One of my top books to read around Halloween is Mr Justice Harbottle by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It is a classic horror novella of approximately 14,200 words, first published in 1872 as part of a collection of ghost stories titled, In Glass Darkly.
The cruel and corrupt Judge Elijah Harbottle, known as a hanging judge, uses his position and domineering personality to rig trials and sentence people to death for trivial offences. Harbottle is characterised by his tyranny on the bench, personal debauchery, and morally bankrupt nature – his cruellest act is sending a grocer named Lewis Pyneweck to the gallows on an invented charge, partly because Harbottle is having an affair with the poor man’s wife. The story has Harbottle tormented by his past, haunted by the vengeful spirits of those he unjustly convicted, and harrowed by a terrifying dream where he is tried and condemned in a ghostly tribunal by a monstrous version of himself.
Mr Justice Harbottle is a skilful exploration of the fine line between the psychological and the supernatural, with an open ending that leaves us debating whether Harbottle is truly being haunted by vengeful spirits or if he is suffering from delusions brought on by the guilt of his many sins.
Words by Jugo O’Neill
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