Photographing Fairies (novel)
| Author | Steve Szilagyi |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
|
Publication date
|
1992 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 321 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 318090909 |
| 813/.54 | |
| LC Class | PS3569.Z48 P48 1992 |
Photographing Fairies is a novel by Steve Szilagyi. Taking place in the 1920s, the novel is loosely based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies and includes Arthur Conan Doyle as a minor character. The story dwells on themes such as magic, human sexuality, photography, and human perception.
The novel is told in the first person, from the perspective of an American photographer named Charles Castle. Castle is currently held in a prison cell in England. He is to be executed the next day for the crime of murder. He recounts the events, which began four months earlier, that led to his imprisonment and death sentence.
Working as a photographer in London, Castle was visited by a constable named Michael Walsmear. Walsmear showed Castle two photographs, each of a different young girl, and asked Castle’s professional opinion as two whether the photographs are genuine. Walsmear went on to point out several tiny spots in the photographs, and he insisted these spots are not dust or imperfections of the film, but instead fairies. Castle enlarged the negatives and looked at the splotches of light, which indeed resembled fairies. Walsmear only wished to confirm that the fairies were real, but Castle was strongly intrigued by the possibility of the existence of fairies. Castle then took copies of the photographs to Arthur Conan Doyle, who possessed a different set of "fairy" photographs. Doyle was not convinced by Walsmear’s photographs with the splotches of light, but he wanted all copies of Walsmear’s photographs destroyed so that Doyle’s own "fairy" photographs would have less competition.
Given some money by Doyle, Castle traveled by train to Burkinwell, a fictitious town in England. On the train he met a woman named Linda Drain, and the two of them were robbed by a pair of thieves named Paolo and Shorty. In Burkinwell, Castle met the two girls from the photographs, Clara and Anna Templeton, as well their father, Brian Templeton, who is allegedly syphilitic. Linda Drain turned out to be the wife of Thomas Drain, the local minister, who allowed Castle to set up a darkroom in the cellar of the church. Castle then traveled into the woods, seeking out a Gypsy camp where he would find Walsmear and ask his assistance in procuring more photographs of the fairies in the Templeton garden. Castle located Walsmear, but the constable was hesitant to help because Walsmear was partially responsible for the death of Mrs. Templeton, the mother of Anna and Clara. Castle then got drunk at the Gypsy camp and was attacked violently by Paolo and Shorty, the same thieves from the train.
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