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Tuesday 28 June 2011

Review: Severin’s Journey into the Dark

Title:  Severin’s Journey into the Dark
Author: Paul Leppin
Nationality: Czech
Year: 1914
Publisher: Twisted Spoon Press
Length: 100+pp
Rating: 5/10
Summary: Doesn’t reach its destination

The outline

This gothic novella explores the dark side of decadent turn-of-the-century Prague.

Sample

Death. Something in the rasping sound of the word seemed more exciting, richer in associations than all the sleepy utterances of a sheltered life. A small and perverse envy crept along the surface of his soul and left cloudy, lingering blisters. An envy for Nikolaus, who played with the opal ring on his finger with serene hands and discussed books and journals while it was possible that the carpet beneath his feet still retained the dried blood of the man who had died on it.

The verdict

I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of Severin’s Journey into the Dark. The start of this two-part gothic novella is dark, sinister and disturbing, with an impending sense of doom as the eponymous antihero, Severin, spirals downwards into his own hell. The conclusion of part one hinted at great things to come.

The problem was the part two simply didn’t live up to that promise. Several plot lines were never fully developed, opportunities were missed and the drama of  part one’s finale just fizzled out. After Severin had journeyed so far in part one, the start of part two brought him back close to the start of his travels and he never again got quite so deeply into the dark mysterious world around him as he did in part one.

2 comments:

  1. Twisted Spoon Press - what a great name, though the book sounds a bit dark for my taste.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is a great name, indeed. They seem to specialise in weird Eastern European lit - maybe it has some significance?

    ReplyDelete