in “The Shunned House,” still a rental property on
Benefit Street, although none of its recent resi-
dents have ever experienced the horrible effects
described in this story, one of the best of his non-
Cthulhu Mythos tales. Although the narrator and
his uncle eventually play a part in the resolution of
the mystery, the first half is essentially a fictional
history of the house, built in the 18th century on a
plot of land that was formerly used as a graveyard.
Its original owners and their servants all suffered
from some form of debilitating ailment, anemia,
fevers, and such. All the children died young or
were stillborn, their mother succumbed to insanity,
and the other adults were similarly affected in
some fashion.
The house quickly acquired a reputation of
being unhealthy, although nothing specific was
ever found except a faint, unpleasant smell and a
tendency for fungus to grow in the raised cellar.
There were no sightings of ghosts or other appari-
tions, but rumors spread anyway that it was a bad
place. When the original family had all died or
moved on, it experienced a short, unhappy period
as a rental property before falling completely va-
cant and slowly subsiding into decay.
The narrator noticed much of this as a young
boy growing up nearby, but it was not until he was
an adult that his uncle, a physician, confided in
him the results of his detailed study of the house
and his conclusion that it was the focus for some
influence beyond the knowledge of science. There
are indications of a kind of vampirism—the ane-
mia, certain wounds on the throat, and other fac-
tors—but clearly this was not a traditional case.
Rather, as we discover, an ancient evil being has
been buried under the property, and its lingering
influence seeps up through the ground to affect the
minds and bodies of those in close proximity. Their
initial effort to neutralize this influence has disas-
trous consequences, and the uncle dies. The narra-
tor perseveres, digging down to the remains and
then destroying them with carbolic acid.
The story takes place with no dialogue and
minimal characterization, a technique at which
Lovecraft excelled, presenting the story as though
it were a contemporary account rather than a
piece of fiction. The details he provides about the
history of the building and the individuals who
lived in it are elaborate and credible, leaving the
reader with the impression that while the events in
the story might not have actually happened, they
certainly could have.Shwartz, Susan M.(1949– )
Although some of Susan Shwartz’s short fiction
from the 1980s is fantasy, it was with the Heirs of
Byzantium series that she first attracted serious at-
tention in that field. Like most of her fantasy, the
series is strongly enhanced by her background in
historical studies. The sequence opened with
Byzantium’s Crown(1987), set in an alternate his-
tory in which the capital of the Roman Empire has
been moved to Byzantium and in which magic still
works, although it is already decidedly in decline
by the end of the series. The story in the opening
volume and the immediate sequel, The Woman of
Flowers (1987), chiefly involves the difficulties
caused for the rightful heirs following the usurpa-
tion of the throne. In Queensblade(1988) the role
of magic is examined in more depth, and the world
is changed forever in Silk Roads and Shadows
(1988). Although the surface story is a familiar
one, Shwartz enriches her world with such con-
vincing background material that it seems fresh
and new.
Her next fantasy novel was Imperial Lady
(1989), an Asian fantasy written with Andre NOR-
TON. They collaborated again on Empire of the
Eagle(1993), a very fine historical fantasy in which
a Roman legion wanders into unknown territory
and interacts with strange foreign cultures. Al-
though only marginally fantasy, it is a very moving
and, as always, well-researched story. The Grail of
Hearts(1992) is the best of her fantasy novels, a
reexamination of the story of Sir Parsifal from the
legend of King Arthur. Shwartz has a genuinely
original concept of the story and surpasses almost
every other Arthurian writer in making that period
seem historically accurate.
Shwartz’s most recent novels of interest are
the two volumes of the Constantinople duo con-
sisting of Shards of Empire(1996) and Cross and
Crescent(1997). As Constantinople falls to the
army of barbarians besieging it, a disgruntled no-
bleman seeks allies with which to oppose the rise320 Shwartz, Susan M.