All Hallows' Eve

By Charles Williams

First published in 1945, “All Hallows' Eve” is a fantasy novel by British writer Charles W. S. Williams. Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886 – 1945) was a British theologian, novelist, poet, playwright, and literary critic. He was also a member of the “The Inklings”, a literary discussion group connected to the University of Oxford, England. They were exclusively literary enthusiasts who championed the merit of narrative in fiction and concentrated on writing fantasy. He was given an scholarship to University College London, but was forced to leave in 1904 because he couldn't afford the tuition fees. Other notable works by this author include: “The Greater Trumps” (1932), “War in Heaven” (1930), and “The Place of the Lion” (1931). This volume is highly recommended for lovers of fantasy fiction, and it would make for a fantastic addition to any collection. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Press
• Release date: May 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781528786799

Charles Williams

Charles Williams (1909–1975) was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years before leaving to work in the electronics industry. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime. Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay. Williams died in California in 1975. 

Reviews for All Hallows' Eve

[jen6e6moore · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm fairly certain I liked it, although this is a strange book which I actually had some difficulty connecting with. The characters are a little thinly drawn for my taste, but the prose is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis - which is fair enough, as he and Williams were members of the same writing group. What I found most interesting was the mysticism (and indeed, T.S. Eliot, in his introduction, describes Williams as a mystic at heart). All Hallow's Eve reads very much like a story written by a man who has read the works of Aliester Crowley, understood them, and found him dangerous. I'm actually reasonably impressed, because most people seem to find Crowley either deeply profound or silly, and to find a third reaction is interesting in the extreme. (I have no evidence that Williams did read Crowley, I should hasten to point out, other than that Simon, the evil magician at the center of this book, seems to be very much like Crowley if Crowley were determined to be an Antichrist.)I'd class this as urban fantasy in the same genre as War for the Oaks - nothing like modern urban fantasy, but a fantasy which is inherently about a city, and in this case, the archetypal City to which all others belong. I'll definitely be thinking about this book for a while.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Another Surreal novel, this one by a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien's. Quite religious, dealing with a fairly clever but not reflective woman who falls into the hands of a quite austere but evil magician, Simon. Her sacrifice at the date of the title is the plot we follow. C.S. Lewis does this kind of thing better.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a love story that thrives beyond the grave. Lester and Richard were married only the day before when Lester is killed by a falling airplane. What are the chances? Now Lester is caught between two very different worlds - the living world where Richard still walks about grieving and Lester's dead and silent world in limbo. She hasn't made it into either heaven nor hell. Some people can sense her and some can even see her outright. Still others, she can walk clean through and they wouldn't feel even the slightest whisper. Lester feels alone but she is not. Not really. Also killed in the bizarre crash was her living best friend, Evelyn. Both seek the afterlife forgiveness of a third girl, Betty, who Lester and Evelyn were cruel to in school. Betty is under the spell of evil in the form of her mother, Lady Wallingford, and religious and biological Father Simon Leclerc. Father Simon, better known as The Clerk, is seen as a prophet, a religious leader, a powerful orator able to sway large masses with his preaching...a devil in disguise who practices magic. He has Evelyn under his power as well. She turns out to be the evil one.Williams is a strange author. His storytelling is dense and sometimes confusing. I likened it to hacking through a thick and oppressive jungle with a dull machete. You spend a lot of time slogging through the narrative and sometimes miss the finer nuances of the story. I found myself frequently rereading passages if only to orient myself to time and place.

[kukulaj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a morality tale in the form of a ghost story. My copy has a 1948 copyright. There is an introduction by T. S. Eliot which informs us that Mr. Williams died a few days after the German surrender in 1945. Our villain is a Jewish Satanic wizard who is working on some necromantic method to become world emperor, avoiding the humiliations of that Jew of two thousand years ago, Jesus ben Joseph. Williams comes back repeatedly to how the villain looks Jewish, etc. I'd have thought that villainizing Jews would have been quite awkward in 1945. Maybe this just shows - and really the whole book is very religious, but with quite a specific religious angle - a religion that's a kind of pentagram of morality, history, metaphysics, personal destiny, and empire. Well, I guess a lot of religion is still that today. The story here is quite small scale. Maybe there are a dozen characters altogether, but I think seven main characters. There are two ghosts but they are full characters here, with emotions and actions and dialog. The whole plot structure is very simple. The first half of the book or so is just the young folks figuring out what dastardly deeds the villain intends. As the villain is foiled, we do learn quite a few practical occult tips. E.g. when things start to go wrong, just bail out. Desperate attempts to patch things together generally end up making everything into a bigger catastrophe. The writing is quite rich, almost cloying. It reminds me a bit of John Cowper Powys. I remember a few pages in Porius where Powys went on and on describing some detail like water dripping from a branch or something. Yeah, it's not really the kind of book that is popular nowadays!

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Before reading the Inklings I wanted to read something by Charles Williams, as I've read most of Tolkien and quite a lot of Lewis's work but never any others. This was a very interesting read and of this 3 writers the least disguised Christian motif.