The Rider On The White Horse

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

The Rider on the White Horse begins as a ghost story. A traveler finds himself caught in rough weather. On an island just offshore he glimpses the specter of a rider on a white horse rising and plunging in the wind and rain. Taking shelter at a local inn, the traveler mentions the apparition, and the local schoolmaster volunteers a story. It is a tale of ambition; of love and family; and of politics. It is a story, too, about the crisis of faith, of wanting and missing the presence of the divine, and of the persistence of superstition. It is an appealingly matter-of-fact picture of rural life, a harrowing glimpse of spiritual isolation, and a stark vision of the violence of the natural world. Finally, it is a story about the basis of civilization in the act of human sacrifice. Theodor Storm's novella is a gripping dramatization of the bloody reckonings that lie beneath the surface of civilization.

Reviews

A German literary landmark and remains one of the great ghost stories, never to be forgotten and never losing its ability to terrorise. Not because it is obviously creepy, but because its slow, subtle, nuanced telling lingers through a balanced mix of logic and the inevitable. There are many elements contributing to its atmospheric magic, not least the chill landscape, the North Sea coastline ever at the mercy of the waves... Storm's melancholy fiction exerts the haunting power of German romanticism as well as an understanding of the choices made and decisions lamented. Irish Times

Author Bio

Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (1817-1888) was born in Husum, Germany. He practiced law for most of his life, but also wrote numerous short stories, poems, and novellas. His two best-known works are the novellas Immensee and The Rider on the White Horse (also known as The Dykemaster). James Wright (1927-1980) was a translator and Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet.