The Return, by Walter De La Mare

Original title: The Return

Translation: Jorge Salvetti

Year of publication: 1910

Valuation: recommendable

Arthur Lawford, a “rather dull and unfunny being” (page 10), “someone half dead, barely conscious, without a single thought or wish really alive in his head or heart” (page 175), of “life monotonous and distressing” (page 13), he falls asleep on a tombstone. When he wakes up he has a strange face, “thin and adventurous” (page 28).

It begins so The return, exquisite psychological horror novel by British writer Walter De La Mare. The work tells how a man prone to illness experiences a metamorphosis. His face is replaced by that of a stranger; Likewise, his body, voice and handwriting resemble those of a different person. Even his thoughts and actions change, subtly at first and sharply later.

This change affects Lawford in different ways; As the story goes, he produces indescribable dread, existential affliction, resigned shame, or a certain seductive charm. Other characters are also affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the strange phenomenon: Sheila, the protagonist’s wife; Alice, his daughter; Bethany, his friend the priest; Herbert and Grisel, eccentric brothers who live by the river, etc…

The premise of The return It is, therefore, very interesting. Furthermore, it should be noted that Walter De La Mare gives his terrifying formula an extremely suggestive background. And the author uses a possible possession as an excuse to reflect on how our identity, apparently stable, can suddenly change, and how those around us can react to it. Another theme surreptitiously explored in the novel would be the inability to communicate effectively with others.

In addition,Walter De La Mare reflects on cultural and social differences. No wonder the protagonist, a well-to-do British man, seems to have been invaded by the spirit of one Sabathier, a libertine Frenchman who committed suicide centuries ago.

The first formal aspect to highlight The return It is his prose. Although somewhat ornate by today’s standards, the elegance, precision and thoroughness of Walter De La Mare’s style are extremely pleasing to literary sybarites.

Another extremely successful section of The return It is its powerful atmosphere. As happens in other fictions by Walter De La Mare, this one surrounds the story with a vaguely suffocating and tenuously spectral fog.

Finally, I would highlight the ambiguity of the whole. Walter De La Mare blurs what is narrated (against all odds, the precision and thoroughness of the author’s prose do not clash at all with the aforementioned blurred narrative), suggests a supernatural element and closes with an open ending; All these details conspire to make the reader’s certainties crumble. Do the events have a psychosomatic or supernatural basis? Which of Herbert’s many contradictory theories is true? When the book ends, is Lawford really the same as he was at the beginning?

I see a lot of people comparing The returnfor obvious reasons, with Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Although, personally, I think that Walter De La Mare’s work has many more similarities with The Castle by the Czech writer. And in both there appear, for example, endless and redundant dialogues or a female character in whom the protagonist vainly places all his hopes.