The Land of Mist by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Land of Mist" is a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle that features the character Professor Challenger, who is portrayed as a skeptic turned believer in Spiritualism. The story revolves around his daughter, Enid, and her fiancé, Edward Malone, who embrace the belief in life after death and the ability of spirits to communicate with the living. Through various encounters with mediums, including a kind-hearted figure named Tom Linden, the narrative explores themes of faith, skepticism, and the supernatural.
As the plot unfolds, it highlights the tensions between Challenger and the younger generation's beliefs, particularly during a séance where Enid channels a spirit that reveals crucial information about her father's past. This revelation serves as the catalyst for Challenger's conversion to Spiritualism, as it alleviates his guilt over the deaths of two men he had treated with an experimental drug. The novel weaves together elements of mystery, ethical dilemmas, and the struggle between empirical science and spiritual belief, reflecting the cultural fascination with Spiritualism during the early 20th century. Ultimately, the story concludes with Edward and Enid's marriage, symbolizing a merging of old skepticism and new belief systems.
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The Land of Mist
First published: 1926
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—extrasensory powers
Time of work: The 1920’s
Locale: London, England
The Plot
In this novel, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger, the hero of The Lost World (1912), becomes a Spiritualist, just as Doyle himself had. Professor Challenger is annoyed when his daughter, Enid, and her sweetheart, Edward Malone, become convinced that the tenets of Spiritualism are true. They believe that there is life after death and that the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living. At one Spiritualist meeting, a medium informs Enid that she herself possesses mediumistic abilities. At a séance, another medium, Tom Linden, materializes the spirit of Edward’s mother.
Tom is a kindly soul who seeks to use his powers solely to help others. His ministrations, however, gain him only grief. His brutish brother, Silas, tries to bully him into revealing tricks that will allow Silas to set himself up as a fraudulent medium. Two policewomen entrap Tom into committing a violation of an archaic law against fortune-telling, and he is sentenced to two months of hard labor.
Meanwhile, Edward continues to explore the spirit world. He helps to placate a ghost haunting a house in Dorsetshire, a horrifying specter that appears as a dark, batlike shadow and violently attacks the investigators. He also helps thwart a more material menace, Silas Linden, who, without his brother’s aid, is gaining notoriety as a false medium who fakes spirit materializations. Edward and his friends confront Silas and force him to sign a document admitting his chicanery. Silas is eventually killed by a friend of a woman whom he had abused when she had upbraided him for beating his children.
Edward and Challenger continue to argue with each other about the authenticity of psychic phenomena. Challenger insists that Edward and Enid not marry until all three share an opinion about Spiritualism. Edward decides to invite Challenger to a séance given by Tom Linden, hoping that he will be persuaded by the phenomena that he will witness there. Challenger is insulting to everyone at the séance, and Edward despairs of ever winning Challenger over. Enid abruptly begins to speak in a strange voice. A spirit communicates through her, telling her father that he did not kill Ware and Aldridge: They died of pneumonia.
Upon hearing this message, Challenger becomes a convert to Spiritualism. Ware and Aldridge had died after Challenger secretly gave them a new medication, and he had always been haunted by the possibility that he had killed them. No one but Challenger had ever known that he had treated the men with the experimental drug, so Enid’s information constitutes proof of life after death and spirit communication. Edward and Enid marry, and Edward becomes Challenger’s business manager.