F. Marion Crawford (1854–1909)

Sant' Ilario is the second installment of a tetralogy written by F. Marion Crawford, an American writer who lived in 19th century Italy and who was a convert to Catholicism. His tales of the noble Roman family, the Saricinesca, take place during the era of the Risorgimento and in this second volume our protagonists are participants in or witnesses to an insurrection launched by Garibaldi's redshirted revolutionists aimed at overthrowing the temporal power of the Pope and uniting the Papal show more States with the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.

Our hero, Giovanni Saricinesca, having married his great love, Corona d'Astradente in the first book of the series has been elevated to the title of Sant' Ilario by his father the Prince Saracinesca and his marriage has been blessed by a healthy baby boy, Orsino. Their prospects for lasting happiness seem excellent, but troubles lie ahead.

Giovanni's cousin of the same name has turned up in Rome as a wealthy entrepreneur having invested a large sum of money won in a lottery in various enterprises. He has shed his previous occupation as the proprietor of a country inn, and along the way his wife, the mother of his two sons, has fallen ill and passed away. He relocates to Rome and calls upon the Prince to claim the recognition due him by birth and he is awarded the title Marchese di San Giacinto.

We are introduced to another aristocratic family, the Montevarchi. The Prince of this ancient house is distinguished mainly for his avarice and his miserliness. He has an English wife, Guendolina, and two grown daughters, Flavia and Faustina. Flavia is high spirited and not terribly respectful of her parents; Faustina is a younger, more virtuous and beautiful younger daughter who has been befriended by Corona. As a result of a "traffic" accident Faustina is introduced to the painter Gouache, a Frenchman, who has decided to enlist in the papal cause and who has enlisted in the Zouaves. Gouache and Faustina fall head over heels in love with each other. Meanwhile San Giacinto has determined to marry into one of the ancient noble families of Rome and has fallen in love with the elder daughter, Flavia.

These romances form the point of departure for multiple planned and accidental events that threaten to bring about the downfall of the Prince Saracinesca, his son and grandson as well as the collapse of the marriage of Giovanni and Corona due to a chain of events that indicate a betrayal of their love for each other.

Crawford is a first-rate storyteller and a master of the psychology at work behind the virtues of love, fidelity and greatness of soul on the one hand and ambition, greed, jealousy and overweening pride on the other. Sant' Ilario is a wonderful read, worthy of its predecessor and a promising incentive to take up the third volume in the series. show less

This is a peculiar novel, an artifact of a time distant in memory. It was a contemporary novel when written, but now reads like the quaintest of historical romances. And odd. Let's not forget odd! For the author, who usually contented himself -- indeed, strictly limiting himself -- to romances at some remove from Ideas and Causes, gets caught up in the idea of political philosophy and action. Near the end of the novel, Crawford regales us with the speech his politician gives to a crowded show more auditorium, prefiguring the John Galt speech, perhaps, that crowded into the pages of "Atlas Shrugged." And there is a liberty theme here, too: "The contest is between political passion on the one hand and universal liberty on the other." "Liberty in some counties is a kind of charade word, an anagram, a symbol representing an imaginary quantity, a password invented by unhappy men to express all that they do not posess. . . . In these United States, liberty is a fact." Hmmm. This from the author who, in other novels, took time to pillory the ideas of Herbert Spencer. He had some respect for individualist liberalism, that's for sure. Though how much? You read, you judge.

Well, there's romance in the novel, too; not just political preaching. And there's an interesting conspiracy angle at work in the book, an angle that Crawford takes as almost obvious, but which many American commentators found (in the book's heyday) twisted and European.

I suspect Crawford had something going for him on this ground. There are indeed men who work behind the scenes. This book is political in that sense too.

But in America today, it is impolite to mention such machinations. You are called a "conspiracy theorist" and laughed at.

Those secretive men, though, they laugh, perhaps, behind our backs. show less

El escritor norteamericano Francis Marion Crawford es un gran desconocido actualmente. Sin embargo, en su época, finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX, tuvo una gran relevancia. Hoy en día, sería un autor olvidado si no fuese por sus relatos de terror, recogidos inicialmente en su ya célebre ‘Wandering Ghosts’ en 1911. De los siete relatos incluidos en dicha colección (en una edición posterior se incluyó un octavo relato inédito, ‘El Mensajero del Rey’), al menos show more cinco son considerados como clásicos imprescindibles y suelen incluirse en las múltiples antologías dedicadas al género. En ‘La calavera aullante y otros relatos de fantasmas espeluznantes’, la editorial Valdemar rescata los ocho relatos mencionados, con una esmerada traducción y presentación, como es habitual.

Enfrentarse a estos relatos clásicos desde el siglo XXI y esperar que nos asusten es harto difícil, y es que la saturación tanto en cine como en televisión de escenas truculentas nos ha curado de espanto. Estos relatos deben leerse teniendo en cuenta el contexto y la perspectiva desde la que fueron escritos. Francis Marion Crawford, si no miedo, lo que sí consigue es sumergirnos es una atmósfera de desasosiego, recreando un ambiente y unas situaciones de lo más sugerentes. Uno debe dejarse llevar por el excelente narrador que era Crawford, hasta unos finales, no por intuidos, menos satisfactorios

Estos son los ocho cuentos incluidos en ‘La calavera aullante y otros relatos de fantasmas espeluznantes’:

La sonrisa muerta (****). Una pareja de novios, que además son primos, desean casarse, pese a que no consiguen el consentimiento del padre del novio. Sin embargo, éste les sigue alentando a ello, y es que guarda un terrible secreto. Buen relato.

La calavera aullante (*****). Un viejo marinero le relata a su viejo amigo una espeluznante historia. El inicio es antológico: "La he escuchado gritar muchas veces. No, no soy una persona nerviosa, ni tengo mucha imaginación, jamás he creído en fantasmas, a menos que esa cosa sea uno de ellos". El mejor relato de la colección. Imprescindible.

¡Hombre al agua! (*****). Como bien indica su título, este es un relato de fantasmas en el mar. Gran relato.

Pues la sangre es vida (****). Ambientado en Italia, este cuento es todo un clásico sobre vampiros, admirado por el mismísimo H.P. Lovecraft. Muy bueno.

La litera de arriba (*****). De nuevo nos encontramos con un relato ambientado en el mar, narrado en primera persona por su protagonista. Extraños suicidios y hechos de difícil explicación, sin duda se trata de un gran relato, de lo mejor que he leído en cuanto a historias ambientadas en el mar desde el genial William Hope Hodgson. Imprescindible.

Junto a las Aguas del Paraíso (****). El protagonista recuerda su infausta niñez, rodeada de mala suerte, así como las extrañas premoniciones de su niñera galesa. Ya adulto, se verá envuelto en un viaje que le cambiará la vida. Gran relato.

El fantasma de la muñeca (****). El señor Puckler es un doctor de muñecas que se verá envuelto en un hecho sobrenatural relacionado con una de sus "pacientes". Muy buen relato.

El Mensajero del Rey (***). El protagonista recuerda la comida a la que fue invitado, una comida con doce invitados, aunque el invitado número trece está al caer. Este relato, omitido en primeras ediciones, ha sido incluido acertadamente por Valdemar en esta lujosa edición.

En resumen, fantástica colección de relatos de un autor injustamente olvidado, pero cuyo talento lo coloca entre los grandes del género. show less

The obvious comparison with Khaled is to Vathek, the other Arabian Nights-esque novel in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
Unlike that ridiculous trashfire of a manic episode pretending to be a novel, Khaled is actually a well-written, interesting, and entertaining ride through a very simple story with something poignant to say about the nature of love and affection. Crawford also, unlike the author of Vathek, can convincingly fake the idea that his story is taking place in arabia and show more knows a couple details of islam and old middle eastern stories. I'd read more of Crawford's novels.

It has some elements that unfortunately aged super-poorly (unquestioning of slavery, treating women like property), but you expect that in a book from the late 1800s. show less