The Man in the Picture (Hardcover)

by Susan Hill (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Hill (The Woman in Black) crafts an old-school spooker in this atmospheric tale of a sinister painting imbued with the vengeful spirit of a former owner. The painting, owned by retired Cambridge don Theo Parmitter, catches the eye of a visiting former student who's intrigued by its depiction of an 18th-century Venetian carnival scene and a figure in the foreground who looks anachronistically modern. The student's questions extract from Theo the strange story of how he won it at auction and the even stranger tale of the bidder he beat: the elderly Lady Hawdon, who claims that the man in the picture is her husband, imprisoned in the painting through the designs of a jilted lover who gave it to them as a wedding present. Hill manipulates the gothic darkness of her story with great dexterity and subtlety, faltering only at its awkwardly executed finish. Regardless, her tale is a commendable exercise in the tradition of the antiquarian ghost story. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
Watch the YouTube video trailer. A mysterious depiction of masked revellers at the Venice carnival hangs in the college rooms of Oliver's old professor in Cambridge. On this cold winter's night, its eerie secret is revealed by the ageing don. The dark art of the Venetian scene, instead of imitating life, has the power to entrap it. To stare into the painting is to play dangerously with the unseen demons it hides, and become the victim of its macabre beauty.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 145 pages
• Publisher: Profile Books(GB) (December 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846680751
• ISBN-13: 978-1846680755
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #958,957 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ghost story of an antiquary, October 16, 2008

By	Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Man in the Picture (Hardcover)

Susan Hill's latest novella recalls the famous Edwardian ghost stories of M. R. James and the Benson brothers as much as her famous previous short novel THE WOMAN IN BLACK recalled the Victorian ghost stories of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Henry James and John Meade Falkner. We have here many of the more familiar tropes of M. R. James's ghost stories--tales within tales, multiple narrators, bachelor antiquarians in rooms at Oxbridge, and a woman possessed by a burning revenge--and in terms of atmosphere Hill is pretty faultless. But the novella leaves too much unclear in its telling. Although you want a certain amount of mystery preserved at the end of a ghost story, there's just too much muddled at the end of this to really get the effects Hill strives for--so while most of the story is quite a page turner, the final narrative section leaves you a bit unsatisfied.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric But Lacking Suspense, October 27, 2008

By	D. A Wend (Buffalo Grove, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Man in the Picture (Hardcover)

The Man in the Picture reminds me of other English ghost stories by Charles Dickens, M. R. James and L. P. Hartley, for example. The story revolves around a painting of a Venetian carnival scene from the 18th century. The painting has a strange power over those who own it - it possesses them. The story of the painting is related by an elder Cambridge professor Theo Parmitter to one of his former students named Oliver. Gradually, a story of betrayal and revenge unfolds to which Oliver is a simple witness, or is he.

Susan Hill writes very well but I found the story did not build in suspense and lacked the creepiness of a good story of M.R. James. The central figure behind the "curse" of the painting did not quite come to life for me. I did enjoy how the story unfolded with Dr. Parmitter, in his very comfortable rooms at Cambridge, relating his experiences with the painting. The overall story reminded me of something that might have been written for the "Night Gallery" television series that Rod Serling hosted. It is well written but the story is somewhat predictable and lacking in surprise.

4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling..., May 17, 2009

By	Shikhar Dixit (NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Man in the Picture (Hardcover)

Though not as outright frightening as WOMAN IN BLACK, still effective and highly literate. Once again, Hill chooses the short novel to tell this ghost story, which is reminiscent of such masters as Poe and Lovecraft.The Man in the Picture