THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL by Daniel Defoe

Rating: one yawning ghost

Highlight of note: This is one of the earliest paranormal stories in written English. From this, it's hard to see how they caught on though.


As I headed into Week 2 of my classic short story challenge, I broke down and bought a collection. I chose the somewhat uncreatively named 100 Great Short Stories from Dover Thrift. I might could have found most if not all of these stories for free elsewhere, but this saves me from having to search for something every week. And I figured it's probably a good selection of material as it was put together by an English professor while simultaneously being much cheaper than any of the Norton anthologies.

The first story in the collection is The Apparition of Mrs. Veal by Daniel Defoe. The only exposure I'd had to Mr. Defoe prior to this was his novel Robinson Crusoe, which I didn't really like overly much. This looked to be a ghost story rather than a survival tale, though, so I was happy to give it a shot.

In the opening, we're told that this is the story of Mrs. Veal's appearance as an apparition. That's the only way you'd know that there was anything otherworldly going on when she visits her old friend, Mrs. Bargrave, and the two very boring women have a tedious conversation on Christian literature. She says she is unwell and about to go on a journey, but these things only seem ominous because it's already been revealed that she is a remnant.

I'm going to take a moment here to be grateful that I was born in an age where people aren't afraid to include as many paragraph breaks as necessary for readers to easily follow their stories. Mr. Defoe was not. This story contains many paragraphs that hold repeated exchanges between the women, who switch from speaker to speaker without ever thinking that maybe this shouldn't all be in the same paragraph. When, eventually, the paragraphs did end, I was generally left wondering why, as whatever rules governed that sort of thing in Mr. Defoe's day are unclear to me. I think this issue may have had something to do with saving paper and fitting into allotted spaces, but have never researched it.

Moment over. Back to the not-so-reviting tale...

After the the late Mrs. Veal has had what would otherwise be an entirely unremarkable visit with her friend, the narrative goes on to discuss how Mrs. Bargrave comes to realize her friend had died before their visit. At no point does Mrs. Bargrave seem upset to learn of her friend's death, which makes it very hard for a reader to care either.

The narrative then mentions some of the reactions to Mrs. Bargrave telling people about the ghostly vitiation. Mrs. Veal's brother doesn't like the account but doesn't do anything particularly dramatic, or even interesting, about it. Most people seem to believe Mrs. Bargrave, but, again, don't do anything interesting with this belief. There's a first person narrator who says he doesn't see why Mrs. Bargrave would be lying, but I never figured out his relationship to any of the people involved.

I feel like I'm being harsh, but I finished The Apparition of Mrs. Veal with relief that it was over and confusion as to why it had ever been published, let alone included in what's supposed to be a collection of greatness. I know that standards are constantly changing, but I can't think of anything to recommend this piece. The plot was virtually non-existent and the wording was neither witty nor invoking of emotion. The two friends were estranged prior to the start of the work, so maybe the whole thing is an allegory of some sort, but I still think there should have been a way to make it less tedious.

Honestly, I would be distressed that the first story in my newly purchased collection was so unappealing to me, but the next entry is by Benjamin Franklin, and that gives me hope that I can write something positive about next week's selection.