Horror Short Story Review: "The Sleepless Woman" by William Jerdan

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The opening scene of this story is the death of the old Baron de Launaye. His chamber is hung with discolored tapestry, the ceiling blackened with smoke from the ponderous brass lamp. Two domestics, the seneschal and his wife, who counts her beads between sips of wine attend him. The old baron knows he’s not long for this world. He wants to hang long enough to say good-bye to his nephew and heir, Adolphe. The two share a genuinely affectionate bond. He wants to impart to his nephew the summation of his wisdom: My child, evil came into the world with woman and in her is bound up the evil of your destiny. Vain is the glance they throw on the polished steel of their mirror—false as the vow they make for the pleasure of breaking—inconstant as the wind…shun them, Adolphe. The old man expires, and the nephew grieves. He becomes the new baron. He thinks over what the old baron said and agrees that yes, any time he’s gotten into trouble, there was a woman involved. He resolves to steer clear of them, even though he occasionally thinks that a pair of bright eye might liven up to old castle. Until, that is, he’s out riding one day. He catches a glimpse of a young woman riding in a coach with her grandmother. Never mind they’re historic enemies of the Launayes. She is so beautiful. She has such lovely eyes. This odd piece of misogyny is actually a farce and has rather amusing passages. While there are no great surprises as far as plot goes (the title gives a bit of it away) this is still fun. However, the author makes the misogyny worse by explaining that it’s a metaphor, based on the true nature of women and how they treat their husbands. Yeah, old person whose parents were not married. Author William Jerdan was a Scottish journalist .An intriguing passage I came across through google books (I’m too cheap to buy the whole book) painted Jerdan as something of a men’s club habitué. Those institutions stirred some controversy at the time because they kept men from home. They were social clubs, not a euphemistic designation for strip clubs. And, if it needs to be said, this was written nearly 100 years before the rise of Nazism and the associations we now have with the name Adolphe/Adolph didn’t exist. The only place I could find this online is a photocopy of the original which will be tough to read (page 25): ____ Title: “The Sleepless Woman” Author: William Jerdan (1782-1869) First published: The Club-Book 1831