Written by Mario Guslandi | 18 December 2011

Tartarus Press 2011: ISBN 978-1-905784-42-4

First appearing in 1951, We Are for the Dark is a collection of stories by Robert Aickman and Elizabeth Jane Howard, then colleagues and lovers. At the time of publication it was unclear whether the six included tales were the result of a collaborative work or, if not, who was the author of the individual stories.

As explained by RB Russell in his introduction to the newly reprinted volume, the two writers- also in view of their personal, intimate relationship- may have influenced each other’s work but each tale has a distinct and only author. Oddly enough, in most cases, the stories had been attributed to the wrong writer.

This is quite understandable; for instance, ‘Three Miles Up’ a spellbinding piece penned by Howard, is endowed with a substantial ‘Aickmanesque’ atmosphere. The story, taking place on the British canals so dear to Aickman, describes how a boating trip by two friends , later joined by a mysterious girl, turns into a nightmarish ride into nothingness after a wrong detour into an abandoned arm of the canal.

‘Perfect Love’ provides a striking contrast between Howard’s precise prose and the elusive mystery beyond the plot. A restless opera singer is continuously moving across Europe because she’s haunted by the presence of an invisible child. No explanation is ever offered about the child’s identity, so assumptions and hypotheses are left entirely to the reader.

‘Left Luggage’ is an enjoyable ghost story where a dressing case inherited from an uncle haunts his blameless nephew in the form of  appearing and disappearing female garments that belonged to the deceased’s former lover.

 The most known and acclaimed among Aickman’s three contributions is the deliciously dark and ambiguous ‘The Trains’, featuring two travelling young women seeking hospitality in a lonely house by a railway, full of disquieting secrets. As customary with Aickman, most of the mysteries remain puzzling and  unsolved.

By contrast, ‘The Insufficient Answer’, arguably one of Aickman’s less accomplished  tales, appears overlong and, in places, slightly boring. A journalist hunting down a British sculptress relocated in a gloomy castle in Slovenia gets trapped in a peculiar, disquieting household, including, possibly, the ghost of a young model. The enigma remains simply an irritant, probably because the characters, on the whole, are scarcely interesting.

‘The View’ is another inexplicable, but enticing tale depicting a long, yet fleeting love affair, taking place in a beautiful house on a remote island where the view from a window is constantly changing. The story possesses the quality and the inconsistencies of a dream and, as such, defies explanations but leaves behind a feeling of wonder and unease.

For those who love unnerving but elegant dark fiction but missed this book in the past, the present beautiful volume represents a splendid opportunity to get (re)acquainted with two masters of the genre.