The House of Gair Eric linklater

1954 1st American edition Harcourt brace

Stephen Coryat found himself one winter day near a ramshackle old house in the Scottish Highlands. Whe he sought shelter, the aged owner of the house, Hazeldon Crome, showed no eagerness to admit him until he discoverd that Coryat, like himself in a bygone era, was a writer. The old house was overheated, richly furnished, and decorated with an amazing number of masterpieces of art. The two men, waited on by a curiously beautiful red-haired girl, establish the beginnings of an uneasy friendship as Crome gradually divulges the true story behind his literary career and his remarkable art collection. Coryat returns to the House of Gair many times, until his visits begin to interfere with his own work. The inexpicable evil in Crome exercises an increasingly strange effect on Coryat, and the narrative becomes more intriguing until it reaches a powerful and unexpected conclusion. 251 pp.