Mon 26 Oct 2015
JEAN RAY – Malpertuis. Les Auteurs Associés, Bruxelles, 1943. Atlas Press Edition, 1998, translated by Iain White. Reprinted many times in French. Film: Malpertuis. Belgium, 1971; released in the US as The Legend of Doom House; directed by Harry Kümel, and starring Orson Welles, Susan Hampshire and Mathieu Carrière.
This may be the high point of my Halloween reading this year, an intelligent, compassionate and eminently creepy book of highly unusual character.
Malertuis (the title translates to “House of the Fox,†“House of Evil,†or “House of the Devilâ€; you pays your money and you takes your choice.) starts off in the classic mode with the story set in a narrative framework, introduced by a professional burglar:
… who looted a monastery and found among the pricey relics a bunch of papers which he has correlated into the story we are about to read, as told by different players in the drama at different times.
We start off with a quick snippet of pirates on a dicey mission at the far corners of the known world — the sort of thing Jack Sparrow might get into — then shift to who-knows-how-many years later, in an unnamed French city where the son of a pirate captain, a young man named Jean-Jacques, is summoned to Malpertuis, the home of his dying uncle, along with the rest of his relatives, to hear the particulars of his uncle’s will.
This has been used as the set-up for countless Old Dark House thrillers, as has the ensuing codicil, which specifies that the claimants must reside in the house to inherit its fabulous wealth; one can almost see the grasping nebbishes being picked off one by one by some hooded phantom, or perhaps a killer ape; one never knows.
This, however, is no ordinary assortment of relatives and Malpertuis proves to be a much different sort of abode than one might expect, even in a horror novel, as Jean-Jacques interacts with his sister, his aunts, and a beautiful cousin who loves him possessively but will never look at him. There are also miscellaneous hangers-on: a madman who haunts the halls crying for light, and unseen spirit that blows out candles as it moves through the house:
… and assorted lovers who come to grisly ends, and then are never spoken of.
Author Ray moves his tale gracefully from the monstrous to the metaphysical as Jean-Jacques seeks spiritual rescue from the forces that impute his fall to from grace, but this is no mere battle against the powers of Darkness; Ray uses the horror novel as a means of examining the very nature of theology and man’s relationship to whatever gods may be. And he does it with suspense, beauty and a hugely satisfying conclusion.
October 27th, 2015 at 8:25 am
Ray was one of the pen names used by the Belgian author Raymundus Johannes de Kremer (1887-1964). MALPERTUIS appears to be his only novel to be translated to English. Three collections of his fantasy/horror stories have also appeared in English: GHOULS IN MY GRAVE (Berkley, 1965), MY OWN PRIVATE SPECTRES (Midnight House, 1999), and THE HORRIFYING PRESENCE AND OTHER TALES (Ex Occidente, 2009). A number of his stories appeared in the old WEIRD TALES.
October 27th, 2015 at 8:36 am
Thanks for all the information, Jerry. I didn’t recognize Ray’s name at all.
October 27th, 2015 at 10:24 am
I’ve seen the movie version of this and always wanted to find a copy of the book. Sounds so much richer and deeper than the movie. As adapted by Harry Kümel MALPERTUIS is still a fascinating and strange movie that has an equally strange history. Orson Welles had a leading role in one of his last feature films as an actor. The backstage stories are truly bizarre. He seemed to think he was directing the movie himself according to director Harry Kümel and they let him indulge himself. He would break character in some scenes or forget his lines and then call “Cut!” himself. Hysterical! The DVD that I got a hold of a has all sorts of fascinating interviews with Susan Hampshire who played multiple roles (nearly all the female characters!) and Kümel and outtakes where you can see what Welles got up to. If you manage to find the DVD (it’s a scarce one, but still offered for rental via Netflix) you’ll discover it has two discs. Make sure you watch the European version with English subtitles (Disc 1) and avoid at all costs the hacked US dubbed version.
October 27th, 2015 at 10:34 am
“The title translates to ‘House of the Fox,’ ‘House of Evil,’ or ‘House of the Devil'”
Actually, if you break it down to “mal per tuis,” it is the French for “bad for you.”
October 27th, 2015 at 11:21 am
To belabor the point:
“House of the Fox” would be in French “Maison du renard.” “House of Evil” would be “Maison du mal.” “House of the Devil” would be “Maison du diable.”
October 27th, 2015 at 2:25 pm
Jean Ray’s real name was Raymundus Johannes de Kremer and as it suggests he was a Fleming who also wrote in Dutch and German. “Huis” means “house” in Dutch/Flemish, so Malpertuis may be a pun in that language. My own guess is that the unnamed city isn’t French but Belgian and probably – like most strange fictional Belgian cities – inspired by Bruges.
October 27th, 2015 at 2:39 pm
I think Dan means the translated English titles were adapted to reflect the legend of Maupertuis which is the French name of the maze-like fortress where Reynard, the fox of French fairy tales and medieval legends, lived. The title of the book seems to be a melding of the English name Maleperduis and the French Maupertuis.
October 27th, 2015 at 2:53 pm
This is Ray’s masterpiece and in Europe he is considered in the Poe class. He is also the author of the popular Harry Dickson (the American Sherlock Holmes) pulp like adventures popular in Europe (some available here from Black Coats Press).
There is some question if Ray wrote all the Dickson material, but he did write critically acclaimed weird fiction and has a reputation in Europe despite being obscure here.
You can watch Malpertius on YouTube broken into multiple segments if you want to sample before renting or buying.
The Dickson books have their own fans including writers and directors Jean Rollin and Alain Robbe- Grillett and Spanish director Jesus Franco.
October 27th, 2015 at 5:09 pm
The 3-sided definition of “Malpertuis” is from the book itself,so if it’s confusing or just plain wrong, blame Ray, not your humble reviewer.
October 27th, 2015 at 6:05 pm
About Harry Dickson: According to Wikipedia, de Kremer was hired to translate the novels from the German for his Amsterdam publisher. He found the books trite and banal so he offered to rewrite the books completely. The publisher agreed as long as de Kremer kept to the original word count and allowed each book to tie in with its original cover. I think it’s safe to say that any positive critical reception garnered by Harry Dickson is due in a major portion to de Kremer.
October 31st, 2015 at 11:31 am
Great review of a great book by a great writer. Jean Ray is a cult figure here in Europe, most particularly in Belgium and in France. MALPERTUIS is his most famous work but he also wrote another novel, LA CITE DE L’INDICIBLE PEUR (City of Unspeakable Fear) which may be seen as his attempt to a traditional (by his standards) mystery. The book was very loosely adapted for the screen as LA GRANDE FROUSSE (Big Fright) by maverick French director Jean-Pierre Mocky. I saw the film but couldn’t make it to the end despite loving the book – Ray’s never been lucky with film adaptations.