Mr. Kempe by Walter de la Mare | Audiobook ?

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Introduction

Gates of Imagination presents "Mr. Kempe" by Walter de la Mare, read by Arthur Lane. This title was chosen to be recorded by our patrons. If you would like to participate in nominating future titles that will appear on our channel, become our Patron on YouTube.

It was a mild, clammy evening, and the swing door of the Tap Room stood wide open. The brass oil lamp suspended from the rafter had not yet been lighted. A small, misty drizzle was drifting between the lime-washed walls and the overarching trees on the farther side of the lane. From my stool at the counter, I could meet, as often as I felt inclined, the wild white eye of the Blue Boar, which fleered in at the window from the hanging sign.

Autumnal scents, failing day, rain so gentle and persistent—such influences have a slightly soporific effect on the human mind. It is as though the little busy foreground of consciousness first becomes blurred, then blotted out, and then the slow, steady sweep of the panorama of dream that never ceases its strange motioning. The experience is brief, I agree. The footlights, headlights, skylights brighten again; the panorama retires.

Excluding the landlady, who occasionally waddled in from her dusky retreat behind the bar, there were only three chance customers in the tap room now met together for the first time: myself, a smallish man with an unusually high crown to his head and something engagingly monkey-like in his face, and a barrel-shaped creature who sat humped up on a stool between us in an old shooting jacket and leather leggings, his small eyes set close together on either side of a red nose. The talk had been suppressed until some chance word of mine had edged onto the question of another world, a life renewed, the survival of this one.

"And what is your view, then?" I inquired of the little man. He fortified himself with a sip of gin and water from his thick, dumpy glass, and the dark-eyed, wizened face lighted up once more with its curiously engaging smile.

"Well, you see, I was once a schoolmaster in a small way, and from an official point of view, it was part of my job to find answers," he continued. "But as you'll agree, we temporize, we compromise. On the other hand, I once met, quite by chance as we call it, a man who had spent, I should guess, a good many years on that last problem all by himself too. You might almost describe it as a kind of pilgrimage, though I'm not anxious to repeat it. It was, I suppose, my turn for a lesson."

He began to recount an intriguing encounter he had while walking along the northern coast, having misread his map. His aim had been to strike into a cliff path parallel to the coast, but he had taken the wrong turn at the crossroads and found himself on the outskirts of a straggling village. An old lady, who advised him to turn back, eventually told him of a lower cliff track that seemed to be seldom used.

"Why not?" inquired the man in leggings, immediately coughing as if he thought better of it.

"That's what I am coming to," the schoolmaster replied. "My old lady had volunteered her last piece of information with a queer look in her eyes, like some shy animal slipping into cover. She was telling me the truth but not, I fancied, the whole truth."

The schoolmaster, despite being warned against it, decided to follow the rarely trodden path. His recounting of his journey on this path paints a vivid scene of an eerie and challenging landscape, which ultimately led him to meet Mr. Kempe, a reclusive man living in an ancient stone hermitage.

Mr. Kempe turned out to be a peculiar character, consumed by his obsession with the existence of the soul and the afterlife. The schoolmaster described Mr. Kempe's desperate quest for proof of the soul's existence and his erratic behavior, which included dangerous penances and experiments. The encounter left a lasting impression on the schoolmaster, emphasizing the relentless and often perilous human pursuit of existential truths.

Keywords

  • Gates of Imagination
  • Mr. Kempe
  • Walter de la Mare
  • Audiobook
  • Arthur Lane
  • Tap Room
  • Autumnal day
  • Another world
  • Reclusive life
  • Afterlife
  • Soul
  • Quest
  • Northern coast
  • Precarious journey

FAQ

Q: Who is the author of "Mr. Kempe"?
A: Walter de la Mare.

Q: Who read the audiobook version of "Mr. Kempe"?
A: Arthur Lane.

Q: What was the schoolmaster's initial task?
A: The schoolmaster's task was to find answers to questions about another world and a life renewed.

Q: Why did the schoolmaster decide to take the untraveled path?
A: His curiosity and the warning from the old lady intrigued him to explore the path that seemed seldom used.

Q: Who did the schoolmaster meet along the path?
A: Mr. Kempe, a reclusive man obsessed with the existence of the soul.

Q: What was Mr. Kempe’s primary obsession?
A: He was obsessed with finding proof of the existence of the soul and the afterlife.

Q: How did the schoolmaster feel about his encounter with Mr. Kempe?
A: The encounter left a lasting and somewhat unsettling impression on the schoolmaster due to Mr. Kempe's erratic and desperate behavior.

Q: Did the schoolmaster ever return to see Mr. Kempe?
A: No, he did not return after his initial encounter.