Status
Available
Publication
Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill Co., c1947.
Description
A Name for Evil examines the question whether an individual can, through sheer force of will, recover the past. During World War II, Henry Brent and wis wife buy a deteriorating Tennessee mansionm intending to restore it to its former glory. The land, however, is imbued with the spirit of its former owner, Major Brent, a malevolent presence hanging over the property and appearing to Henry as a ghostly shade. A psychological study of egotism, tradition, and progress, A Name for Evil os a tragic examination of man's consuming desire to overcome mortality and control the past -- and future.
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A Name for Evil. Andrew Nelson Lytle. 1947. Creepy. I found this book on a list of lesser known horror novels around Halloween. Lytle is considered an “Alabama Author” by the Alabama Library Association guidelines, and he was part of the Agrarian movement started by John Crowe Ransom in
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reaction to H.L. Mencken’s criticism of the South. And the novel is full or descriptions of the rural landscape and farmland. Our narrator has found an old abandoned farm and he and his wife plan to recover the land and restore the house. We are drawn into the mysterious sense of danger and evil almost immediately and know that disaster is inevitable. The ghost appears within the first few pages and we are drawn in to see if the ghost wins Show Less
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first edition