A Month of Novellas, Book 17: The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill (2007)

waiting for f. to be seen at the e.r.

I’m going to admit something a bit silly here. I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat. I refuse to watch horror film s and even though I don’t believe in ghosts, I usually stay away from anything having to do with them. I’m prone to nightmares and have a fertile imagination, so I don’t need any further help to disturb my sleep.

But then I spotted this little adorable volume The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill and I thought I had to read it. The fact that it’s subtitled ‘A Ghost Story’ didn’t put me off checking it out of the library but I did put off picking it up to read for a few days…’cause that’s the kind of ninny that I am.

I had nothing to fear. This book is scary but not in the usual way that would keep me awake. Creepy, but more intellectually so rather than viscerally. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The story concerns the tale of Theo Parmitter, a retired Cambridge tutor who’s lived his whole adult life at the college. One of his former students, Oliver, likes to visit him whenever he’s in town and spend an evening in conversation. Parmitter is an accomplished storyteller but during this particular visit, decides to share an unusual story. He tells Oliver about one of his paintings, a Venetian Carnival scene painted in the 18th century, and how he came to have it.

And this is how we come to know about the cursed painting and about the mysteries within it. Parmitter has been collecting art since he was a young man and during one of his many forays into art auctions spotted this painting and felt compelled to buy it. It was grungy and a bit beat up at the time and no one really fought him for it…until after the auctioneer’s gavel had come down and one last bid was made. But it was considered too late by the auction house and Parmitter was the winner, fair and square.

Alas, the would-be bidder could not be dissuaded from pressing Parmitter to sell him the painting for a healthy profit. He pesters and pesters him:

“My client gave me instructions…I was not to go back without the picture. It has taken years to track it down. I have to have it.” p.18

And after Parmitter turns him down, the emissary has a chilling warning for him:

“You will regret it. I have to warn you. You will not want to keep that picture.’ (…) ‘Do you understand? Sell me the picture. It’s for your own good.’ Id.

Parmitter decides to ignore all of this and takes his painting to be restored, but when it’s eventually up in his rooms, he starts to feel uneasy about it.

There’s something about it, about the look of some of the figures in the painting, that seems eerie and terrifying. One of the figures is being dragged away by two other men and he has an expression of horror upon his face.

Years later he receives a letter from a Countess regarding this same painting. Her representative has seen a photo of the painting in a magazine – Parmitter has been interviewed and photographed for an article about Chaucer – and beseeches him to join her at her home in Yorkshire so they may further discuss the painting.

Feeling up for an adventure, Parmitter agrees, never realizing what chilling tale he’s about to hear from the mouth of the Countess.

It would be wrong of me to say any more of the plot as I’d hate to give it away. Ms. Hill has conjured up a fascinating story of jealousy gone mad, changed lives and the utter power of a painting to wreak misery upon its’ owners. Eerie, macabre and well, damn spooky, this is indeed a great ghost story.