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The Seance. A Novel [Hardcover]

John Harwood (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 3 April 2008

'Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plough the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there...'

London, the 1880s. A young girl grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for the child she lost. Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance Langton takes her to a séance. Perhaps they will find comfort from beyond the grave. But that séance has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest will blight her life.

So begins The Séance, John Harwood's brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains - and murder. For Constance's bequest comes in two parts: a house, and a mystery. Years before a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a terrifying stately home near the Suffolk coast. Now Constance must find the truth behind the mystery, even at the cost of her life. Because without the truth, she is lost.

Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape (3 April 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0224081861
  • ISBN-13: 978-0224081863
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 203,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

''The Séance' reminds us that the real horrors lurk within the reader's mind'
-- Andrew Taylor The Independent

'A brilliantly atmospheric dark mystery...Try this if you like being scared out of your wits' -- Daily Mail

'Harwood ratchets up the tension like a skilled violinist playing a rising note...sinister mesmerism, murder and trickery.' -- Rachel Howells, The Big Issue

'Wilkie Collins would be proud.' -- Lucy Atkins, The Times

'[Readers] will devour The Seance in a sitting' -- Sunday Times

'he can write as elegantly and often as scarily as M. R. James...a horrific excess a la Monk Lewis' -- Lucy Sussex, The Age

`enjoyable homage to the Victorian ghost story ... tantalising ... an exhilarating read'
-- The Tablet

Review

'John Harwood's brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark, mystery set in late Victorian England' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
80 of 82 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Old Dark House 1 Jun 2008
By Foggy Tewsday VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
It is sometimes remarked that inanimate objects can have such a strong presence within a story that the object almost becomes one of the characters. I think this is certainly true of the sinister Wraxford Hall. This crumbling manor house has accrued its reputation down the years thanks to its eccentric inhabitants and its location. Its spooky setting amidst overgrown grounds and the surrounding sprawl of woodlands, known as Monks Wood, has caused the local poachers to pursue their game elsewhere. A pack of vicious hounds is said to roam the area and the ghost of a monk is believed to haunt the woods. Anyone who sees the spectre is reputed to die within the month.

`The Seance' is John Harwood's second novel and is set in Victorian England. Events unfold through pages of narrative seen from the perspectives of three of the story's main characters: Constance Langton, John Montague and Eleanor Unwin.

Constance's distraught mother is inconsolable following the death of Constance's sister. In desperation, Constance and her mother attend a seance in the hope of providing some much needed comfort. John Montague is a barrister and amateur artist who is charged with tracing the heir of Wraxford Hall. Montague decides to commit the hall to canvas and on taking up his brushes, finds himself suffused with artistic powers that he had not, previously or since, possessed. Eleanor Unwin suffers from blinding headaches and an overbearing mother. Her headaches are the result of so-called visitations from the dead.

The social niceties of the time are particularly well drawn in the women's narratives and journals. Unchaperoned ladies and unsuitable husband material are almost as much to be feared as the manor house that binds the various characters. Eleanor's toxic mother is especially outraged when marriage to an artist threatens to heap social stigma on her family.

The scenes in and around Wraxford Hall are deliciously creepy. The weather-staples of Victorian mystery stories - the bone-chilling cold, swirling mists and lightning - are much in evidence as the protagonists attempt to uncover the secrets that they and the house share.

If you've already enjoyed John Harwood's excellent first novel, `The Ghostwriter', or, if Victorian-era mystery stories are your thing, you won't want to miss `The Seance'. This is a compelling and highly atmospheric novel from a superb writer.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars "Wraxford Hall has a very dark history..." 18 Jan 2009
By Catherine Murphy
Format:Hardcover
It's nice to say that John Harwood has maintained in "The Séance", his second novel, the same high standard for creepiness that he set in his first, "The Ghost Writer".

This time Harwood has gone the whole gothic hog, setting the story in Victorian England and beginning with the story of Constance Langton, who in true Bronte style, is lonely and neglected by her parents after the death of her sister Alma as a young child. Constance takes her mother to a séance, hoping to cure Mrs Langton's malignant grief, with tragic results, then learns she is the benefactor of an eccentric relative's will and has inherited Wraxford Hall, a place with an equally tragic past and reputation for being haunted. Through the séance, Constance has come into contact with Vernon Raphael of the Society for Psychical Research. Raphael asks that he and his colleagues be allowed to investigate Wraxford Hall and determine if there are really any supernatural influences and also to solve the mystery of a previous owner's death and the disappearance of a young woman and child, a mystery that Constance believes may explain her own unhappy past.

This is not the kind of book to start reading in the bath, in case you find yourself still immersed, prune like and freezing, several hours later. It should be enjoyed before a crackling fire, the curtains securely drawn, the wind and rain lashing at the windows and a comforter wrapped tightly about your person.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful novel 27 July 2009
By Lucie Harrison
Format:Paperback
I'm not one for 'period drama' stories (I'm more the sci-fi type), but was given this as a birthday present so thought I'd give it a go.

Other reviews here give the story outline very well, so I'll just say that these characters are fantastically painted - they feel so incredibly real that my mind is still wondering what will happen next in their lives - and I finished the book nearly 2 weeks ago!

Read it, even if it's not your sort of thing. You won't be disappointed!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars The best mystery/scary book I've read after Poe!
I couldn't let down this book until I finally learnt what really happened in the end..! The storyline is amazing, it evolves and changes and you're never sure about anything. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Christina
5.0 out of 5 stars A true Victorian mystery
This is a really engrossing and satisfying read. The Gothic atmosphere pervading the story and the belief systems of Victorian England combine to produce twists and turns. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Cazziecool
3.0 out of 5 stars Not as scary as I thought it would be!
Purchased this mainly because I know some parts of the country mentioned in the book. Not too bad a read but not as scary as I would have liked!
Published 4 months ago by Linda Margaret Wells
1.0 out of 5 stars Just plain awful
First time try for this author as I liked the genre and general plot. Good first 20 /30 pages and then it just becomes bad or very bad. How do books like this get published. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Robin J. Wisniewski
5.0 out of 5 stars A dark and murderous tale
Constance Langton was only 5 when her 2-year old sister Alma died in 1873. Their mother, broken by Alma's death, retreated from life and her marriage. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Keen Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
This was not what I expected it to be, but once I got into the story it was one I didn't want to put down.
An enjoyable read.
Published 9 months ago by Mrs L Williams
3.0 out of 5 stars "Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground. . . but never live...
THE SEANCE is a novel with quite a complicated structure. At the very beginning, we meet Constance Langton, a young woman whose younger sister died at a very early age, leaving her... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Brida
4.0 out of 5 stars A Most Singular Narrative
The quote on the front cover says "Readers will devour 'The Seance' in one sitting", and although I always take these things with a pinch of salt,in this case I found it to be... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Martynrb
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable read
An exremely enjoyable victorian thriller, very well written and plotted, I thought the use of different characters telling their side of the story was an excellent device, the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by K. Davies
5.0 out of 5 stars Seriously creepy
This is the first novel I have read by John Harwood and it exceeded all my expectations. A gothic mystery, a little reminiscent of The Woman in Black and Bleak House, the story... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Rossi
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