The Beckoning Fair One (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Oliver Onions
- First Published: 1911
- Type of Plot: Horror
- Time of Work: The early twentieth century
- Setting: London
- Principal Characters: Paul Oleron, Elsie Bengough
- Genres: Short fiction, Horror literature
- Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Murder or homicide, Psychology or psychologists, Ghosts or apparitions, Mental illness, Novelists, Vampires
- Locales: London, England
The Story
In “The Beckoning Fair One,” Paul Oleron, a novelist who has not catered to popular taste, becomes fascinated with the spirit that he detects occupying his apartment. He believes that the beckoning fair one is the spirit of a woman, and he tries to court her; the spirit appears, instead, to take possession of him and to drain him of his energy and his will. Under the influence of that spirit, he apparently murders the woman who loves him and nearly starves himself to death.
The process of Oleron's decline begins when he is attracted to an old, decaying...
[The entire page is 1604 words long]
