The Watcher by the Threshold

The Watcher by the Threshold, and other tales is a collection of early novellas and stories, most with supernatural elements, by the Scottish author John Buchan. When first published in the UK in 1902 the collection included five stories, mainly set in the Scottish Borders. The collection was republished for the US market in 1918 under the title The Watcher by the Threshold, with four of the original stories and four new ones.

The book's epigraph is a quotation said to be an "Extract from the writings of Donisarius of Padua, circa 1310." It contrasts active travellers who "tarry in the outer courts, speeding the days joyfully with dance and song" with those who remain near to home and who "are found watching by the threshold" night and day, "ever anxious and ill at ease that they may see something of the Shadows which come and go."

On the collection's first publication, The Bookman noted that Buchan's intention is not a cheerful one for it is the "back-world of Scotland" that he describes, a land of old terrors, ancient cruelties and inhuman paganism. The reviewer thought it a book to shudder over, but one through which runs veins of real beauty.

Writing in 1975, David Daniell noted that the collection contains much material that Buchan will later return to in greater depth: "The Outgoing of the Tide" points to Witch Wood, and "The Watcher by the Threshold" and "No Man's Land" point to The Dancing Floor.

"No Man's Land" Daniell considered to be a fascinating novella in which the author develops the sense of desolate threat felt in the remote Scottish hills, using the idea of the survival of a group of Picts as one more illustration of the ancient texture of the landscape. The novella predatesThe Lost World (1912) and Daniell considered it to surpass Conan Doyle and even H. G. Wells in its analysis of the hero's psychology.

Buchan's biographer Andrew Lownie noted the development in "Fountainblue" of several of Buchan's themes: the power of a place extending over a long period, the thin line of civilization, and the existence within individuals of hidden depths of character. (wikipedia.org)