Ferelith

Lord Kilmarnock
Nodens Books

'Ferelith' was the only book written by Victor Alexander Sereld Hay, son of the 20th Earl of Erroll - a title he would later assume - and diplomat of some apparent repute.  His small novel, published in 1903, tells a story of an affair between an unhappy and maligned trophy wife, Ferelith, and her ghostly lover and of the resulting child.

Set, for the most part, in a wild and lonely Scottish castle where the wife and our narrator - her sister-in-law, Anne - are victim to the whims of the boarish and brutish husband.  Cut off from both London society and from their more common neighbours by his manner and behaviour they live a solitary life, especially when he's called abroad.  During this time Anne finds solace in books while Ferelith finds hers in the spectral embrace of the former, dissolute, lord of the castle and it's the issue of this dalliance that's the focus of the book's latter half.

It's a strange and engrossing read that takes it's gothic trappings and gives them a welcome twist.  Written in a measured, almost staid, style that perfectly suits it's narrator and one which keeps the more potentally prurient aspects of the story under well-mannered wraps.   I can't help but feel that along the way the author envisioned a longer novel with a wider cast - one of the more interesting characters appears for two brief moments across the book and other, with a fairly major role, has no back story whatsoever - the end product however is a taut little supernatural gothic thriller that is deserving of wider recognition.

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