Kerfol by Edith Wharton

In Edith Wharton’s story Kerfol, published in 1911, a solitary traveller visits an ancient house in Brittany-a place shrouded in silence and mystery. Wandering the grounds, he encounters a pack of strange, silent dogs, their watchful eyes heavy with meaning.
But Kerfol is no ordinary house. Its walls seem to echo with an unspoken history, a lingering presence that refuses to be forgotten. What happened within its cold stone halls? And why do the dogs remain?
Step into this haunting tale of solitude and shadows. Listen now and let Kerfol draw you into its unsettling secrets.
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[@riverbilly64]

Ohhh, Edith Wharton. Yesssss!

[@carolynlewis9008]

My favorite voice on KZbin!

[@ClassicGhost]

ty ty vm

[@joestuttard1495]

You do have an excellent reading voice! You make me giggle when you occasionally misread something and tut

[@carolynlewis9008]

Crystal clarity and excellent diction.

[@clonejones7955]

Wharton's writing really speaks to me as a woman even in this timeline.The House of Mirth is one of my favourites.Great as usual Tony🇨🇦♥️

[@lastofthe4horsemen279]

Just diagnosed with cancer .l need a diversion.Take me back Tony😊

[@julialewis8794]

Beating cancer is all about the attitude. Don't be afraid to tell your loved ones you need help. Don't be afraid to nap when you need to. You can do it. ❤

[@LadyAva]

🙏🩷🩷🩷

[@donnavorce8856]

❤ best of health and power to you

[@terrioestreich4007]

So sorry about your diagnosis, I wish you strength

[@cheshirecat6518]

So sorry to hear of your diagnosis 🥺 I wish you strength and stubbornness.

[@ainemoroney9965]

I love how your after story thoughts draw us to find more joy from "Kerfol". Your love of Edith Wartons writing is a treasure for us. You've very much brought this beautifully sad story to life.

[@carolynlewis9008]

@@ainemoroney9965 YES Tony likes to talk almost as much as I do. People won’t tell you this Tony but the discussion after the story, keeps the details of the “classic” itself firmly intact and fresh in the mind.

[@AndreaDingbatt]

Absolutely Brilliantly Narrated Tony, Thank you!! As always, we stayed to the very end, as we really enjoy your synopsis!!

[@ClassicGhost]

Thanks again!

[@debreena2888]

A great, yet sad ghost story. Thank you. It is not nice, but the husband got what was coming to him. I love dogs and prefer them to most people. ;D I had a little Pekingese (sleeve and/or lion dog), when a child and another in the 90s. I found a breeder that was not breeding them with the "new look" of a huge chest and a totally flattened face, both traits that compromises their health. My Maggie lived until age 16. Pekingese are a lovely dog breed.

[@dobo9194]

TONY WALKER. I’m a fortysomething gay man who smoked 20 cigarettes a day for over 20 years and I have a degree in English. I NEVER ONCE in all that time made the connection between the word for a bundle of twigs and what I called my cigarettes. Thank you! I quit five years ago with some short term support from a vape, which I took to calling “electrofag”. Is it too much of a bad pun to suggest I never twigged it?

[@ClassicGhost]

yes it’s obvious when you know it :)

[@lastofthe4horsemen279]

@@dobo9194 made me smile with that one

[@rohanquinby3188]

You are responsible for introducing me to Wharton, and I think she is not only one of the greatest stylists in the genre, but my god the complexity and sophistication of her stories!!!

[@rohanquinby3188]

And I really couldn't wait to hear your commentary. THANK YOU!

[@sathurxy49]

I read this during lockdown. Now to relax with your usual superb dramatisation.

[@donaldmccleary9015]

Great story and fantastic narration, Tony. The role of the dogs in this story is very interesting. Thank you for narrating this gem for us. I wish you and all fellow listeners a fantastic weekend.

[@ClassicGhost]

thanks as always Don

[@julierobinson3633]

I think the device of what happens to the dogs is to increase the emotional response in the reader. I'm sure MANY of us would be thinking 'someone killed my pets and THEY would be the one not daring to shut their eyes at night, not me'. But this makes you realise the powerlessness of this woman. When you were speaking at the end it occured to me to wonder if Edith Wharton herself had any children, and like this young woman she did not. Perhaps Wharton's dogs were emotionally her 'children' in the same way they were for her character, and in this story it was Wharton's idea of the worst thing this man could have done to show his power over his young wife - and his threat to her. Really the husband was doing the equivalent of strangling her 'babies' to punish her. But in such a way that in the eyes of the law he had nothing to answer for.

[@ClassicGhost]

I think that’s bang on. I feel about my dogs as if they are my children now.

[@MLeahy-i7b]

Thank you for the music. It's like having my old friend back.

[@emilybelzer5773]

I like the frame conceit where there's a contemporary actor doing research, so that the core of the ghost story and the frame are both in motion. And, like in Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, it allows for some really effective out-of-order storytelling. Talking about writing details: my mom is a writer, and many years ago, now, when she asked me what I thought of one of her short stories. I liked it, but when she pressed me for my thoughts, I realized it felt a little uncomfortable and I wasn't sure why. Then I realized, and I told her, it was because there's a moment where the main character, who has his hair in a long ponytail, puts a satchel over his head and across his body. Having had long hair most of my life, for the rest of the story, it was in my back of my mind that his ponytail was stuck under that strap and it was making me physically uncomfortable. She still says that comment completely changed her perspective on what it means to draw the reader into a scene.

[@ClassicGhost]

Very interesting!

[@melaniehassler2405]

1:47 "they don't understand French and they will pretend they did and mix you up" 😂

[@ClassicGhost]

mad eo!

[@stevenshipman650]

Thank you for reading this! One of my favorites!!! It’s a beautifully crafted tale inspired, no doubt by her own beloved little dogs. I love Edith Wharton’s ghost stories. ❤

[@ClassicGhost]

I totally agree!

[@Trixie1829-d8u]

Dogs are so loving and loyal!🐾💙🐾🥹 Thank you, Tony!🥲

[@EBDavis111]

Here in New Mexico we have Great-tailed Grackles. I thought they were just crows until I heard the extraordinary cacophany they make when they congregate.

[@donaldmccleary9015]

@@EBDavis111 they are pretty birds. The ones in Pennsylvania at my parents' place chase all the little birds away from the feeders. My dad yells at them all the time. Lol!

[@InessaBeach-jv2ex]

Thank you, dear Tony for your reading. You have beautiful voice that 's easy on the ear and I understand everything you say... I love Edith Wharton. What a woman she was!❤❤❤

[@shivikewl6003]

Loved this one. Edith Wharton and Tony Walker is an amazing combination.

[@annmarieray3922]

I loved this ...I'm glad the dog's came back and took their revenge...I was hoping it was them...thank you Tony...

[@thurayya8905]

It is interesting and sad that we of the modern age can see that her husband was a monster from the killing of the dogs, but for his age, it was considered typical and even boring. It gives the story a depth. We see the tragedy of a woman's life ruined by the man that owns her. By recounting a story set in the eighteenth century, Wharton is describing contemporary marriage.

[@rheinhartsilvento2576]

The events are set at the beginning of the 17th century. The copy of the court records dates from the early 18th century.

[@ritamartin4782]

Proud of you Tony, this story is up there with some of the best stories! Very innovate and done with just the right timing!🎉

[@reggiereject]

Love the music!

[@Suggest_Me_Books]

Another great read! Thank you Tony!

[@ClassicGhost]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@thurayya8905]

I have never heard that nice perculation at the end of the music before, very fitting.

[@raissadevereux6762]

Thank you.

[@il_nessuno43]

Just found your channel and immediately subscribed. Absolutely perfect voice for this genre. You'd be amazing narrating John Le Carré, too.

[@ClassicGhost]

Welcome aboard!

[@SMichaelDeHart]

Mr. Tony, it's a sad state off affairs in today's world, where you have to preface your after story talk. Just makes me shake my head and just go, huh!! Enjoyed the story and narration... always par for the course.

[@ClassicGhost]

It's a numbers game. While the proportion of twiners per capita (as we say round here) remains the same on all social media (it's much less in the real world) I am reaching more folk so I am throwing up more of them.

[@sumar207]

The prose flows! ❤

[@roxanavasilakis9435]

Thanks dear Tony ,🌻

[@ritamartin4782]

A French loving man, Tony, but his heart is Briton! That explains a lot

[@denisepiekarski4159]

Goodness I love your rants! ❤

[@alistairdownie3198]

Oh Wow!😮 If Anyone Ever Even Looked at my wife's dog, in the "Wrong Way",,, They would be Walking 'Funny' for the rest of their lives! If they were Foolish enough to Attempt to harm him, One of Two things might happen.... 1, They Would Not Manage To get Near him. 2, She would Harm Them, (*and I will have to visit her in Prison,,,If she was Caught!)

[@pinkdostoyevsky]

Thank you Tony❤

[@cyndifusco3548]

Thank you for reading these amazing stories ❤️

[@amandalee215]

I am going to enjoy this Thank you Tony

[@ClassicGhost]

Very welcome

[@psukebariah3435]

A major job of pets generally in horror fiction is to die - "the canary in the coalmine" foretelling the evil to come. It's such a trope I've started fast forwarding when I suspect it's about to happen.

[@5tsumi13]

***I think the ghost dogs were more than arbiters of revenge, they must also have been there to stop the husband from barring her from meeting with the person who could have been the ticket to her freedom and happiness. So, they were protecting her from the a-hole trying to ruin her life and keep her trapped and miserable.

[@ClassicGhost]

we were all on the dogs side 🐕

[@ritamartin4782]

Maybe Edith spent those 15 years before writing to travel to weird places and meet weird people.... Hence, her stories are about the people and places she visited. Each one was different, just like Tony said!😊

[@5tsumi13]

Uggghh it’s so absolutely obnoxious that people are complaining so much that you have to make a disclaimer.

[@ClassicGhost]

i wish i was less troubled by their comments

[@julierobinson3633]

" first turn to the right and second turn to the left and straight on..." Anyone else going "until morning"?

[@thurayya8905]

Oh, yes!😂

[@lunablue745]

I'm the person who watches horror movies and roots for the family pet to survive over the family!

[@petere5826]

Family dogs NEVER survive them movies

[@MovieJustin]

Because you are a sociopath

[@AndreaDingbatt]

Im with you !!

[@lunablue745]

@AndreaDingbatt ❤️❤️❤️

[@lunablue745]

@@MovieJustin you just proved my point bro.

[@ainemoroney9965]

The full channel music theme played - gosh it was missed!

[@reneelascala5050]

Right. So when you tell us Edith aided out of work ‘seamstresses,’ are you using ‘seamstress’ as in the Discworld? Or garment work? NB: 19th c Seattle, Washington had a robust cadre of seamstresses, some 2700, mostly living around Pioneer Square-and barely a sewing machine in the city.

[@ClassicGhost]

yes, I think people who make clothes

[@reneelascala5050]

@ 😆I was having you on about literal interpretations💞

[@ceciliajones7816]

I love that house! Is it AI or real?

[@TherealLumpendoodle]

In my imagination, I see the wife as having some comfort from her dogs visits once a year.

[@manzanitakatznellenbogen2870]

This was a good one :) loved your discourse afterwards too. Where are you learning Cornish?

[@ClassicGhost]

Online these days. yma klass heneth.

[@manzanitakatznellenbogen2870]

@ClassicGhost There might still be the news in Cornish on the local radio if you can get in online :)

[@carolynlewis9008]

TONY!!! Missed you!!!

[@leebennett1821]

Who let the Dogs out Woof Woof Woof

[@MrsJanLong]

Amazing word-picture. I love Edith Wharton, thank you for sharing. And I don't think I'm putting a spoiler in if I mention "karma" :)

[@mistydevillier2197]

Those who make these comments, to me and I'm sure others, are quite unintelligent. I'm speaking of the commentary after the main story.

[@TheMrCougarful]

It had to be dogs, though, as no self-respecting cat would have tolerated such nonsense. Indeed.

[@anneinnes5691]

How sad that you have to justify so much of your superb story-telling! If folks don’t like it, they don’t have to listen. You are a professional storyteller trying to be as true to the time and the setting of the story in order to aid comprehension. The vast majority of listeners will realise , understand and appreciate this so, please, carry on doing what you do in the style/delivery you do so admirably. 👍🏻

[@caroleminke6116]

Wharton was really crazy about her sleeve dogs & even got ridiculed for her eccentric behavior as well as her projection of human emotions on them

[@ClassicGhost]

I’m with her

[@jenniferhawkins3142]

Dog lovers, beware! He he he 😁 just messing with Tony who loves adding trigger warnings 😵‍💫

[@soundsilence2604]

You beat me to it! 😁

[@robincapuano8216]

Love Edith! ❤

[@gretchenkiley6615]

Ghost dogs 🥺❤️🐾

[@TashaatHome]

Anyone dumb enough to comment that you must hate dogs because you read a story wherein a dog died, just deserves their comment to be deleted and move on.

[@tegworld]

Can you add a timestamp so I don’t have to hear the story premise beforehand?

[@ClassicGhost]

I’ll do it if I remember

[@tegworld]

@ thanks. Love your channel. Just like to go into the stories without any clues. Keep up the great work. 🙏👍

[@tylenol3572]

Bro why do people get mad over dogs that don't exist. That's so silly. Ya nanny.

[@arlanstrong1424]

Is the lady who says "You tried to get into the locked drawer didn't you" Evelyn Venable?

[@ClassicGhost]

I’m not sure

[@florenceedouard6935]

Tony, do you think that the husband was so controlling, because of his first wife dying????

[@ClassicGhost]

I think we are being kind to him

[@carmenplangger9417]

Hug your dog today!

[@dorenamclees4842]

Well said Tony! Or should I say......well ranted?

[@ClassicGhost]

yes, it was peppery on this one

[@ajb7786]

Any chance we can get an original work soon (ghost or detective)?

[@ClassicGhost]

i’m still working on my supernatural stories collection which is being proofread at the moment

[@craigoliver8712]

Why does he say that about the "peasants not speaking French"?i would understand more if it was Alsace or Lorraine region rather than the Cherbourg peninsula of Northwest France.

[@ClassicGhost]

no, it’s because they’re Bretons so most of them until after the Breton speaking population was decimated in the first world war wouldn’t understand French

[@craigoliver8712]

@ClassicGhost Right,got ya.

[@ritamartin4782]

Maybe later on after all was ending, she became psychotic and her nightmares became real 😮

[@StoryVoracious]

Thanks for your efforts Tony, But I have to respectfully decline this one. Look forward to your next 😢

[@karawaters829]

I think I just discovered where the ugly term “flamer” comes from.

[@ClassicGhost]

i don’t know that one

[@mariameere5807]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@pattyhoskins5099]

I don't like this dog killer😢

[@carolynlewis9008]

When can we speak Welsh!!!!

[@ClassicGhost]

Dwi’n siarad Cymraeg bob dydd, hyd yn oed os ydi hi efo’r cwn a’n hunan.

[@carolynlewis9008]

@@ClassicGhost When I try to speak it, it sounds like I have marbles in my mouth lol

[@carolynlewis9008]

@@ClassicGhost Ydy Owain Glyndwr yn 600 oed mewn gwirionedd?

[@carolynlewis9008]

@ Hey! Do you still have a book club online meetup?

[@ritamartin4782]

Maybe Edith wrote this ghost dog story, because she was truly psychotic and had to make things make sense. 😮 How did her husband die?

[@stewartlancaster6155]

story 55 mins.

[@SunnySmile-fr5yg]

We know. Tony always indicates where the story ends and Commentary begins.