Hi,

Does anybody know about a good classic horror story dealing with split personality (when one does things in an altered state of mind one cannot remember later? I find this theme very interesting, or, at least, those stories about SP I have read so far are very good.

Berenice by Edgar Alan Poe (1835)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Lobert Louis Stevenson (1886)
Proxy by John Metcalfe (1925)
The Thing In The Upper Room by Arthur Morrison (1910)
Master Of The Fallen Years by Vincent O´Sullivan (1921)

Minicthulhu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi,
>
> Does anybody know about a good classic horror
> story dealing with split personality (when one
> does things in an altered state of mind one cannot
> remember later? I find this theme very
> interesting, or, at least, those stories about SP
> I have read so far are very good.
>
> Berenice by Edgar Alan Poe (1835)
> The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by
> Lobert Louis Stevenson (1886)
> Proxy by John Metcalfe (1925)
> The Thing In The Upper Room by Arthur Morrison
> (1910)
> Master Of The Fallen Years by Vincent
> O´Sullivan (1921)

I've only read the first two of the works you mentioned. Anyway, in addition to "Berenice," Poe's "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains", while not horrific until the accidental death of Bedloe at the end, is a startlingly original treatment of the split personality idea. Bedloe's visionary experience is revealed as an inexplicable case of metempsychosis. Poe's style achieves a suspension of disbelief that the narrative would otherwise lack, and anticipates subsequent fantasy writing. C.L. Moore's "The Dark Land," (Weird Tales Jan. 1936), and HPL's "The Whisperer in Darkness" exemplify identity-transference/confusion themes with similarly abrupt endings.
-- "Then," said I mutteringly, as I turned upon my heel, "then indeed has it come to pass that one truth is stranger than any fiction-- for Bedloe, without the e, what is it but Oldeb conversed! And this man tells me that it is a typographical error." (Poe)

jkh

- The Parasite, by Arthur Conan Doyle. (One of his better weird efforts, IMHO).
- The Beast of Averoigne, by Clark Ashton Smith (or are we excluding physical transformation?)
- Doom of the House of Duryea, by Earl Peirce Jr.
- The Rats in the Walls, by H.P. Lovecraft (There are similar themes in other HPL stories, but IIRC this is the only one with memory loss).

- The Camp of the Dog, by Algernon Blackwood

- We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, by Philip K. Dick.
- A SCANNER DARKLY, by Philip K. Dick.

A good example is "The Mystery of Evelin Delorme" by Albert Bigelow Paine

Thank you for the tips.

Other examples are:

"From The Abyss" (1940) by Dorothy Kathleen Broster
"Statement Of Edward Chaloner" (1905) by Arthur Morrison.

- THE SILVER CHAIR, by C.S. Lewis

T.O. Mabbott's notes for "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" show that its hodge-podge of source materials includes Charles Brockden Brown's novel, Edgar Huntly. Anyone here read it? I read Brown's earlier novel, Wieland. In synopsis Edgar Huntly sounds like an artistic improvement over Wieland. Brown was probably not as influential on Irving and Hawthorne as, for comparison, William Godwin was to the Romantic movement in England at its outset, but his influence on Poe is well known.
Mabbott quotes Sidney Lund's assertion that Poe's story, unlike "Morella," and "Ligeia," is "a case study in mesmerism", with "no metempsychotic basis," which is borne out by my rereading of this most outlandish of Poe's weird productions.
To get back on to our topic, An Exchange of Souls, a novel by Barry Pain, concerns "a transference of an Ego to a mind and body other than that with which it had previously been associated" (Pain). In the novel a man exchanges his soul with that of his fiancee. Lovecraft owned this novel, so it could have influenced "The Thing on the Doorstep". It was published by Nash in 1911, 5 years before they published Algernon Blackwood's first book, The Empty House. Pain also collaborated on a witchcraft novel, The Shadow of the Unseen, which is quite good and, who knows, may have influenced John Buchan's fine novel, Witch Wood.

jkh

No but I have always meant to read brown, it's just that he seems to rationalise the supernatural in most of his tales, sadly enough, and that has been slightly holding me back.

Ashurabani Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No but I have always meant to read brown, it's
> just that he seems to rationalise the supernatural
> in most of his tales, sadly enough, and that has
> been slightly holding me back.


The ventriloquist trick in Wieland is absurd. Edgar Huntly may have more of the regional atmosphere going for it.

Another good example, sort of, is Lazarus by Henri Beraud.

Ashurabani Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another good example, sort of, is Lazarus by Henri
> Beraud.


Yes, and reminiscent of Machen's The Hill of Dreams, which I've just read for the second time. Beraud's novel struck me as melodramatic to a fault, in comparison to Machen's evocative masterpiece.

jkh

Haven't read the Machen yet but I found the Lazarus quite well done, and the ending was quite delicious in it's own way. Will not spoil, obviously.

My first thought, on reading the original post, was that the theme was such a cliche that we would have little trouble thinking of multiple examples. But we seem to find relatively few, at least among classic fiction.

So where did I get this first impression? Was it from TV shows of my childhood? I remember, for instance, and episode of THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF LOBO, in which the cowardly Deputy Perkins kept switching to an alternate personality as a super-tough biker every time he received a knock on the head. And of course I recall THE INCREDIBLE HULK, starring Bill Bixby. And maybe there was an episode of GILLGAN'S ISLAND too, for all I know.

"Psycho" (1959), by Robert Bloch. It is clearer in the text than in the film version that Norman cannot remember his episodes as Mother.

Starting in 1935, a number of werewolf movies, notably WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935), THE WOLF MAN (1941) and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1986) have had aspects of being a sort of Jeckyll/Hyde or split personality story.

This does not seem to have been a prominent aspect of earlier literary werewolf fiction. At least, I cannot think of any prominent examples. Does "The Camp of the Dog" count? "Wolfshead" (1926), by R.E. Howard, is about a man cursed with lycanthropy against his will, but I recall no suggestion that memory loss plays a part of his curse.

Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1954) features dual personality themes, associated with the influence of the One Ring, but there is never a complete "split", nor is memory loss a significant issue. This is seen most clearly with Gollum, who has 2 personalities, refers to himself in the plural as "we" and "us", and whose two personalities (called "Slinker" and "Stinker" by Sam) have running conversations with each other, rather like Norman Bates and his Mother. Gollum first appeared in THE HOBBIT (1937), where some of these hints of his dual personality were already present.

"A Pastoral Horror" (1890) by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story is never told from the madman's POV, so it is ambiguous whether this is really a split personality case, or whether the madman can remember his murders during his "lucid intervals" if any. But these ideas are at least strongly hinted at.

"The Haunter of the Ring" (1934) by Robert E. Howard.

I don't think I ever heard of this one from Doyle. Is it more criminous than horrific ?

Ashurabani Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think I ever heard of this one from Doyle.
> Is it more criminous than horrific ?

Well, it's criminous. And horrific. But it did occur to me after posting that it maybe does not count as a "weird horror". Unless madness is inherently weird.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 26 Apr 22 | 02:42PM by Platypus.

To be clear, my last post was about Doyle's story A PASTORAL HORROR. I had previously mentioned Doyle's THE PARASITE, which is about a sort of possession by a mesmerist.

I have the impression that Victorian era stories about loss of memory and altered states of consciousness were often associated with the ideas of somnambulism and mesmerism. I think we also see this in DRACULA.

"The Shadow Out of Time", by H.P. Lovecraft, features a case of alternate personality with memory loss. Of course, it turns out to be a case of alien possession.

Depends how much the madness features in the story, I'd say.

The Shining (1977) by Stephen King: I don't know if early King is old enough to be considered classic, but it features a sort of dual personality in the form of Danny and his "imaginary friend" Tony, who lives inside him.

I don't recall that Tony is ever exactly explained. Is he a sort of familiar spirit with whom Dany can communicate, and who sometimes possesses him? Or does he represent that part of Danny that is psychically aware, and which Dany keeps separate and at bay in order to protect himself from psychic horrors?

Setting aside such theories, Tony also serves as a literary device, that allows a novel about a lonely, solitary and secretive child to remain lively by way of running dialogue between Danny and Tony. It also allows him to have a realistically childlike personality, while also giving him indirect access to knowledge and understanding that I would be too much for a child.

I don't recall that any memory loss was involved. But certainly, Danny does not (at least consciously) know everything Tony knows.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 7 May 22 | 07:21PM by Platypus.

It's been over 40 years since I read the abridged version, but I recall that L. Ron Hubbard's novel FEAR concerns a man's search for the memory of his activities during an hour he has inexplicable lost. To his eternal regret, he is quite successful in his quest.

That sounds interesting, but I'd rather first focus on "Final Blackout, the only Hubbard novel on Wagner's list of 39 Best Horror novels.

Will definitely be on the lookout for this though.

I first read FEAR in a paperback collecting it with another Hubbard fantasy from UNKNOWN magazine, TYPEWRITER IN THE SKY. This was in the 1970's and it was an abridged version. The long version came out in hardcover about 20 years later, as I recall. That might be the better version to read, if you're interested.

@Minicthulhu: you just mentioned "The Grave" in your thread about WWI horror, which features periods of relative madness, interrupted by "lucid intervals" during which the mad intervals cannot be remembered.

You are right, it did not occured to me at all. :-)