"The Bell in the Fog" by Gertrude Atherton
Perhaps the best-known of Atherton's supernaturalist tales, "The Bell in the Fog" remains underappreciated and under-read, for it is in many ways a touchstone work in the supernaturalist tradition, embodying many of the important developments in that tradition which began to emerge in the early years of the twentieth century, which saw the increasing cultural impact of Freud (and his interpreters, disciples, and respondents) as well as of the woman's suffrage movement. "Bell" reflects both of these major cultural currents.
As Alfred Bendixen noted in his introduction to "Bell" (in his excellent anthology Haunted Women: The Best Supernaturalist Tales by American Women Writers [New York: Frederick Ungar, 1985]) 
, Atherton's story is partly a tribute to Henry James, and partly "an intense questioning of both James's values and of a literary tradition dominated by men" (205). From the aptly named Chillingsworth mansion to the portrait of the adult Lady Blanche Mortlake hidden behind her childhood likeness (and revealed by a child who may be the reincarnation of Lady Blanche), "Bell" incisively comments on the limitations of male emotional capacity and understanding, on a masculinized cultural tradition, on patriarchy and its limiting constructions of gender, male possession, issues of class and gender -- it's a rich story indeed, told in a style that deliberately reflects James's interest in the psychological as well as some of his stylistic habits. It's an important work deserving of a wider audience and more critical study.
Some elements of this tale are present in Atherton's virtually unknown novella "The Christmas Witch,"
published in the January 1893 issue of Godey's Magazine (some twelve years prior to the
publication of "Bell"). This tale examines both the reincarnation element and the doting male/eldritch
young girl dynamic from a female perspective -- that of the young girl herself, and inverts or mirrors
both these and other aspects of "Bell." Much more "Gothic," at least in its first half, than "Bell," "A
Christmas Witch" is an invaluable counterpart to "The Bell in the Fog."
- to "The Bell in the Fog"
- to Gertrude Atherton page
"Discussion of 'The Bell in the Fog' by Gertrude Atherton."
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