Safe Return Doubtful

This is a fascinating little book that takes place very close to where I would call ‘home turf’. The Ravensworth of 1808 is the now forestless moors of Crosby Ravensworth, in the Eden valley, and stood over, by Ravensworth Fell, all of which are referred to in the text, a fell and its bleak moorland which I’ve been roaming on for many years.

Astonishingly for its era, it’s something of a moral fable, concerning a misogynistic aristocratic Baron who will stop at nothing to get his way, and his comeuppance at the hands of a seemingly hideous old woman, known as ‘the Hag’.

Baron de La Braunch is married at the start of the story, to a woman who has an infant child, from her now deceased previous husband, Edward of Martindale. At the wedding feast, the old woman mysteriously appears in a vacant seat and curses the bride. Eventually, the Baron and his wife have their own child, but the Baron tires of his wife, and has eyes on a comely and very tall young woman who is his neighbour.
The Baron recalls the curse, and seeks the counsel of the Hag at her tumbledown shack on the fell. They agree to a dark pact; in exchange for the boy, she will help him dispose of his wife.

In the character of the Hag the real entertainment of the story lies. She is proud and open about her diabolical ways, and as the novel proceeds, offers him his every wish.

The writing has a gothic feel to it, with a sinister and macabre atmosphere that one associates with the best horror writing. The twist at the end may leave many readers unsatisfied, and in a way is the only aspect of the book that dates it.
Brewer is really good on the era as well, and injects his own occasional piece of dark humour which goes down well.

As with this neglected novel, which has been rediscovered by the wonderful team at Valancourt, not much is know of Brewer himself, his Wikipedia entry does not even know the year of his death. He was a naval man, from Westmorland as might be gathered from the piece, who wrote some non-fiction after his service, and the occasional bit of fiction, which was chiefly comedy.
Hearsay suggests that this book, originally a two part piece for European Magazine, was heavily based on local legend.
Something I’m very keen to investigate more around the area..

My GoodReads score 4 / 5