‘It was there, beside the bed, a tall, shining cloud that was almost a woman. It moved. It had eyes — and I ran.’
Tramp Press is delighted to announce its latest title in the Recovered Voices series, The Uninvited, by Dorothy Macardle, to be launched at the Dublin Book Festival on 13 November 2015. This new edition features an introduction by Luke Gibbons.
In the summer of 1944, Eamon de Valera visited the Savoy cinema, Dublin, to catch a screening of The Uninvited directed by Lewis Allen, based on the novel by his close friend, Dorothy Macardle. The film, ‘quite possibly the movies’ best ghost story,’ did not impress the Taoiseach: ‘Typical Dorothy,’ was his cryptic response. The Irish Times was more positive in its review: ‘I doubt if even Hitchcock could have made a better job of it.’ And in 2009, Martin Scorsese included it on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.
The novel on which the film was based was first published by Dundalk-born Dorothy Macardle as Uneasy Freehold, then as The Uninvited in the US. In this strange suburban gothic tale, brother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald flee their busy London lives to move to the quiet and beautiful English coastline. They are drawn to the suspiciously inexpensive Cliff House, feared amongst locals as a place of disturbance and ill omen. Gradually, the Fitzgeralds learn of the mysterious deaths of Mary Meredith and another strange young woman. Together, they must unravel the mystery of this house of horrors – and keep Meredith’s surviving daughter as far from the Cliff House as they can, despite her wish to return again to the nursery where something waits to tuck her in at night …
Like an Irish Haunting of Hill House, The Uninvited has a peculiar preoccupation with mothers and the sanctity of the home, arguably Macardle’s comment on the dismay she felt over the 1937 constitution.
About the Recovered Voices series Tramp Press is committed to rescuing and recovering forgotten literature, and to re-engaging with those writers whose work is still valuable, relevant and brilliant. The Uninvited, a gothic ghost story by an exceptional Irish author, is the second in Tramp’s Recovered Voices series.
Luke Gibbons is Professor of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies at the School of English, Drama and Media Studies, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has published widely on Irish culture, film, literature, and the visual arts, as well as on aesthetics and politics.
Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958), an Irish writer, novelist, playwright, and historian, was born in Dundalk into a wealthy brewing family. A member of the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan, Macardle spent time imprisoned because of her activities during the Irish Civil War. She later wrote about those experiences in Earthbound: Nine Stories of Ireland (1924). One of her most famous books was The Irish Republic (1937), a narrative account of the Irish War of Independence and its aftermath. She died in Drogheda in 1958, critical of what she saw as the reduced status of women in the 1937 constitution of Ireland.
To be launched 13th November at the Dublin Book Festival.
ISBN: 978-0-9928170-7-7 Edition: paperback Price: €15 / £12 / $15.95
For media enquiries and advance review copies, contact: info@tramppress.com
Preorder here.