"Thrawn Janet" is a short story, written in
Scots, by the Scottish author
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
. He wrote the story in the summer of 1881 while he stayed at the rented Kinnaird Cottage in Kinnaird, a hamlet near
Pitlochry
Pitlochry (; gd, Baile Chloichridh or ) is a town in the Perth and Kinross council area of Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. It is historically in the county of Perthshire, and has a population of 2,776, according to the 2011 census.Scotla ...
, with his parents and wife. When he read the story to his wife
Fanny Stevenson
Frances "Fanny" Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson (10 March 1840 – 18 February 1914) was an American magazine writer. She became a supporter and later the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the mother of Isobel Osbourne, Samuel Lloyd ...
, she said of it that it "sent a cauld grue
hudderalong my bones" and "fair frightened" Stevenson himself. It was first published in the October 1881 issue of the ''
Cornhill Magazine
''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictionar ...
''. It is a dark tale of satanic possession.
The story was later included in Stevenson's 1887 collection ''The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables''.
Book News
'. Vol. 5. 1887. p. 270.
Plot summary
In 1712, a newly graduated preacher arrives in a small town, and hires Janet, an old crone, as his housekeeper—a woman whom many of the townspeople believe to be in league with the devil. When some of the local women attempt to dunk Janet in the river to prove that she is a witch, the preacher rescues her and has her abjure the devil before them. From the next day forward, Janet's appearance is altered; she has a thrawn (twisted) neck, with her head on one side, like someone who has been hanged. Later, after an encounter with a strange "black man" in the churchyard, the preacher finds Janet's corpse hanging by a thread from a nail in her room. He is pursued by the dead woman's body, until he invokes the power of God. The body turns to ash, and the black man, believed to be the devil, leaves town. Thereafter, the preacher often frightens his flock with the intensity of his admonitions against the forces of evil.
[Dziemianowicz, Stefan R. (2017).]
Thrawn Janet
. In Cardin, Matt, ed., ''Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Greenwood. p. 796.
Publication history
The story is one of only two stories ever written by Stevenson in Scots, the other being "The Tale of Tod Lapraik". Stevenson was aware that his readers might not understand the broad Scots the story was written in and so fully expected the ''Cornhill Magazine'' to reject "Thrawn Janet" on its first submission.
However, ''Cornhill Magazine''s editor,
Leslie Stephen
Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
Life
Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellectua ...
, put it straight into print in the next issue.
References
External links
Online text
Standard English translation{{Robert Louis Stevenson
Scottish short stories
Scots-language works
Horror short stories
Fiction about the Devil
Witchcraft in written fiction
1881 short stories
Short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson