White's principal subjects [in The Maharajah and Other Stories] are deformity and aberration—both physical and psychological—and the everpresent tension between the rational world with its prescribed forms and the world of elemental passions. The dilemma of a physician who is caught in this tension is skillfully portrayed in "The Maharajah." "A Sharp Attack of Something or Other" recalls the best tales of Saki in its wit and in its faintly sinister atmosphere. "Soft Voices at Passenham" is a delicately drawn but nonetheless affecting ghost story.
But at least half of the stories are not up to his standard, principally because of a failure of technique. Often White sets up an elaborate structure with no pay-off and his textures sometimes overwhelm the narrative. In "The Man" White writes of an adolescent boy, "Nearly all the things which he felt seemed to be wrong, according to the people who surrounded him," but there is no follow-through on this perception. "The Black Rabbit" sets up a mysterious tutorial relationship between a boy and a gamekeeper, but the boy's questions about animals' pain are deflected in a singularly unsatisfactory way. "The Troll" promises delightful horrors, but the quite literal deus ex machina which White resorts to at the end is typical of the wrenching reversals which too frequently destroy his otherwise solid narratives.
This is a free excerpt of 218 words. There are 275 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our White, T(erence) H(anbury) 1906–1964: Critical Essay by Frank Kelly Access Pass.
