The Image of a Drawn Sword (1950)

Taking its title from a line in Beowulf, British author Jocelyn Brooke's The Image of a Drawn Sword is a disturbing, suspenseful and much neglected novel of fantastic horror. Though utterly its own thing, it belongs in the unsettling company of Franz Kafka's The Castle, Doris Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell and Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. It also has ties to the tale of Reynard the Fox and - with its detailed evocations of the Kentish wilds and hints of an occult, parallel reality - to the work of Arthur Machen. The sorrowful mystery of psychic disintegration, of swarming menace is masterfully developed. See also the author's The Dog at Clambercrown for more of the same, slams on Proust and tea with the mafia. Brooke has also authored a biography of Ronald Firbank and issued an anthology of Denton Welch's writings. ( )