The Pale Man

by Julius Long

A snappy obscurity tale about a man living in a small country hotel. He becomes obsessed with the another resident — a strange pale man who inexplicably moves from room to room. It's an eerie and extremely brief tale that can be consumed in less than 10 minutes — the perfect story for anyone looking for a quick way to get into the Halloween spirit.

https://americanliterature.com/author...

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction

2 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 1934

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much the same as the resident of Room 201, we will all face the same bitter truths over what constitutes a sound body, mind, and spirit. But will we face the inevitable truth as acceptingly as he does? The ambiguous ending reminds us that perhaps we don’t ever get to know the real truth, maybe we don’t want to, and in the end, we all must accept the truth no matter what it may be.

[Kavita · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ill assistant professor is sent off on vacation for his health. He spends it in a small hotel and discovers soon enough that he is the only resident there, other than a pale man on the far side of the corridor. As the days pass, the man finds that the pale man keeps moving rooms each day, coming closer and closer to his own room.

I thought the end was left too open to make this a great story. Without any sort of resolution or clarification, the creep factor faded out for me. I still question whether the pale man was a figment of the protagonist's imagination or was he a malevolent figure haunting the protagonist?

The suspense was quite high and I did enjoy the story despite its shortcomings. It was quite intriguing and even though you knew what was coming next, you wanted to see what happens.

[Latasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! what a great story! this story is about a man living in an apartment building. There's a guest, the pale man, that our narrator really wants to talk to but never does. who is the pale man and what's up with him? read this or listen to find out. I listened to this version and it was so great!
http://ghastlytales.libsyn.com/podcas...

[Alex Bright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable, but interesting for a short story.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:

"Your eyes are biased
Flirting in the dark, waiting
For that bold first move. "

[The Mines of Moriah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel kind of bad putting this on my reading challenge considering it's only two pages long. They were both very good pages though sooooo.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julius Long, who wrote in the first half of the last century, appears to have written only one story of note and this is it. It appeared in 'Weird Tales' in 1934 and is rather good.

Although not fully up to the standards to be set atmospherically by other writers of unease, it is well within the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe with a previous century feel about it. It personifies death in a new and imaginative way that captures its remorselessness for the terminally ill.

You can read the story online at https://americanliterature.com/author...

[Manny · Rating 1 out of 5]

This short story was so incredibly boring, I almost died while reading it. Which is saying something because this bad boy is only like 5 pages long, haha. It was so bad, the storyline did not draw me in, the characters were not compelling, and the atmosphere/setting was not well built. If anyone has ever thought about reading this, please don't. One-star rating for me.

[the bard · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty boring, no suspense, and too open-ended.

[Yomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fue re divertido leerlo en voz alta porque había comentarios que me parecieron graciosos pero de todas formas tuvo su suspenso.👌

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of those "Um, what am I reading"-type of books. Although it was saved from obscurity and set on a Halloween list there isn't much horror that would entice a modern horror reader to be interested in it and it isn't old enough that it would be a classic horror read but at times it has its own charms.

What agitated me with the story is the fact that the author couldn't even keep his own facts straight. True I know that the story was about the mysterious man switching rooms but he gives the wrong number via the protagonist in a wrong inquiry to a restaurant worker and than again when he is talking about the room where the old woman was staying. There is also wrong information about the permanent staying factor of the various people and maybe even one character who seems to have been a part of the story who wasn't meant to be. With this much confusion it has me wishing that I hadn't read it or with an eye open to review it.

All in all it is a decent story and one that turned out to be a bit different than what I had thought it was going to be - too much vampire movies lol. If it hadn't been for all the inaccuracies I may have been a lot more easier on its review.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Great underrated spooky short story. The build up, the reveal, very amazing. It works really well as a suspenseful short story, it manages to build a character in those short few paragraphs. The atmosphere of the town- uninviting and cold- contradicts the season artfully. The forbidding pale man is eerie in his not doing anything, and the reveal is satisfying.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little story. Well worth the 10 minutes it takes to read.

[Spoiler] - Did he bring the disease that killed the old lady too?

[sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a certain quiet unease that creeps into your bones as you read The Pale Man—it lingers in the air, in the stillness of the hotel, in the gradual, almost imperceptible movement of rooms, like the slow march of time itself. At first, the story unfurls sluggishly, like a weary tide washing over the reader. The professor—our unnamed narrator—sits in isolation, trapped by the mundanity of his recovery and the silent disinterest of a town that feels more like a forgotten dream. I’ll admit, at the beginning, I found myself drifting, the weight of boredom pressing heavy.

But then, something shifts.

The pale man. This strange, otherworldly figure who arrives almost silently, as though he belongs to no place, no time, but the one that watches patiently from the edges. There’s an odd, magnetic pull to him, like a shadow that draws closer without you realizing it. As the professor begins to trace his movements—room to room, like a phantom—my curiosity bloomed. Was he real? Was he even human? At moments, I wondered if the professor himself wasn’t the Pale Man, or if they were simply two sides of the same coin—two fates bound by the same inevitability.

The tension builds slowly, subtly. The pale man, never eating, never speaking, his footsteps inching closer to the professor’s door. And then, with a jolt, the old woman in room 208 dies. The moment was almost expected—one of those quiet inevitabilities that haunt every word of the story. But still, it left an ache, like the closing of a door that can never be opened again.

The more the professor falters in his health, the more I wondered: What is this pale figure? His progression through the hotel is like the march of fate, each room a stepping stone toward the professor’s own decline. And when the pale man enters room 202, I felt a chill in my own skin. It was then that the professor understood—not just the presence of the pale man, but his purpose. Death, or something so deeply connected to it, had taken on a face in this strange, silent figure.

By the end, I had the feeling that I was waiting too, with the professor, for that final moment to come. The way he spoke of it—waiting, almost inviting the Pale Man to claim him—felt almost like a surrender, an acceptance of what was always inevitable. The way he "smiles" back at the Pale Man, a smile of grim recognition, left me with a sense of finality that reverberated long after the last word.

The story’s conclusion lingered in my mind, haunting me with its strange calm. It’s a narrative about death, yes—but more than that, it’s about the inescapable draw of something far darker, that comes closer with every passing second, whether we realize it or not. In its quiet, almost sinister way, it reminded me of Emily Dickinson’s words in Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

“Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.”

The Pale Man, like Death itself, doesn’t rush. He simply moves closer, room by room, until he is where he was always meant to be. And in the end, like the professor, we must face him—not with resistance, but with a kind of grim recognition.

[Airaology · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a pale man, not sickly, almost ivory that’s arousing suspicion in the unnamed narrator, an ill assistant professor.

The ambiguous ending strengthens the eerie factor. Is the pale man a figment of the professor’s imagination? Is it Death a la Supernatural? Did the professor, due to reasons unknown, snapped and killed other guests and used the pale man as an alter ego as he said ”After al I brought the pale man with me”

Who knows!

Listened to this via The Shadowvane podcast. Highly recommend

[Ezti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, creepy read. The author certainly knows how to tell a story is very few words. Considering writers have a tendency to tell more than is needed, I give props to anyone who can tell a full story giving us less and making us crave more.

For those who enjoyed it, the podcast Fictional retells the story in much more detail as a 30 minute audio. The episode is called Room 201 .

[Mark Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's an odd, pale man at the hotel... - i don't know about you, but I have never been to a hotel without seeing at least one, odd, pale man --+ He has checked in on the same day as our narrator, who is ill. He is also very lonely and for some reason takes an interest in the pale man. The Pale man moves hotel rooms and the closer he gets to our narrator, the more ill he becomes... Very creepy

[David Bennett Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am afraid I can never cultivate their society unless I can arrange to have my ancestors recognized as local residents for the last hundred and fifty years." My experience in most Northern Ontario small towns.

This was spooky and quick.

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was alright.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice. A good spooky short story.

[Hal_the_Homo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the pale man was death?

Interesting read, certainly foreboding.

[Erik Wennermark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful potential to this story but gives too much away at the end.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/weirdtale...
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Weird_...

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

banger

[Yasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this one. Even though the ending is unknown.

[Rhys Causon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slow story, in my opinion anyway, with a bit more of an obvious explanation once the story starts to come together.

Yet, not the worst short story I’ve ever listened to.

[bcvs02 · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting but fairly plain. i hoped the ending would give me more but it’s alright

[Nick Chianese · Rating 4 out of 5]

An underrated, classic horror tale. Perhaps a bit too simple, but effective and subtly told, nonetheless.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird horror story, loved it.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raised to 3.25 stars.