The Torch and Other Tales

A stranger arrives in the village of Little Silver, and everything changes. Teddy Pegram appears kind, generous, a figure of wonder to young Joey Ford, who sees in the newcomer the magic of a benevolent spirit bringing toys and games into his small life. But suspicion is a quicker traveler than trust in a rural community, and when rumors of poaching begin to circulate about the mysterious Pegram, the village must reckon with a troubling question: what do we truly know about those we let into our hearts? Eden Phillpotts, writing in the tradition of rural English naturalism, weaves a quiet tension through this collection. The opening tale builds slowly, the way storms gather over Devonshire hills, until the atmosphere itself feels charged with unease. What emerges is not a simple story of guilt or innocence, but a nuanced exploration of how communities construct and destroy their heroes, and what it costs a child to learn that someone beloved might also be flawed. For readers who treasure the quiet discomforts of early modernist fiction, where moral clarity remains perpetually out of reach, these tales offer their own dark reward.