1) "What Was it?" (pdf) (html) (Google Books)

Despite being described variously as "a lion of literary New York", "a Poe in the minor mode", and "the writer who to the weird and supernatural gave a setting definitely localized in time and place",¹ Fitz-James O'Brien's name seems scarcely recognised in the province of his birth. I know because I have (over the last few days) asked around and been met with nothing but blank looks. Not the most rigorous approach to research I'll grant you, but it does hint at a certain obscurity.

The facts of his short life are rather hard to discern (he himself was, apparently, a great embellisher of his own legend) but here's a brief chronology that I managed to glean from online sources.

Born in Cork (1828); moved to Castleconnell (Co. Limerick) in his teens (after the death of his father and his mother's subsequent remarriage); splashed about in the waters of the Shannon for a bit; took off up to TCD to study something or other; headed to London and blew an inheritance of £8,000 (no mean feat in the mid 19th century); was either embroiled in a scandal or suffered a broken heart; set sail for America; started writing more earnestly and became a member of the New York literati; fought in the American civil war; was wounded in a skirmish; lingered on for a while; died – aged 34. The end.

Three years prior to his untimely death he was kind enough to pen "What Was it?"² – the tale that is to be the focus of the Dreadful Thoughts Story Club's inaugural discussion:

Though I won't say much more about it here (as this is, after all, a place for conversation, not oration), a few brief observations might help to get our juices (or fluids) flowing (*spoilers follow*).

1) According to several sources the story was pioneering in its use of invisibility. Alan Gullette has this to say:

"What Was It? A Mystery" (March, 1859) caused a minor sensation, being one of the first to deal with an invisible creature. (It predated Maupassant's "The Horla," and while it is not known to have been translated, it is still possible the French short story master heard about the earlier tale. On the other hand, it is fairly certain that Ambrose Bierce was familiar with the story when he wrote "The Damned Thing.").

While the grand-daddy of the modern invisibility narrative seems to be James Dalton's (cautionary) The Invisible Gentleman (1833), the (supposed) originality of FJoB's story appears to lie in its use of a non-human entity.

2) The grounding of the "supernatural" (if you can call it that) in the physical – the creature sleeps, wants for food, is clearly mortal etc. – makes the story feel (to me at least) far more contemporary than it actually is.

3) While the creature is clearly aggressive and hostile, its motivations are never discussed or contextualised. It simply appears, horrifies all present, and then departs (in this case, by slowly dying). In this I'm reminded somewhat of M.R. James (of whom we'll be hearing much more I'm sure). He was a great man for "demonic" entities who, far from revelling in their malevolence, seem wretched and tormented by their diabolical natures. A slightly similar feel is present in "What Was it?" – although the tragic aspects of the unseen monster are much more to the fore.

Anyway, enough of my yappin'. Over to you folks.

"What was it?" – discuss.

1. Wolfe, Francis, "Fitz-James O'Brien in Ireland and England, 1828-1851″, in American Literature, Vol. 14, No. 3. (Nov., 1942), pg. 234. [back]
2. Harper's. March, 1859. [back]