Reviews for The Silent House

The average rating for The Silent House based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-08 00:00:00 Gary J. Samoil The review from afar - No. 7 Revised forward to these overseas reviews: Since I am cycling back-and-forth from the US to Asia like a piece of string in search of a yo-yo, I have forgone the usual joy of slugging 8-12 paperbacks along with me and taken a previously unused Kindle 3G along instead. It is to the fine folks at Project Gutenberg that I tip my hat: virtually every title I have or will be reading comes from their worthwhile endeavors (or endeavours, when in a former British colony.) The Enchanted Type-Writer is a series of tales (short stories really) that use the same framing mechanism: the current owner of an enchanted typewriter can communicate with the spirits of the dead. Well, it's a little more colorful than that. The shades are from Hades and they can hear the owner speaking so they can reply - but only by typing out messages on the self-same machine. Hades as revealed to us is a very busy place with a ruler, governmental and civic goings-on, and a lot of dead who are in need of "harmless diversion". The person who first comes to use the typewriter and does so most commonly is James Boswell who has become an editor at a hellacious newspaper. He relates several tales about the troubles in Hades and together with the owner concocts activities to occupy the dead and earn a little copra. The author, John Kendrick Bangs wrote these tales after the two house-boat novels, but continues in his use of famous dead people (real and fictional) to populate his story. The typewriter's owner is an exception, since he is still in the land of the living he is a character created by Bangs (as are his neighbors, friends, and associates.) While not as action-oriented as The Pursuit of the House-Boat, this is another imaginative collection of characters and stories. (I don't really need to point out that all of the Hades-related material is Bang's own creation, do I? He's not really communing with the dead.) It seems that he was able to make a decent career out of employing the dead. A Solid Three (3.0) Stars. You can get this book for free from Project Gutenberg.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-04-02 00:00:00 Shriley Brimingham Of writers, copyright and a special typewriter. Told by a mortal friend of Jim Boswell. Includes the latest news on the political situation in Hades; a preview of Mr. Munchausen's Further Recollections; an scary chat with the oldest New Woman and the consequences of letting her at publishing a newspaper; the newest fads of the shades - earthly Boswell tours and golf; a review of the latest hand-book to Hades; the lawsuit over a hell dog (or three); and two post-mortem cases of Sherlock Holmes (who at the time of the original publication of this collection had last been seen thrown off to death of a waterfall by a fed-up author). Readers be warned: it is entirely possible that the entire Associated Shades series are just Holmes' drug-induced dreams.