Episode 51 Mr Jones by Edith Wharton

Mr Jones by Edith WhartonThis is the second Edith Wharton story we've read, the first being https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/7696635d-86ff-42d2-a2cf-317694d891d6/1747150-episode-4-bewitched-by-edith-wharton.mp3 (Bewitched which was Episode 4). Wharton was an American of course but she spent time in England and set a number of her ghost stories there.  This story is the third of a series of stories where the house is a major character. In this story of course, the house is inhabited by the ghost of Mr Jones as we learn.  As normal with Wharton there is incredible craft in the shaping of this story. It is at least in part a mystery story and we are familiar with the mystery ghost story where the ghost is debunked at the end, not least in Scooby Doo, but also in Wilkie Collin's The Woman in White. We have the mystery of the house with the strange old servants. We realise early on that Mrs Clemm has something to hide and her niece Georgina who is portrayed as a clumsy idiot is actually the one whose information ties up the tale. We have locked room, conniving housekeepers, blind gardeners and a historical tragedy to boot. The poor deaf and dumb Juliana, locked up in the house by the evil Mr Jones on the orders of her philandering husband is a Gothic staple and Wharton knew this of course and probably drew the character knowingly with a nod to gothic tradition.  Wharton does a bit of foreshadowing that you might not get at first listen, but early on in the story when she is impressed with Bells, she muses about her ancestors who lived and died there and adds, unknowingly that to some of them, it may have been a prison! We later learn that it was indeed. Then when Lady Jane asks Mrs Clemm to take her to Mr Jones, Mrs Clemm agrees that he's not well; "He's between life and death as it were." This is in fact the literal truth but we don't understand that at this point and take from some figurative description. In fact, Mrs Clemm tells the exact truth: "He'd know you, my lady, but you wo