What do you think?
Rate this book
Mystic Voices
'It is a strange experience. I don't know that I envy you your curious faculty.' This statement is addressed to Fr Philip Rivers Pater, the squire-priest who is at the heart of the stories in MYSTIC VOICES. The 'strange faculty' is what Fr Philip refers to as 'clair-audience': he can hear voices from the unconscious or subconscious, and occasionally from the dead - voices which can warn of events which have, or are about to happen. Sometimes the voice announces a recent or forthcoming death; in other cases, it seeks to rectify, or explain, actions which took place years - or even centuries - before. In all the cases which come before him, the wise and humane priest strives to do his best to comfort the living - and the dead.
In creating Fr Philip, Roger Pater - the pen name of Dom Roger Hudleston, a member of the Order of St Benedict - undoubtedly drew on himself, investing his character with the religious convictions and questions which formed a part of his own life and experiences. In a companion work, MY COUSIN PHILIP, Pater created a complete 'biography' of his fictional creation, and a chapter of that work, which presents the author's theories on clair-audience and also expands on the stories contained in MYSTIC VOICES, has been included in this volume. Editor David Rowlands discusses the collection and its place in the ghost story world, and also provides a valuable synopsis of MY COUSIN PHILIP, while a contemporary obituary of Dom Roger paints a fond portrait of a man who was as esteemed in reality as his creation was in fiction.
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
188 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1923
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Roger Pater
14 books"Roger Pater" was the literary pseudonym of Dom Gilbert Roger Hudleston, OSB (1874 - 1936).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 9, 2021
This collection of interlinked short stories was actually written by Dom Roger Huddleston (1874-1936), a monk of the Roman Catholic Downside Abbey in Somerset.
Huddleston had a varied career having initially trained as a lawyer, then being received into the Catholic Church and receiving his first communion from pope Leo XIII no less. He eventually joined the Benedictines, served as a parish priest and then enlisted as an army chaplain in 1918 at the end of the First World War. He later retreated to Downside where he wrote and edited a number of books and articles, mainly editions of religious and mystical works. He apparently wrote Mystic Voices during an illness in 1913, but it was not published until 1923. The author claimed that two of the tales were based on his own genuine experiences (‘The Warnings’ and ‘The Persecution Chalice’) and another two on experiences of a friend. The book met with some success and it was followed up by a novel, My Cousin Philip, which was a fictional biography of the squire-priest Philip Rivers who is also the protagonist in Mystic Voices.
This book’s framing narrative is that Roger Pater, a journalist and the supposed writer of the narrative, goes to live with his elderly cousin Philip Rivers, a landowner and Catholic priest. During their time together Rivers tells his cousin a series of anecdotes about various supernatural experiences he has had over his long life.
These stories are supernatural in the widest sense - only one or two can actually be described as ghost stories, but there are tales of visions, miraculous healings and other mystical phenomena, all with a religious (and specifically Catholic) message.
Overall I found it a mildly interesting read but it it not at all scary, so horror aficionados may not find it to their taste. It is very reminiscent of Robert Hugh Benson (think ‘The Light Invisible’ and ‘A Mirror of Shallott’), so it may be one to check out if you like to take your supernatural tales with a large dose of theology.
Huddleston had a varied career having initially trained as a lawyer, then being received into the Catholic Church and receiving his first communion from pope Leo XIII no less. He eventually joined the Benedictines, served as a parish priest and then enlisted as an army chaplain in 1918 at the end of the First World War. He later retreated to Downside where he wrote and edited a number of books and articles, mainly editions of religious and mystical works. He apparently wrote Mystic Voices during an illness in 1913, but it was not published until 1923. The author claimed that two of the tales were based on his own genuine experiences (‘The Warnings’ and ‘The Persecution Chalice’) and another two on experiences of a friend. The book met with some success and it was followed up by a novel, My Cousin Philip, which was a fictional biography of the squire-priest Philip Rivers who is also the protagonist in Mystic Voices.
This book’s framing narrative is that Roger Pater, a journalist and the supposed writer of the narrative, goes to live with his elderly cousin Philip Rivers, a landowner and Catholic priest. During their time together Rivers tells his cousin a series of anecdotes about various supernatural experiences he has had over his long life.
These stories are supernatural in the widest sense - only one or two can actually be described as ghost stories, but there are tales of visions, miraculous healings and other mystical phenomena, all with a religious (and specifically Catholic) message.
Overall I found it a mildly interesting read but it it not at all scary, so horror aficionados may not find it to their taste. It is very reminiscent of Robert Hugh Benson (think ‘The Light Invisible’ and ‘A Mirror of Shallott’), so it may be one to check out if you like to take your supernatural tales with a large dose of theology.
Displaying 1 of 1 review