More than a decade ago, I sampled a few of the sea stories of English-Italian author Rafael Sabatini and enjoyed them greatly. It was easy to see why adventure novels like The Sea Hawk (1915) and Captain Blood (1922) were so well-regarded and widely read at the time: they combined a winning mix of colorful characters, engaging melodrama, exotic locales, and daring action that would make most contemporary genre writers envious. In two senses, Sabatini’s stories were products of their time, both with their romanticized view of an earlier chivalric era when heroes, villains, and damsels all knew their place – it is no accident that the author’s famous tales seem to be direct descendants of the Dumas adventure/morality epics The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers – and in their often historical settings, whether on land or, stirringly, on sea.
With the new collection The Hypnotic Tales of Rafael Sabatini, crime and mystery fiction fans have another opportunity to discover this writer’s work. Editor Donald K. Hartman collects two intriguing long stories here, both featuring Roger Galliphant, a medical man with a keen interest in the power of hypnosis on human subjects. Galliphant is introduced in “The Avenger”, originally published in Gunter’s Magazine in March 1909 (that issue’s cover promises “Up-to-date Stories of Romance & Adventure”).
This tale begins with our narrator, an amusingly obtuse Watson figure named Martin Scholes, doubting the veracity of the events presented in the (real-life) stage sensation Trilby. It is from this play adapted from George Du Maurier's novel, Hartman’s helpful introduction explains, where the master power manipulator Svengali originates. A demonstration of hypnotism on their friend Frank Voysey makes Galliphant conclude that someone else is dangerously manipulating the man through his subconscious.
Two mysterious deaths within Voysey’s family – including one cousin’s somnambulistic fall from a high tower hill – makes Galliphant suspect James Chester of exerting a Svengali-like evil influence over his unknowing subjects. Chester has a deep (and likely dark) interest in the study and application of hypnosis, and he also gains an inheritance if a few of his relatives are conveniently removed. The battle of wills that follows between Galliphant and Chester drives the rest of the story, as do the conceptual-turned-literal notions of morality and justice.
In my opinion, “The Dream” works even better as a study in suspense. In this second novella, first published in 1912, Roger Galliphant is asked to help the troubled protagonist Francis Orprington, an ex-soldier disturbed by a realistic dream in which he kills his father in a frenzy. Upon awaking, however, it is not Orpington who has been killed but Stanley Bickershaw, his cousin. When Galliphant realizes that another lady of the house, Major Orpington’s love interest, also shows signs of being under a hypnotic spell, he is able to regress her mind to a point where she can unlock some important details and shine light on the Major’s strange dream and lethal intentions.
With the new collection The Hypnotic Tales of Rafael Sabatini, crime and mystery fiction fans have another opportunity to discover this writer’s work. Editor Donald K. Hartman collects two intriguing long stories here, both featuring Roger Galliphant, a medical man with a keen interest in the power of hypnosis on human subjects. Galliphant is introduced in “The Avenger”, originally published in Gunter’s Magazine in March 1909 (that issue’s cover promises “Up-to-date Stories of Romance & Adventure”).
This tale begins with our narrator, an amusingly obtuse Watson figure named Martin Scholes, doubting the veracity of the events presented in the (real-life) stage sensation Trilby. It is from this play adapted from George Du Maurier's novel, Hartman’s helpful introduction explains, where the master power manipulator Svengali originates. A demonstration of hypnotism on their friend Frank Voysey makes Galliphant conclude that someone else is dangerously manipulating the man through his subconscious.
Two mysterious deaths within Voysey’s family – including one cousin’s somnambulistic fall from a high tower hill – makes Galliphant suspect James Chester of exerting a Svengali-like evil influence over his unknowing subjects. Chester has a deep (and likely dark) interest in the study and application of hypnosis, and he also gains an inheritance if a few of his relatives are conveniently removed. The battle of wills that follows between Galliphant and Chester drives the rest of the story, as do the conceptual-turned-literal notions of morality and justice.
In my opinion, “The Dream” works even better as a study in suspense. In this second novella, first published in 1912, Roger Galliphant is asked to help the troubled protagonist Francis Orprington, an ex-soldier disturbed by a realistic dream in which he kills his father in a frenzy. Upon awaking, however, it is not Orpington who has been killed but Stanley Bickershaw, his cousin. When Galliphant realizes that another lady of the house, Major Orpington’s love interest, also shows signs of being under a hypnotic spell, he is able to regress her mind to a point where she can unlock some important details and shine light on the Major’s strange dream and lethal intentions.
It's a subtle difference in approach, but “The Dream” is the story that has a more sympathetic central character (the agonized accidental murderer, Orpington) and the less obvious narrative path. That is, the focus isn’t on defeating the villain but instead on enlightening the afflicted patient, and for that reason I preferred the second tale to the first. Both are well written and enjoyable, and whether a mesmerist can induce a person to commit murder or self-harm while in a hypnotic state is a question you can argue with Martin Scholes, along with the truthfulness of Trilby.
This collection is the third in a series edited by Donald K. Hartman and published by Themes & Settings in Fiction Press. The earlier volumes are also well worth seeking out, and reviews and an overview of the stories can also be found on my blog: Death by Suggestion (2018) and The Hypno-Ripper (2021). Crippen & Landru Press also released an anthology of Rafael Sabatini crime stories in 2006, called The Evidence of the Sword.
This collection is the third in a series edited by Donald K. Hartman and published by Themes & Settings in Fiction Press. The earlier volumes are also well worth seeking out, and reviews and an overview of the stories can also be found on my blog: Death by Suggestion (2018) and The Hypno-Ripper (2021). Crippen & Landru Press also released an anthology of Rafael Sabatini crime stories in 2006, called The Evidence of the Sword.
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