The Man in the Picture

A story within a story, within a story, that turns out, IT'S WITHIN A STORY!

Evil bitter women, blameless men, more women as side-casualties and folks enjoying narrating stuff.

Read it before identifying Susan Hill's tropes (talked about here) so I didn't much mind the portrayal of women because I saw it as an analogy for other things and didn't quite place them within the saint/witch classic sexist dichotomy she loves using in her other novels as well. I loved the idea of an evil painting sucking men in, and would have liked to learn more about its origins and creation. It reminded me a lot of a duMaurier story of a newlywed couple that goes on a European country for their honeymoon and end up also having ghostly problems. But then again show more Hill is clearly influenced by Daphne and maybe that's why I love them both, sexist tropes and all. show less

A damn-near perfect ghost story: Atmospheric and genuinly creepy.

It's short length is also great- no atrificial padding, no useless exposition. The language economic without being barren. A lot of popular horror writers I could mention might learn a thing or two here... It also have this timeless quality i find really appealing. It might take place last year, or thirty, or sixty years ago.In my opinion, this adds to the story rather than subtracts from it.

Susan Hill is doubtless one of the finest writers of horror alive today, taking the traditional victorian ghost story and gently ushering along into the 21st century without making much fuss about it.

Now, it was the last week of the vacation and the college was quiet. We had eaten a good dinner, drunk a bottle of good claret, and we were stretched out comfortably in our chairs before a good fire. But the winter wind, coming as always straight off the Fens, howled round and occasionally a burst of hail rattled against the glass

After dinner with his former tutor Theo Parmitter in his rooms at Cambridge, Oliver agrees to listen to a strange story about a painting of the Venice Carnival hanging on Theo's wall, and the scene is set for a very Jamesian ghost story. It's a pity that nobody has the sense to burn the picture. Even Anne, who wishes she had destroyed the parcel without opening it, seems resigned to the picture's curse show more continuing into the next generation. show less

Thoroughly enjoyable! Susan Hill has mastered the genre of the literary ghost story in the modern era. (Note: You can't say very much about it or else you'll ruin the story.) But The Man in the Picture employs masks, crowds, darkness and paintings in a delightfully gothic manner. Scary, just a little twisted, but handled with a delicate touch.

Susan Hill is a master at creating atmosphere, painting living pictures with words. And the images she creates in this book are as eerie as the title painting, which seems to be a living, growing, menacing thing. Perhaps not since Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray has the story of such a sinister painting been penned by an author.

What to say without spoiling the rich surprises? This is a storyteller's book, a volume of stories within stories. By the firelight on two winter's nights, Oliver's old professor, Theo Parmitter, tells Oliver the eerie story of a painting which hangs in his rooms at Cambridge -- including the story told to him by a previous owner, whose life the painting cursed. Indeed, this painting seems to be a pox upon show more anyone who has contact with it -- as Oliver will learn all too tragically in the end.

This short (145 small-sized pages) book packs a powerful punch. Five stars! show less

When I heard that this novella was loosely inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, possibly my favourite book of all time, I was eager to give it a try! It's my first Susan Hill, but knowing her reputation for chilling writing I reckoned I'd be in safe hands. Happily, I wasn't disappointed, and found The Man in the Picture a thoroughly absorbing little read.

It is really a story within a story within a story. The first narrator is Oliver, a Cambridge alumnus visiting his old professor Theo in his college digs. One cold night, sitting by a roaring fire, whisky in hand, Theo tells Oliver how he came to own one of the art works in his collection, a macabre painting depicting a crowded Venetian carnival scene. Within his story, in turn, is show more the bizarre experience of the Countess who owned the painting before him. Between these three Hill conjures a tale of menace and vengeance, peeking into the sinister corners of Venice and the history of a terrifying picture with a life of its own, the entire novella suffused with the theatricality of the Carnivale and the scent of oil paint.

This is a quick read, but a wonderfully atmospheric one that I think pays an interesting kind of homage to The Picture of Dorian Gray without trampling all over it. Hill handles her Russian doll trio of narrators beautifully, so that each is distinct from the others and I never got confused - which could easily have happened given that everything hinges on one work of art. I wouldn't say it is a surprising novella, because I could see where it was all leading, but it was still delicious to just sink into it for a day and immerse myself in the spooky story and the darker side of the masked celebrations whirling through the streets of Venice. Recommended! show less

An elderly professor at Cambridge tells his young friend of the events surrounding an oil painting of a Venetian carnival. The story is one of heartache, obsession and tragedy.

This was not a scary story, sinister and foreboding, but not scary. You basically know what is going to happen before it happens. I prefer stories with more twists and turns. This is pretty much; the picture is cursed and you can’t get away from it.

It was written extremely well and reminded me of gothic ghost stories. I couldn’t tell the actual time of the events. It sounds Victorian until the narrator talks about cars and other modern conveniences. Once you start reading it you will not want to put it down.