Dennis Wheatley: The Haunting of Toby Jugg

As the idea for this blog came from a Dennis Wheatley project, it is only fitting that I start with a Dennis Wheatley novel.  This was the first of his books that I ever read.  I found a paperback of it along with another of his books, The Ka of Gifford Hillary, at a local chain used book shop.  The name Dennis Wheatley jumped out at me, although I couldn't recall why I knew that name, so I picked up both books.  When I looked inside the books, where there was a list of other Dennis Wheatley titles published by the same company, I began to understand why the name was familiar to me-- I saw the titles The Devil Rides Out and To the Devil-- a Daughter.  I also realized that I had read his name in connection with the band Black Sabbath in articles citing his black magic novels as an influence on the band's lyrics.  Many years later now, I have picked up and read a great number of his books.

1960s era paperback edition from Arrow, featuring some excellent cover art

The Haunting of Toby Jugg is the story of a young RAF pilot who was injured during WWII.  He was shot, causing him temporary paralysis from the waist down.  Since he is from a wealthy family, he spends his time recovering in his family home.  Night after night, he sees some horrific shadow coming through the edge of the blackout curtains.  He gradually develops some suspicions about what is going on and why, as well as who is doing it.  However, in the light of day, he finds himself dismissing these ideas that occur to him during his troubled nights.  As time goes on, he discovers more and more, as well as remembering certain events from his past that now take on a more ominous meaning.

The story is told from Toby's point of view, as a journal.  First person stories can often be problematic, but for this story, I really think it was the right choice.  The reader is stuck with Toby, seeing what he sees and experiencing the terror, paranoia, as well as the doubt Toby does.  Wheatley himself stated that he got the idea from a couple of things: one being a school he had heard about where there was some black magic going on and the other being a vision of a ghost he claimed to have seen as a child.  These ideas are weaved into Toby's narrative, including his memory of walking on campus at school one night and witnessing a group of robed people performing some ritual.

1990s paperback edition from Mandarin with much less impressive cover art

I am trying to avoid giving too much away about the plot of the novel (also it has been a good while since the last time I read it), but it does involve black magic, as well as hypnotism being used against Toby.  The sense of paranoia is rather heavy in the novel, creating some great tension throughout.  Much of this stems from the aforementioned tendency for Toby to see things in a literal different light during the day, no matter how convinced he might have been during the night.  You can understand how he is unsure of these ideas that seem so certain to him at night, yet seem so foolish during broad daylight.

One of the weaker elements is the ending.  While it isn't terrible, it is perhaps a bit dated (which is quite fitting, being a book from the 1940s) and I know some readers felt it was too much.  It also deals with something that tends to pop up in Wheatley's black magic novels: divine intervention.  However, we are talking about supernatural stories, so this sort of thing isn't exactly unreasonable in that kind of setting.  Still, it can come off as a bit of a cheat or a bit contrived.  For me personally, this is a very minor issue and the rest of the novel is more than strong enough to offset that element.  Another thing is Wheatley's use of the occult in his stories.  While he did do quite a bit of research for these stories, including meeting with various occultists of his day, he tended to sensationalize and mix together all these ideas and create something that is quite far from reality, but for me, that is okay.  These are works of fiction and are meant to entertain his readers, which they certainly did and continue to do.

The Haunting of Toby Jugg is, in my opinion, one of Wheatley's finest works.  It is engaging, exciting, dark, creepy, and is a quite satisfying read.  Also, if done the right way, it would make a damn fine film, but nobody has done so to date (there was a BBC production called The Haunted Airman, but it quickly abandons the source material and ends up being a completely different story).  If you enjoy stories that deal with black magic and the occult and also like older-fashioned stories, definitely pick this one up and give it a read. 


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