Oliver Onions — a forgotten weird fiction classic

Oliver Onions didn’t believe in ghosts or any kind of mysterious cults. He was a pragmatist, always looking for a logical, rational explanation. Nevertheless, his favorite literature genre, surprisingly, was weird fiction. Should the ghost stories written by Oliver Onions be considered among the most celebrated horror classics such as H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, or Algernon Blackwood? Let’s find out.

British writer Oliver Onions (1873–1961) gained recognition and popularity among readers as well as critics almost immediately after his debut. Most other horror authors of his era could only dream about such a start and sometimes became famous only a long time after their deaths. Wait a second, though — I bet that some of you have never heard about Oliver Onions. It comes as a no surprise, as this great writer somehow got forgotten by the wider public and is now mostly read by weird fiction passionates.

One of the reasons for this is quite apparent — many artists who tried to create literature from somewhere between belles-lettres and popular fiction, failed to go down in history. And so did Oliver Onions. His works were too experimental for the commercial taste and too conservative when it comes to narrative, which resembles the one we know from famous Victorian ghost stories. I hope that this article will encourage at least some of…