The Lair of the White Worm

The Lair of the White Worm is a horror novel by the Irish writer Bram Stoker. The story is based on the legend of the Lambton Worm. It has also been issued as The Garden of Evil.

The plot focuses on Adam Salton, originally from Australia, who is contacted by his great-uncle, Richard Salton, in 1860 Derbyshire for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. His great-uncle wants to make Adam his heir. Although Adam has already made his own fortune in Australia he enthusiastically agrees to meet his uncle, and the two men become good friends. Adam travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, Lesser Hill, and quickly finds himself at the centre of mysterious and inexplicable occurrences, with Sir Nathaniel as guide.

The new heir to the Caswall estate (known as Castra Regis or the Royal Camp), Edgar Caswall, appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl, Lilla Watford. Arabella March, of Diana's Grove, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. Edgar Caswall is a slightly pathological eccentric who inherited Mesmer's chest which he keeps at the Castra Regis Tower. Caswall wants to recreate mesmerism, associated with Franz Mesmer, which was a precursor to hypnotism. He is obsessed with Lilla Watford, and attempts to break her using his mesmer. Fortunately, with the help of Lilla's cousin Mimi, he is thwarted time and again. Caswall orders a giant kite in the shape of a hawk built to scare away pigeons which have gone berserk and attacked his fields and destroyed his crops. For lack of anything better to do he obsessively watches the kite and begins to believe that it has a mind of its own and that he himself is a god.

Adam Salton discovers black snakes on the property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who has been bitten on the neck. The child barely survives. He learns that another child was killed earlier while animals were also killed throughout the county. Caswall's servant, Oolanga, an African man obsessed with death and torture, prowls around the estates, glorying in the carnage left by the White Worm. Adam's mongoose attacks Arabella, who shoots it to death. Adam procures more mongoose and keeps them locked in his trunks when not using them to hunt. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Caswall's servant takes a peculiar liking to Arabella, perhaps sensing something violent in her. Arabella scorns Oolanga's advances and is deeply insulted that he would dare approach her. In an attempt to win her over, Oolanga steals one of Adam's trunks (which he believes is filled with treasure, but is actually just another mongoose), and Adam follows Oolanga. Arabella lures Oolanga to a deep well in her house, then murders him in rage and disgust, by dragging him down into the deep pit tunnelled through a bed of white china clay. Adam witnesses the murder which he cannot prove, and Arabella writes him a letter the next day with the previous night's events twisted to claim her innocence. Adam and Sir Nathaniel begin to suspect Arabella guilty of the other crimes.

Adam and Sir Nathaniel de Salis, who is a friend of Richard Salton's, then plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. They suspect that she wants to murder Mimi Watford, whom Adam later marries. Nathaniel is an Van Helsing-type character who wants to hunt down Arabella, who he believes, with increasing conviction, is the White Worm of legend.

The White Worm is a large snake-like creature that dwells deep beneath the earth under Arabella's house located in Diana's Grove. The White Worm has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever it hunts down. Sir Nathaniel believes that the White Worm is descended from dragons, who traded their physical power for cunning. The White Worm ascends from the pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi Watford in the forest of Diana's Grove. Adam is able to foil Arabella's multiple attempts to murder Mimi.

Arabella offers to sell Diana's Grove, which Adam buys in hopes of destroying the White Worm. Adam plans to clog the pit with sand and carefully placed dynamite to kill the giant White Worm while it is underground. Caswall's last visit to Lilla ends in her death.

In the final chapters, Mimi Watford confronts Edgar Caswall who lures her to the roof of Castra Regis as a storm springs up, as he has finally succumbed to madness. He shows off his kite despite the thunderheads building in the sky. Arabella, who had been stalking Mimi, watches from nearby and steals some of the wire holding the kite, apparently unspooling it all the way back to her house. When Mimi discovers Caswall has locked her onto the roof she shoots off the lock with a gun Adam gave her for protection and flees for home. Adam convinces her to go back outside with him and they witness the following events: the massive thunderstorm breaks over Castra Regis, grounded by the kite, and demolishes the tower; then travels through the wire Arabella had run to Diana's Grove and igniting the dynamite, pulverizing the White Worm and the house with it.

By : Bram Stoker (1847 - 1912)

Chapter 01



Chapter 02



Chapter 03



Chapter 04



Chapter 05



Chapter 06



Chapter 07



Chapter 08



Chapter 09



Chapter 10



Chapter 11



Chapter 12



Chapter 13



Chapter 14



Chapter 15



Chapter 16



Chapter 17



Chapter 18



Chapter 19



Chapter 20



Chapter 21



Chapter 22



Chapter 23



Chapter 24



Chapter 25



Chapter 26



Chapter 27



Chapter 28

Comments

Random Post

  • The Children of the New Forest
    29.03.2020 - 0 Comments
    The Children of the New Forest is a children's novel by Frederick Marryat. It is set in the time of the…
  • Autobiography of an Actress or Eight Years on the Stage
    22.04.2020 - 0 Comments
    Anna Cora Mowatt was the author of the first Broadway comedy hit written by a woman. Her 1845 play…
  • Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847
    17.06.2021 - 0 Comments
    After the bizarre death of Thomas Simpson, Dr. John Rae was chosen to complete the survey of the Northwest…
  • Sự Tích Âm Dương Giao Chiến - Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam
    24.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Ngày ấy, có một trận mưa lụt rất dữ dội; khúc đê ở xã Thọ-triền bị vỡ, mùa màng hư hại, nhà cửa, súc vật trôi…
  • The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith
    20.03.2021 - 0 Comments
    Lucas Cleeve is living in Venice with a widow, Mrs. Ebbsmith. His relatives do not accept this arrangement…
  • Kẻ Trộm Dạy Học Trò - Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam
    24.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Ngày xưa có một tay ăn trộm lành nghề. Lão ta thấy mình tuổi già sức yếu nên muốn truyền cái bí kíp của lối…
  • Heidi (Dramatic Reading)
    12.11.2019 - 0 Comments
    "Heidi" takes us on a journey to the eventful childhood of a good-hearted girl from the Swiss Alps. A warm…
  • Aesop's Fables, Volume 10 (Fables 226-250)
    28.04.2018 - 0 Comments
    Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica: is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller…
  • The Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates
    03.10.2020 - 0 Comments
    Notorious pirates who are the scourge of the seven seas, and on land; ghost stories which scare voyagers in…
  • The Man Who Hated Mars
    05.02.2021 - 0 Comments
    To escape from Mars, all Clayton had to do was the impossible. Break out of a crack-proof exile camp—get onto…
  • The Awakening
    16.05.2019 - 0 Comments
    The Awakening shocked readers at the turn of the century with its outspoken treatment of sex and suicide.…
  • Tik-Tok of Oz
    23.12.2019 - 0 Comments
    In this really exciting and well written story of Oz, the Shaggy Man is on a quest to find his long lost…
  • The Man in the Iron Mask
    15.02.2020 - 0 Comments
    In this, the last of the Three Musketeers novels, Dumas builds on the true story of a mysterious prisoner…
  • Love Among the Chickens
    16.10.2019 - 0 Comments
    Jeremy Garnet, a second-rate novelist, gets talked into joining his old pal Stanley Featheringstonehaugh…
  • The Emancipated
    20.07.2021 - 0 Comments
    In Italy, everything is possible. Or, at least, much more than in the oppressive social order of the…
  • Transition
    20.03.2021 - 0 Comments
    Honora Klaper is beautiful, distinguished, smart, and charming. A woman who turns heads. She is on an errand.…