Widdershins (Version 2)

Oliver Onions (1873 - 1961)

Onions wrote several collections of ghost stories, of which the best known is Widdershins (1911). It includes the novella The Beckoning Fair One, widely regarded as one of the best in the genre of horror fiction, especially psychological horror. On the surface, this is a conventional haunted house story: an unsuccessful writer moves into rooms in an otherwise empty house, in the hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend and his sanity are all destroyed in the process. The story can be read as narrating the gradual possession of the protagonist by a mysterious and possessive feminine spirit, or as a realistic description of a psychotic outbreak culminating in catatonia and murder, told from the sufferer's point of view. The precise description of the slow disintegration of the protagonist's mind is terrifying in either case.
Another theme, shared with others of Onions' stories, is a connection between creativity and insanity; in this view, the artist is in danger of withdrawing from the world altogether and losing himself in his creation. (Introduction from Wikipedia)

Genre(s): Horror & Supernatural Fiction, Single Author Collections

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 01 - The Beckoning Fair One, Part 1 Kevin Green
00:41:54
Play 02 02 - The Beckoning Fair One, Part 2 Kevin Green
00:46:33
Play 03 03 - The Beckoning Fair One, Part 3 Kevin Green
00:53:07
Play 04 04 - Phantas C.J. Casey
00:34:47
Play 05 05 - Rooum C.J. Casey
00:31:55
Play 06 06 - Benlian C.J. Casey
00:43:07
Play 07 07 - Io C.J. Casey
00:32:58
Play 08 08 - The Accident Adam Whybray
00:39:50
Play 09 09 - The Cigarette Case Sammy Bean
00:31:31
Play 10 10 - The Rocker Melissa Burns-Price
00:25:23
Play 11 11 - Hic Jacet, Part 1 Fannie
00:48:39
Play 12 12 - Hic Jacet, Part 2 Fannie
00:42:51