells that were slumbering in the invisible sea. He spoke of the rivers and water-falls, of the ripening bunches of grapes, of the smoking cone of Vesuvius and the hidden fire-channels that made the smoke, of the myriads of lizards who were lying curled up in the crannies of the sultry earth, of the showers of white rose-leaves that were tangled in his hair. And then he spoke of the rain and the wind by which all things are changed, of the air through which all things live, and of the woods in which all things can be hidden.
Author E.M. Forster
I read “The Story of a Panic” by E.M. Forster because it is featured in The Literature of Lovecraft, Vol. 1, a collection of stories that were admired by the American author H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). HPL briefly mentioned Forster and alluded to the specific tale in in his literary essay Supernatural Horror in Literature:
“More whimsical and inclined toward the amiable and innocuous phantasy of Sir J. M. Barrie are the short tales of E. M. Forster, grouped under the title of The Celestial Omnibus. Of these only one, dealing with a glimpse of Pan and his aura of fright, may be said to hold the true element of cosmic horror.”
I found “The Story of a Panic” to be impressive. I like how Forster has the horror occur on a lovely summer’s day. A group of - frankly snobbish - English people are on holiday in Italy when a sudden wave of terror hits the whole party. One of their number, a taciturn teenage boy is left behind. When they return, quite confused as to what sent them all into a panic, they find the boy altered in a fundamental manner, perhaps possessed by an unseen force. The ensuing events are effectively unnerving.
Title: “The Story of a Panic”
Author: E.M. Forster
Dates: 1911
Genre: Fiction - Novelette*, horror, mystery
Word count: 8,212 words
Date(s) read: 10/2/22
Reading journal entry #262 in 2022
Link to the story: http://www.online-literature.com/fors...
Link to Lovecraft’s essay: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...
Sources:
Lovecraft, H. P., & Joshi, S. T. (2012). The annotated supernatural horror in literature (second edition). Hippocampus Press. https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/... (Original work published 1927)
Forster, E.M. (2021). The story of a panic. In H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (Ed.), The literature of Lovecraft, vol. 1.. (S. Branney, Narr.; A. Leman, Narr.) [Audiobook]. HPLHS. https://www.hplhs.org/lol.php (Original work published 1911)
Link to the image: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0286950/
The contents of The Literature of Lovecraft, Vol. 1 are:
"The Avenger of Perdóndaris" by Lord Dunsany
"The Bad Lands" by John Metcalfe
"The Black Stone" by Robert E. Howard
"The Death Mask" by Henrietta Everett
"The House of Sounds" by Matthew Phipps Shiel
The Place Called Dagon by Herbert Gorman
"Seaton's Aunt" by Walter de la Mare
"The Shadows on the Wall" by Mary E. Wilkins
"A Shop in Go-By Street" by Lord Dunsany
"Skule Skerry" by John Buchan
"The Spider" by Hanns Heinz Ewers
"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith
Here is a list of the stories in the order in which they were written, with links to my reviews of them:
The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori
The Adventure of the German Student (1824) by Washington Irving
The Tapestried Chamber (1828) by Walter Scott
The Minister's Black Veil (1836) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Venus of Ille (1837) by by Prosper Mérimée
The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains (1839) by Frederick Marryat
The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe
What Was It? (1859) by by Fitz-James O'Brien
The House and the Brain (1859) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Signal-Man (1866) by Charles Dickens
The Man-Wolf by Erckmann-Chatrian
The Ghostly Kiss (1880) by Lafcadio Hearn
One of Cleopatra's Nights (1882) by by Théophile Gautier
The Upper Berth (1886) by F. Marion Crawford
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Horla (1887) by Guy de Maupassant
The Phantom Rickshaw (1888) by Rudyard Kipling
”The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” (1891) by Ambrose Bierce
Lot #249 (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Ghost of Fear (1894) by H.G. Wells- also called The Red Room
The Yellow Sign (1895) by Robert W. Chambers
The Dead Valley (1895) by Ralph Adams Cram
The Were-Wolf (1896) by Clemence Housman
The Monkey's Paw (1902) by W.W. Jacobs
The Shadows on the Wall (1903) by Mary E. Wilkins
Count Magnus (1904) by M.R. James
The White People (1904) by Arthur Machen
The Willows (1907) by Algernon Blackwood
The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907) by William Hope Hodgson
Idle Days on the Yann (1910) by Lord Dunsany
The Story of a Panic (1911)
The House of Sounds (1911)
A Shop in Go-By Street (1912)
The Avenger of Perdóndaris (1912)
The Spider (1915)
The Death Mask (1920)
The Bad Lands (1920)
Seaton's Aunt (1922)
The Place Called Dagon (1927)
Skule Skerry (1928)
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros (1929)
The Black Stone (1931)
*The difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Diff...
Vignette, prose poem, flash fiction: 53 - 1,000 words
Short Stories: 1,000 - 7,500
Novelettes: 7,500 - 17,000
Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000
Novels: 40,000 + words
January 12, 2024
5 stele după o lectură mai atenta!
February 1, 2024
can someone shoot the narrator with a gun please
July 28, 2018
An interesting short story of an unhappy, sickly boy who enters a forest and becomes the god Pan. The narrator, together with the other two men of the English group who are staying at the South Italian hotel, where the story is happening, try to catch Eugene and bring him back inside. However, once they succeed, he becomes miserable, and they are told by a local fisherman that he will be dead by morning.
Eugene becomes a personification of wild nature, the antithesis of culture (personified by the English gentleman narrator), which cannot be locked up, and cannot be controlled. This is an important text for Ecocritics.
Eugene becomes a personification of wild nature, the antithesis of culture (personified by the English gentleman narrator), which cannot be locked up, and cannot be controlled. This is an important text for Ecocritics.
March 29, 2016
Beautifully written nonsense.
February 21, 2021
In 1902 E.M. Forster sat down in a valley near Ravello (Italy) and suddenly “received [the first chapter of Story of a Panic] as an entity”. (Forster)⠀
He spoke of that same entity in his story, where it acts as a mysterious force disseminating panic among a group of English tourists who were having a quiet picnic in a chestnut wood, above Ravello. As everyone runs away, there is only one person who is not affected by this panic and whose spirit experiences a sort of blissful awakening: Eustace, a 14-year-old boy and a social outcast.⠀
In this alluring and compelling short story, Forster revives the figure of the long forgotten god Pan – who is believed to be dead by almost everyone. The title of the story itself suggests its presence: the word panic, in fact, “derives from the Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan is the god of woods and fields who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.” [http://en.wiktionary.org/]⠀
In a world where magic and mysticism have given way to materialism and disbelief, the mortified spirit of a boy forced in a society he doesn’t fit in is saved by Pan. While the English tourists have long lost their ability to connect with Nature and are scared by its powerful force, Eustace’s encounter with Nature enables him to let go of the moral, the etiquette and the disenchantment of the modern society and finally live as the free, limitless spirit he is.⠀
He spoke of that same entity in his story, where it acts as a mysterious force disseminating panic among a group of English tourists who were having a quiet picnic in a chestnut wood, above Ravello. As everyone runs away, there is only one person who is not affected by this panic and whose spirit experiences a sort of blissful awakening: Eustace, a 14-year-old boy and a social outcast.⠀
In this alluring and compelling short story, Forster revives the figure of the long forgotten god Pan – who is believed to be dead by almost everyone. The title of the story itself suggests its presence: the word panic, in fact, “derives from the Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan is the god of woods and fields who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.” [http://en.wiktionary.org/]⠀
In a world where magic and mysticism have given way to materialism and disbelief, the mortified spirit of a boy forced in a society he doesn’t fit in is saved by Pan. While the English tourists have long lost their ability to connect with Nature and are scared by its powerful force, Eustace’s encounter with Nature enables him to let go of the moral, the etiquette and the disenchantment of the modern society and finally live as the free, limitless spirit he is.⠀
July 15, 2024
Does short fiction get better than this? Guys, have you read this Neil Gaiman quote? He says: “Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.” Get into this novella mates…. It is bloody genius. Eustace, an unoriginal youth, is physically and spiritually vitalized after his vision of Pan, but his independence entails the bereavement of the sympathetic Italian serving boy who helps Eustace to escape from self-righteous relatives and twofaced tourists… Confused? Read this to know more. Trust me. You’ll thank me later for suggesting this one.
December 31, 2025
I dunno for sure if Morrissey knows this story by E.M. Forster about a "Pan-ic" in the wooded hills of Italy by some stuffy vacationing Brits, but it wouldn't surprise me. The year The Smiths' release "Panic" ("Panic in the streets of London, Panic in the streets of Birmingham...") is also a big year for the Forster revival going on in the '80s, and while some would claim Morrissey is only singing about fears of a nuclear meltdown, I'd say it's just as likely his song expresses the same homoerotic undertones and conflicted longing found in Forstner's story.
https://www.online-literature.com/for...
+++++++++++++++
Read with GR short story group
https://www.online-literature.com/for...
+++++++++++++++
Read with GR short story group
March 20, 2020
Don't know what to think. I liked the story. Not sure I understand it. At first I wondered what had happened to Eustace. After reading the reviews and going some research, I believe he became Pan. Mr. Sandbach thinks that Pan is dead. I think Gennaro is Pan and then on the day they go out on a picnic he somehow passes the torch to Eustace and Eustace becomes Pan. Like one reviewer said, "Beautifully written nonsense."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2025
Here we have another dystopian book by Forster. Something happens to an English Family on Holiday in Southern Italy, what I am not sure. As a result their child starts to act and behave differently.
To me the child was just being a friendly child prone to babbling on about things. Then the story ends. Although I am loving the Dystopian Side of Forster this story just left me feeling unsure as to what was going on.
To me the child was just being a friendly child prone to babbling on about things. Then the story ends. Although I am loving the Dystopian Side of Forster this story just left me feeling unsure as to what was going on.
October 10, 2018
Not my type.
September 16, 2022
This was a strange story and did not have a satisfactory conclusion to my taste. I could not determine what E. M. Forster was trying to say with this tale.
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