The croquet player pdf

An elderly woman stiffens in dread at her own shadow; a terrified farmer murders a scarecrow; food prepared by others is eyed with suspicion; family pets are bludgeoned to death; loving couples are devoured by rage and violence. A spirit-corrupting evil pervades the land, infesting the minds of those who call Cainsmarsh home. Is this vision real, or a paranoid fantasy generated by an even darker, worldwide threat? And is the call to resist the danger itself a danger? A soul-corrupting evil has invaded the remote English village of Cainsmarsh, infesting the minds of the local residents.

An old woman fears her own shadow; a petrified farmer plots the murder of a scarecrow; family pets are brutally killed, and previously-happy couples descend into anger and violence. Herbert George Wells — was a prolific English writer who wrote in a variety of genres, including the novel, politics, history, and social commentary. The croquet player, comfortably sipping a vermouth, listens to the strange and terrible tale of the haunted countryside. Wells' modern ghost story of a remote English Village, Cainsmarsh.

Dark events are plaguing its people. A terrified farmer murders a scarecrow. Family pets are being bludgeoned to death. Loving couples are turning on each other in vicious rage. People are becoming suspicious of every move each other makes. Children are coming to school with marks on them. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print.

The Delphi Classics edition of Wells includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well. So when Number Four informed him that Ratzel, leader of the enemy, had been captured, it was naturally a cause for celebration - that was until Bolaris actually met his great opponent The likeness between Bolaris and Ratzel was so remarkable that Bolaris was left in no doubt that they were related - brothers, or perhaps even twins. As sworn enemies, and. This allegorical satire about a man fleeing from his evil dreams was written under the influence of the Spanish Civil War.

The croquet player, comfortably sipping a vermouth, listens to the strange and terrible tale of the haunted countryside. Wells' modern ghost story of a remote English Village, Cainsmarsh. Sort order. Start your review of The Croquet Player. One of the joys of my bizarre reading list is when I hit the entry that allows me to specifically pursue my "To Be Read" list of short fiction. Years in the making, and constantly updated, this list of short genre mostly fiction by various authors that have all come upon my radar as being "worth checking out" or at least "of interest" is always an interesting delve.

Having, in my contrarian manner, decided to start at "Z" and work my way backwards through the alphabet, I'm currently somewher One of the joys of my bizarre reading list is when I hit the entry that allows me to specifically pursue my "To Be Read" list of short fiction.

Having, in my contrarian manner, decided to start at "Z" and work my way backwards through the alphabet, I'm currently somewhere in the middle of "W" ah, yes, H. Wells through Don Webb, with a little mop up of things that have sifted below that in the interim. It's a joy because sometimes I get to be inundated by a particular writer whose work I hadn't experienced yet there was a wonderful period of reading a ton of Cornell Woolrich the last time!

And then, then there are the unexpected gems. The things that make you go "How in holy hell have I not heard of this before, beside it making its way onto my list!?! Wells' novella "The Croquet Player". I mean, okay, novella length fiction does tend to get short shrift in the reprint market, but how was this not included in David G. Hartwell 's excellent survey of the horror novella, Foundations of Fear? Our narrator, an admittedly mild-mannered if affable layabout in the "Bertie Wooster" mold is having a pre-lunch drink at a health spa when he is buttonholed by a troubled man who wants to tell his strange story.

The man, a doctor, had recently moved his practice out of London and to a remote, quiet marshland town. But he soon discovers that there is an aura of pervasive and ominous threat about the place, and unspoken anxiety shared by all its inhabitants.

Talks with the local religious representatives give two sides of the same coin of barely buried rage and brutality, and a talk with a local archeologist has him feverishly positing buried evils and the ghosts of cavemen until a terrifying, overwhelming vision actually sends him back to London for treatment with a supposed theorist in the subject. And yet when our dissolute young chappie meets the psychotherapist the next day, he seems even more unbalanced and troubled than his patient It was total coincidence, but this is exactly the kind of thing I needed to read at exactly this moment.

The Nigel Kneale -predictive theorizing on time, history, and primitive man's consciousness is itself quite a creepy and great joy to read, but the story kicks up a notch with its late-in-the-game revelations of some illuminating details, and then again as we begin to question our "voice of sanity," who easily voices a currently prevalent feeling of hopelessness and fear at the loss of civilization in the face of rising atavism and the return of the presumed suppressed "worst urges.

And so I can't help feeling as if all three main characters are intended as somehow being both right and wrong in their chosen paths. A wonderful piece, and one I'd seriously love to run on Pseudopod. Sep 30, Tori rated it really liked it Shelves: thoughtful , i-own , short , thriller.

Quite an interesting book, and one that brings many thoughts to mind. Yes, a thoughtful book. Poorly named, by the way. The title makes it sound boring. It's not actually about The Croquet Player at all, he's just the one listening to a man's story. Basically, this Croquet Player finds a man who tells him about Cainsmarsh, a place where people seem to get infected by fear. He himself had gotten the bug, and tells of his journy in trying to figure out what it means.

If you want to know what it mean Quite an interesting book, and one that brings many thoughts to mind. If you want to know what it means: Gives away entire book view spoiler [In the end, it is shown that the man was in fact mad.

That his mind could not deal with the revelation that no matter what hights civilization comes to, we are all at heart beasts like our ape ancestors and that there is violence and pain everywhere that can never be got rid of. Now, I'm not an evolutionist, so that part was like "yeah, whatever" But from my Christian standpoint it still touched a chord somewhere, because it reminded me that no matter what society tries to do, we can't rise above the sin nature by ourselves.

Unfortunately the "by ourselves" part is the part not in the book. Anyway, enough rambling, you can read the book and make your own deductions from there. Not at all what you expect from Wells, so don't come to it expecting time machines and aliens, because you won't find them. For being a short little book, it's quite deep.

I see myself pondering it for a bit. Oct 06, Lucas Mattila rated it really liked it. An easy 4. The Croquet Player isn't a particularly well known novel by H.

Wells, but it's a damn good one. Originally published in , it expresses a lot of apocalyptic anxiety that still permeates into our culture s today: "We have been multiplying memories, histories, traditions, we have filled ourselves with forebodings and plannings and apprehensions. And so our worlds have become overwhelmingly vast for us, terrific, appalling. Things that have seemed forgotten for ever have suddenl An easy 4.

Things that have seemed forgotten for ever have suddenly come back into the very present of our consciousness" Wells' dark fantasy The Croquet Player is a shockingly meditative piece about the horrors facing not only the pre-WWll world of Wells' , but also what we are to make of madness yet to come.

What starts out as a somewhat genteel tale quickly spins into a disturbing examination of one person's struggle between what is real and what is insanity. The all consuming contagion here discussed is quite prophetic for our current times. Wells' story creeps along in an unsettling way, working its way in Wells' dark fantasy The Croquet Player is a shockingly meditative piece about the horrors facing not only the pre-WWll world of Wells' , but also what we are to make of madness yet to come.

Wells' story creeps along in an unsettling way, working its way into the shadowy, anxious places of the psyche. An excellent timeless work. It is a sort of ghost story they unfolded. But it is not an ordinary ghost story. It is much more realistic and haunting and disturbing than any ordinary ghost story.

There are no It is a sort of ghost story they unfolded. There are no horrible specters haunting our main characters, no otherworldly demons or goblins or any other tangible things which go bump in the night. The atmosphere in this Wells novel relies entirely on the infectious nature of fear. The croquet player, our narrator, is staying at Les Noupets evidently a health-spa area with springs for a "water cure and encounters a doctor who is in the area for a rest.

The doctor perceives our man to be a "reasonably balanced" and fairly unworried individual and begins to tell him of the source of his own distress--the countryside of Cairnmarsh.

He relates how he was slowly driven mad by the haunted nature of Cairnmarsh--how all of the inhabitants are fearful and seem almost possessed. He tells of a vicar driven to beat his wife and of the brutal treatment of a dog The haunting is very ambiguous some of the locals fear that it is the spirit of Cain--the father of all murderers--that is haunting them and causing them to behave so irrationally towards each other.

To mistrust and even hate one another. Others think that the ancient emotions and primitive drives of the Neanderthals such as belonged to the bodies recently dug up in the marsh are infecting those who live in the area. But the fear and irrational behavior is spreading beyond the marshlands The most compelling part of the "ghost story" is when the doctor is telling his tale.

Even though we know that there is no real ghost, we are sure that doctor really believes that something tangible is responsible for his fear and the irrational behavior of the inhabitants of Cairnmarsh. Wells's story really serves as an allegory for the fear and tensions that were building just before World War II.

Just as Cain was driven to kill his brother Abel; just as primitive man had to fight tooth and nail to survive--man's more primitive nature would be coming out in the conflict to come. Wells by H. Great book, The Croquet Player pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Hot Tono-Bungay a Novel by H. Hot Before You Break by K. Wells by K. Hot An Unlocked Heart by K.