The Haunted Bookshop - Good Old Reads

Christopher Morley - Parnassus on Wheels — Christopher Morley

Published in 1919, Christopher Morley’s The Haunted Bookshop is the sequel to his 1917 novel Parnassus on Wheels—a happy little novel that I didn’t want to end. But like most sequels, The Haunted Bookshop is mediocre and disappointing.

High Point: The novel was published just as World War I had ended. The influence of the war on the plot and its characters is fascinating.

Low Point: The plot is run-of-the-mill and predictable. It doesn’t carry the interest of the previous novel of the series.

Author: Christopher Morley

Publication Date: 1919

Genre: Mystery

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More Dust Than Magic

The first novel chronicled Helen McGill’s adventures as the new owner of a bookshop on wheels as she and the former owner, Roger Mifflin, plied their wares in the small towns of the American northeast. In the second edition, Helen and Roger—now married—have retired the wagon and their old horse Pegasus, and opened a used bookshop in Brooklyn.

Morley wrote the first novel in the first person from Helen’s perspective. Helen was fun and fresh as she began to thrive in her new life. The author used a third-person narrative for the second novel, though, leaving us on the outside looking in. Helen has lost much of her unique spontaneity and wonder, and settled into being a normal 20^th century housewife. Morley introduces some new characters, but they’re not so stimulating. We’re left with a run-of-the-mill mystery—improbable and rather predictable.

Written just as the first world war had ended, The Haunted Bookshop was understandably influenced by the terror and destruction of the war. The Mifflins and their friends frequently discuss the follies and waste of war. The villains are German, and the lingering bitterness held by Americans is evident in the manner in which the Germans are portrayed. This may be the most fascinating aspect of the novel.

If you’ve not read Parnassus on Wheels, by all means take the time to find it and enjoy it. But once you’ve done that, leave the Mifflins as they are and walk right past The Haunted Bookshop.

Quotes

Malnutrition of the reading faculty is a serious thing.

Between ourselves, there is no such thing, abstractly, as a “good” book. A book is “good” only when it meets some human hunger or refutes some human error. A book that is good for me would very likely be punk for you.

For paradise in the world to come is uncertain, but there is indeed a heaven on this earth, a heaven which we inhabit when we read a good book.