Audiobook · read by volunteers
Afterward
Edith Wharton (1862–1937)
Read by Charlie Blakemore · 2 chapters · 1 h 17
About the book
Mary and Ned Boyne have left America for a charming old house in the English countryside, hoping for a quiet life. Everything seems perfect, except for one thing: the house is said to have a ghost, and the legend says that its visitor is never recognised until long afterwards. The Boynes laugh at the story, and for a time they hear and see nothing at all. But Edith Wharton knows how to build suspense with the quietest hints, a figure glimpsed in the distance, a change of mood, a moment that seems to mean nothing at the time. Charlie Blakemore reads this short, elegant ghost story in two parts, lasting about an hour and twenty minutes, and it makes an ideal tale for a dark evening. It is a story about memory and dread, best heard after dark.
Introduction
Edith Wharton was born in New York in 1862 and died in France in 1937. She is best known for her novels of high society, such as The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Yet she was also an accomplished writer of ghost stories, a form she took very seriously. Afterward was first published shortly before the First World War, and it is often regarded as one of the finest of its kind.
Wharton had a clear idea of what a ghost story should do. She preferred suggestion to spectacle, and she believed that a haunting should grow out of character and conscience rather than out of rattling chains. In this tale the setting is a house in the south-west of England, and the supernatural element is bound up with a past that the couple has tried to forget. The story is quiet on the surface, but it is full of dread beneath, and its effect depends on the slow gathering of detail.
This LibriVox recording lasts about an hour and twenty minutes and is divided into two parts. It is read by a single volunteer, Charlie Blakemore. It is a good choice for listeners who like their chills elegant and psychological, and a fine introduction to Wharton's work outside the drawing room.
Short as it is, the story shows why Wharton's ghost tales remain so admired. Its effect lingers well after the last sentence, and the ending raises a thought about memory and regret that no special effect could match. It is best heard alone, in good light or in none.
Public domain
Edith Wharton died in 1937: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text