Tag: green tea and other weird stories

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Borrhomeo the Astrologer

This is a review of the short story Borrhomeo the Astrologer, written by Sheridan Le Fanu and published in his collection Green Tea and Other Weird Stories. Read my review of The Haunted House in Westminster, Green Tea, An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in an Old House in Aungier-Street, and The Watcher here, here, here, and here. Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer who wrote ghost stories in the 19th century. His most famous work is Carmilla, a vampire story that predates Dracula.

Borrhomeo is an astrologer and alchemist who lives in Milan during a plague in the 17th century. Seeking the elixir of life, he makes a deal with the devil and pays the price. Historical note: in the 17th century, astrologers and alchemists were viewed with suspicion by the Church. During bad times – and a plague qualifies – they were very often accused of witchcraft and/or being in league with Satan.

It does not seem that Le Fanu was particularly religious, so this does not feel like a morality tale. It reads more like a 19th century episode of Tales from the Crypt. Borrhomeo is promised an elixir granting him 1,000 years of life in exchange for spreading the plague to churches and other holy places. Seems like a fair bargain, right? Think again! Satan and his minions make sure that Borrhomeo is seen desecrating those holy places. He’s arrested, tortured, and given a detailed death sentence, hanging for one night and one day, followed by a three-day impalement, followed by burial.

Borrhomeo isn’t worried because he’s taken the elixir, which means they can’t kill him. That’s true, but the devil’s in the details. The elixir puts the aged alchemist into a comatose state, where he will spend those thousand years buried alive, paralyzed but able to hear and feel everything, suffocating forever. But don’t worry, kids! Borrhomeo doesn’t stay buried alive forever. After fourteen years, he’s dug up and thrown into a pit, which is then filled with rocks. The moral of the story is to not make deals with the devil.

This is a surprisingly lurid tale for its time period. It is also experimental, because Le Fanu switches from past to present tense to build suspense. Unfortunately the slush reader in me was too busy wondering if he did it on purpose to appreciate the craftsmanship. There is not a lot of psychological depth to this story, which is what Le Fanu is known for, but it is a worthwhile read nonetheless. It is interesting how the Devil tells Borrhomeo multiple times not to proceed, but that’s because Old Scratch knows his warnings will be ignored. Recommended for lovers of Gothic supernatural stories and weird fiction.

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The Watcher

This is a review of the short story The Watcher, written by Sheridan Le Fanu and published in his collection Green Tea and Other Weird Stories. Read my review of The Haunted House in Westminster, Green Tea, and An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in an Old House in Aungier-Street here, here, and here. Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer who wrote ghost stories in the 19th century. His most famous work is Carmilla, a vampire story that predates Dracula.

The Watcher takes place in Dublin in the 1790’s and features Sir James Barton, a retired navy captain. Barton settles in Dublin and begins collecting the accoutrements of a respectable life after years spent in the navy, even getting engaged to a woman half his age. The Captain is an atheist given to fits of melancholy and self-contemplation.

One night, walking down an empty stretch of street, Barton is trailed by ghostly footsteps. Soon he sees the source of those footsteps, a shrunken little man who seems to know him and sends him nasty letters. Eventually Barton falls into despair, because he thinks he’s being haunted by a demon. His social peers – it is implicit that Barton has no actual friends – think he’s suffering a nervous breakdown. They are correct. Barton becomes a recluse, hiding in a compound locked away from the outside world, and even that’s not enough to save him…

The Watcher is a portrait of guilt. It is also a study of the psychological effects of stalking, because someone or something is stalking Barton. Others see the shrunken little man, so he is real. Whether his tormentor is human or demonic doesn’t matter, because Barton comes to believe his tormentor is a demonic entity out to punish him for his sins.

Why? Well, the narrator mentions a disagreement involving a sailor’s daughter. The young woman dies, perhaps because of her father’s mistreatment, and an angry (jilted?) Barton has the sailor flogged mercilessly until he deserts and dies of his injuries. Unless the man doesn’t die. We do not know.

We do not even know if Barton did anything wrong. What’s important is that he believes he’s done something wrong. The fact that Barton is an atheist could mean he’s unprotected from evil spirits, but Le Fanu also wrote a story (Green Tea, here) where a Reverend Jennings is tormented by a ghostly monkey. If I was to play Devil’s advocate, I’d say that the demonic monkey could not harm Jennings physically, whereas Barton’s stalker was a more physical threat. It might also have something to do with the fact that Jennings does nothing to deserve what happens to him.

Le Fanu’s stories are more about the haunted than the hauntings. Focus past the wordiness, and you will be floored by the psychological realism, especially when it comes to issues like mental illness. Recommended for lovers of Victorian horror stories who like a bit of substance to their ghosts.

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Green Tea

 This is a review of the short story Green Tea, written by Sheridan Le Fanu and published in his collection Green Tea and Other Weird Stories. Read my review of The Haunted House in Westminster here. I’ve kicked off 2025 reviewing Victorian-era ghost and horror stories.

Green Tea is set in London, where Dr. Hesselius attempts to treat Reverend Jennings, who is being tormented by a demonic monkey. Jennings’ symptoms match OCD almost perfectly, upsetting visualizations, trouble performing normal, everyday tasks, and increasingly angry, abusive thoughts.

Dr. Hesselius recognizes Mr. Jennings’ symptoms at once, although the story is coy about whether he misinterprets the cause of his patient’s malady. I am not talking about the trigger, green tea (which the doctor identifies), but whether or not his tormentor is a hallucination or a demon from Hell. It might not matter: if symptoms are treated sometimes the sufferer will be able to deal with the cause, especially if we are talking about mental illness, which is what this story is really about.

Unfortunately, Mr. Jennings dies before the doctor can even begin treatment. Dr. Hesselius is M.I.A. when his patient needs him the most. This is not because of a plot-based emergency. The doctor simply leaves town for a day or so, and Jennings – who is in crisis – does away with himself. I am unsure why Dr. Hesselius, an intellectual prodigy, didn’t leave notice of where he’d be in case of an emergency, but since I am not myself an intellectual prodigy I’m sure I wouldn’t understand the answer.

Dr. Hesselius isn’t the type to blame himself – and I don’t know how much blame he deserves, since he was willing to treat Jennings – so he blames his patient, FOR NOT WANTING TO BE CURED. This is typical, especially when mental health is concerned. It also applies to medical professionals! Ever go to a doctor and realize you know more about the nature of your disease than your physician?

Green Tea is a longer story, and the language is a bit of a slog, but it’s worth the time and effort. I wouldn’t call this story scary. I think unnerving would be the better word, especially the idea of devils appearing as animals. The scariest thing is the indifference of the doctor to poor Mr. Jennings, who must suffer alone. Recommended for lovers of horror fiction/weird fiction.

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The Haunted House in Westminster

This is a review of the short story The Haunted House in Westminster, aka Mr. Justice Harbottle, written by Sheridan Le Fanu and published in his collection Green Tea and Other Weird Stories. I have been reading and reviewing ghost stories for the past three months, and this tale – which is set in Victorian era England – fits that mold.

The hero (?!?) of our story is Judge Harbottle, who is old, corrupt, and ridden with gout. He has just sentenced the husband (a Mr. Pyneweck) of his mistress/housemaid to death. Sounds like a Victorian melodrama, right? Well, not exactly. The author does not explicitly say whether Pyneweck is innocent or guilty. Pyneweck’s wife shrugs off her husband’s death. Le Fanu tells us mourning is not in her nature, which he describes as coarse and unrefined. Whatever the reason, there are very few tears shed for the condemned man.

Pyneweck is important because he symbolizes the judge’s corruption, and is sentenced to death because Harbottle decides he must die. So was Pyneweck innocent? I suppose it doesn’t matter, and neither do the finer details of his character. But to me he morphs into something sinister, becoming the agent of the judge’s presumably supernatural downfall.

The story begins with the judge meeting a strange old man, who might be Pyneweck in disguise. The problem with this theory is that Pyneweck is in jail. A brother is mentioned. After Pyneweck is hanged, the judge falls asleep in his carriage and has a vivid dream/hallucination where he is tried by the Kingdom of Life and Death and found guilty.

Since the judge loves to indulge in vice, maybe it’s a hallucination brought on by overindulgence. This is possible, but later in the story everyone in the Judge’s household sees the ghosts. If that’s what they are. These apparitions seem solid for ghosts, but they appear and reappear like phantoms. I’d make more of this, except the frame story explicitly tells us that they are supernatural creatures.

Judge Harbottle is a nasty character, who in his youth fought his fair share of duels and never backed away from a fight. Of course, those days are long gone. Nowadays the Judge does most of his fighting on the bench, where he browbeats juries into giving whatever verdict he sees fit. In short, he’s an unlikable s.o.b. Nobody in this story is very likable.

Le Fanu, though, is likable! This is my first time reading him, and I enjoyed the story. He is famous as the author of Carmilla, a vampire story predating the more famous Dracula. Recommended for lovers of Victorian ghost stories.