All Hallows' Eve by Charles Williams
"All Hallows' Eve," written by Charles Williams, is a supernatural novel published in 1945 that explores themes of life, death, and the battle between good and evil. The story follows Lester Furnival, a young woman who dies in a plane crash and finds herself in a surreal realm alongside her friend Evelyn, who also perished. As they navigate the afterlife, they confront their previously superficial relationship and become entwined in the lives of the living, particularly that of Lester's husband Richard and artist Jonathan, who is romantically involved with Betty.
Set against the backdrop of London and culminating on Halloween, the narrative unfolds as a struggle against Simon the Clerk, a figure embodying darkness and manipulation, who seeks to control Betty's soul through witchcraft. The tension escalates as love emerges as a powerful force, ultimately thwarting Simon's malevolent plans. The novel intricately weaves elements of Christian symbolism, art, and occult themes, culminating in a dramatic confrontation where love prevails over evil, leading to profound personal transformations. This poignant tale invites readers to reflect on the connections between life and the afterlife, as well as the enduring power of love and forgiveness.
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All Hallows' Eve by Charles Williams
First published: 1945
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Allegory
Time of plot: October, 1945
Locale: London
Principal characters
Lester Furnival , a dead young wifeRichard Furnival , her husbandEvelyn Mercer , her dead friendBetty Wallingford , another friendLady Sara Wallingford , Betty’s motherJonathan Drayton , Betty’s artist fiancé, friend of RichardSimon the Clerk , the leader of a religious group
The Story:
To Lester Furnival, standing on Westminster Bridge at twilight, the lights of the city and the drone of a friendly plane overhead are symbols of the peace, a return to the natural order of life. Lester slowly becomes conscious, however, of a silence that is unnatural. Lester realizes that she is dead.
A vital and passionate young woman killed in a plane crash, she first finds herself alone in the city with Evelyn, the friend who is killed with her. She realizes that theirs was never a true friendship. As the two dead women try to establish a genuine relationship in the afterlife, they become involved in the affairs of the living. Lester’s husband Richard has an artist friend, Jonathan, who is in love with Betty, a school friend whom Lester and Evelyn never liked. Betty is completely dominated by her mother, Lady Wallingford, who is a disciple of a mysterious faith healer who calls himself Simon the Clerk.
Lady Wallingford and Betty call to see a portrait of Father Simon commissioned from Jonathan. A Christian, Jonathan, without realizing it, reveals in the portrait the essence of evil, which Simon represents. Lady Wallingford, infuriated, calls off Betty’s engagement to Jonathan and takes Betty away. Jonathan calls on Richard for help. The conflict between mother and lover for possession of Betty becomes the conflict between the God of love and the power of darkness for the human soul.
Surrounded by a band of zealous converts, preaching to a mesmerized audience in his shabby back-street headquarters, Simon is the reembodiment of Simon the Magus, the Jew who rejected Christ. Simon is, in fact, the Antichrist. Exploiting the devotion of Lady Wallingford, he conceives Betty to be his agent and fears that his power over the daughter is threatened by her love for Jonathan. Simon decides that the time comes for the final magical operation that will separate her human soul from her body and substitute his will in its place. He is thwarted by love in action. At each crisis, he makes a mistake, because his magic powers cannot perceive what love can do. When Simon goes to Betty’s bedroom to perform the final operation of magic, Lester is there, having gone to ask Betty’s forgiveness for rejecting her friendship. Betty’s forgiveness of Lester releases Lester’s spirit; Lester’s love sustains Betty and becomes Betty’s substitute to receive Simon’s magic. Lester is already dead, so Simon’s magic has no effect on her, and Betty is released from his spell to rebel against her mother and rejoin Jonathan. The defeated Simon then turns his attention to the wretched soul of Evelyn, who sought his aid to regain her power of persecuting Betty. Lester tries to rescue Evelyn, as she rescued Betty, by joining her within Evelyn’s miserably deformed physical body, which Simon creates for her with his magic powers. Simon attempts to control Evelyn’s body and use it to trap Betty, Jonathan, and Richard. Lester, however, exercises a greater control through the power of love and warns them in time for them to expose Simon and bring his work and his house to ruins.
The climax of the action takes place on a gray, rainy Halloween, All Hallows’ Eve, when the deformed body, containing the souls of Lester and Evelyn, moves through the streets of London and keeps a rendezvous at Jonathan’s flat. The engaged couple invites the bereaved Richard to join them for dinner. When Lester wants to warn Richard of the approach of the magical body, she thinks of the telephone. Having begged two pennies from a passerby, she goes into a telephone booth opposite the Charing Cross underground station. When Richard comes to the phone, he hears Lester’s voice as clearly as he saw her form several times in the last few days. She gives him the message that they have to wait at the flat until the old woman comes. Instead of going out to dinner, they spread a meal of bread, cheese, cold cuts, and wine, and thus prepare themselves for the crisis of All Hallows’ Eve. After meeting, the three living friends take the deformed body with them in a taxi through the rainy midnight streets of London to the darkened house where Simon and Lady Wallingford are stalled in their last desperate act of magic. Love triumphs over evil; Lester disappears in a blaze of white light.
Bibliography
Ashenden, Gavin. Charles Williams: Alchemy and Integration. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2008. Examines the influence of Williams’s interest in neo-Rosicrucianism on his novels and poetry.
Dunning, Stephen M. The Crisis and the Quest: A Kierkegaardian Reading of Charles Williams. Carlisle, Cumbria, England: Paternoster Press, 2000. Uses the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard to analyze the crisis between Christianity and hermiticism in Williams’s work and to chronicle his attempts at resolution.
Eliot, T. S. Introduction to All Hallows’ Eve, by Charles Williams. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1981. Eliot was an important literary friend of Williams.
Fredrick, Candice, and Sam McBride. “Women as Mythic Icons: Williams and Tolkien.” In Women Among the Inklings: Gender, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. Williams and the other two authors were members of the Inklings, a group of male intellectuals that met at Oxford, England, during the 1930’s and 1940’s. This book examines the role of women in the three authors’ lives, their attitudes toward women, and the depiction of women in their work.
Howard, Thomas. The Novels of Charles Williams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Discusses Christian doctrines of forgiveness and judgment as portrayed in All Hallows’ Eve.
Reilly, R. J. Romantic Religion: A Study of Barfield, Lewis, Williams, and Tolkien. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1971. Reprint. Great Barrington, Mass.: Lindisfarne, 2007. Examines the theological and philosophical ideas of a group of writers and intellectuals now known as the Oxford Christians. Devotes a chapter to Williams.
Sibley, Agnes. Charles Williams. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Contains a summary and insightful commentary on All Hallows’ Eve, as well as a useful bibliography.
Williams, Charles. The Image of the City, and Other Essays. Edited by Anne Ridler. New York: Oxford University Press, 1958. Williams expounds his theories; in addition, the critical introduction contains a brilliant analysis of his major themes.