The librarians’ favourite season has come around again – Halloween! This year we have focused on depictions of the devil in our collection, in honour of Devil’s Night, or All Hallows’ Eve (Oct. 30). Each of our three librarians have picked a book (based on the title) from our rare book collection to highlight.
Devil’s Chain: Twenty-Sixth Thousand, Jenkins, Edward (London: William Miller & son, 1877)1
When I saw the cover of this fiction book, I was excited to see what the story was about. The book starts off strong with the body of a woman falling out of a window. From there, it branches off into the stories of different people who at the end have some sort of connection with the woman who fell. I soon realized that the biggest theme running throughout this book was the dangers of alcohol.
While a moral story about excessive drinking is not what I was expecting, the author has some interesting turns of phrase when describing people who have succumbed to alcohol. He describes the desire for alcohol as “a hot, relentless demon of thirst” (pg. 50). There is one character who does not partake in alcohol and tries to drag her brother back from temptation: “She wrestled strongly with the devil for this loved soul, but it seemed to be in vain” (pg. 91).
My favourite part of the book is when the story evolves into a song:
Demon – Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Away ye go!
Chorus – Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Away we go!
Demon – Scour the homes and haunts of men,
Thronged city and dotted plain,
Over the mountain, down the glen,
Scour the land and scour the main,
And gather links for the Devil’s Chain
Chorus – Drink, drink!
Drain, drain!
Another link
For the Devil’s Chain!
Demon – For the Devil a wonderous chain shall wear,
Of twisted bodies strong and fair,
Arm to leg and leg to arm,
Linked together quick and warm,
Of bad and good, of high and low:
A chain for his Majesty down below:
Long, unending,
Ever descending,
Out of the light
Into the Night!2
The Bottomless Pit: A Discursive Treatise on Eternal Torment, Ross, William Stewart (London: W. Stewart, [189-])
When I searched the Great Library catalogue for books on devils and demons for this year’s Halloween blog post, I was most intrigued by the title, The Bottomless Pit: A Discursive Treatise on Eternal Torment. What could it be?! The record classifies it under the subject headings of Future punishment — Controversial literature, Hell — Controversial literature, and Devil — Controversial literature – how thrilling! I thought. And I hoped there would be some cool images, like in Devil’s Chain.
Upon investigation, I was both delighted and disappointed by what I found: no grisly images of any pits, bottomless or otherwise, nor of an illustrator’s interpretation of eternal torment. I did find a much longer and better supported version of a paper I coincidentally wrote in high school, on how the existence of a hell flies in the face of the idea of Jesus’ death having atoned for all humanity’s sins. Turns out this young writer’s tentative few paragraphs have nothing on W. Stewart Ross’ 225 page anti-Catholic tome. It’s arguably over-emphatic, but nevertheless a persuasive condemnation of the fire-and-brimstone religious education that dominated the time and place of its publication. Recommended if you share my curiosity about theological hypocrisy.
An ode to Devil’s Night, or Mischief Night (depending on where you live), this succinct text on demonology written by British ecclesiologist and historian James Wall (1860-1943), presents a myriad of wickedly infernal topics on the origin and histories of devils, the geography of hell, depictions in art and the ultimate culmination: a study of the theory and practice of exorcism.
Containing over fifty eerie illustrations and photographs, this concise treatise will surely command your imagination as you glance up at the dark spaces around you…
Of course, we hope that the only devils you see this year are cute revellers dressed up as one. Happy Halloween everyone!
- A different version of the book is available digitally on Google Books ↩︎
- For the full song, see pgs. 196-202 in the digital version. ↩︎
- Full text is also available through the Internet Archive. ↩︎
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