same area after each defeat. The stories are other-
wise brisk and convincing, and Williamson’s evil
protagonist is his single most memorable character.
The Minnifield House books are Ghost Mansion
(1981) and Horror Mansion (1982), both pre-
dictable tales of hauntings, but the first has some
genuine chills.
Most of the next several novels are minor, al-
though Playmates(1982) does a good job of de-
scribing the consequences when imaginary
companions become real, and Ghost(1984) is an
intriguing ghost story told from the point of view
of a disembodied and somewhat confused ghost.
There were larger gaps between Williamson’s
novels at this point, and that may account for the
fact that the later ones are considerably more
controlled and better plotted. The Longest Night
(1985), for example, is on the surface just a story
of a serial killer whose victims’ ghosts linger after
their deaths, but the author expends considerable
effort to make their suspended existence, caught
between life and death, seem real and tragic. Evil
Offspring(1987) is less contemplative, the story of
an ancient evil reawakened, but is considerably
more exciting and adventurous than most of
Williamson’s earlier novels.
Ghosts and the details of their existence
recur frequently in Williamson’s later work,
though most of these are minor. The Night Seasons
(1991) is the best of the novels from the latter
part of his career. The Monastery(1992), although
very uneven, is also at times quite effective. Don’t
Take Away the Light(1993), another ghost story,
delves deeper into the psychological state of its
child protagonist than any previous work by
Williamson, and Bloodlines(1994) is a rather un-
conventional vampire story. Williamson may have
been tempted to explore new ideas and territory
but still felt compelled to anchor his stories with
some standard supernatural device. His most re-
cently published novel, Affinity(2001), suggests
that the trend may have continued if Williamson
had continued to write, because it is a quite un-
usual story about a man whose memories are
slowly being supplanted by those of another per-
sonality. It appears likely to be his last book.
Most of Williamson’s short fiction has been
collected in The Naked Flesh of Feeling(1991), The
Fifth Season(1993), and Frights of Fancy(2000).
“The Gap Nearly Closed Today” (1987) and “The
Land of Second Chance” (1991) are his two best
short stories. He also edited the well-regarded
Masques anthology series of original horror. Al-
though it would be easy to dismiss Williamson’s fic-
tion as derivative, he was to some extent the
epitome of the wave of popularity mainstream hor-
ror enjoyed during the 1980s, producing familiar
stories that rarely challenged the reader but that
almost always entertained.“William Wilson”Edgar Allan Poe(1840)
The doppelgänger is more commonly found in Eu-
ropean horror fiction than in American, but Edgar
Allan POEwrote what is certainly the best-known
example. The story anticipates DR. JEKYLL AND
MR. HYDE(1888), by Robert Louis Stevenson, in
that the narrator and his doppelgänger move to
opposite poles, one living a life of honor and the
other one of disgrace. He introduces himself as
William Wilson but insists this is not his real
name. He describes in detail his childhood educa-
tion in England, apparently based on Poe’s own
experiences, during which he rose to dominate all
of his schoolmates except for a second boy of the
same name and exact same birthday. Although
the two were themselves aware of their intense ri-
valry, the rest of the school was oblivious, or so
Wilson tells us.
The narrator appears to have been the pri-
mary aggressor, visiting various petty torments on
the other boy until the latter retaliated by deliber-
ately imitating his rival, dressing in the same fash-
ion and even mimicking his manner of speaking,
although hampered by his mysterious and sugges-
tive inability to speak above a whisper. Readers
might suspect that the second boy is imaginary, but
there are other hints that imply this cannot be the
case. The rest of the school reportedly believes
them to be related, for example. In any case, Wil-
son is moved to Eton and later learns that Wilson
number two has also left school, although under
different circumstances.
The next several years prove to be very diffi-
cult. The doppelgänger shows up at Eton just in
time to expose Wilson as he cheats at cards, forcing“William Wilson” 383