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''Photographing Fairies'' is a novel by Steve Szilagyi. Taking place in the 1920s, the novel is loosely based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies and includes Arthur Conan Doyle as a minor character. The story dwells on themes such as magic, human sexuality, photography, and human perception. ==Plot Summary== The novel is told in the first person, from the perspective of an American photographer named Charles Castle. Castle is currently held in a prison cell in England. He is to be executed the next day for the crime of murder. He recounts the events, which began four months earlier, that led to his imprisonment and death sentence. Working as a photographer in London, Castle was visited by a constable named Michael Walsmear. Walsmear showed Castle two photographs, each of a different young girl, and asked Castle’s professional opinion as two whether the photographs are genuine. Walsmear went on to point out several tiny spots in the photographs, and he insisted these spots are not dust or imperfections of the film, but instead ''fairies''. Castle enlarged the negatives and looked at the splotches of light, which indeed resembled fairies. Walsmear only wished to confirm that the fairies were real, but Castle was strongly intrigued by the possibility of the existence of fairies. Castle then took copies of the photographs to Arthur Conan Doyle, who possessed a different set of "fairy" photographs. Doyle was not convinced by Walsmear’s photographs with the splotches of light, but he wanted all copies of Walsmear’s photographs destroyed so that Doyle’s own "fairy" photographs would have less competition. Given some money by Doyle, Castle traveled by train to Burkinwell, a fictitious town in England. On the train he met a woman named Linda Drain, and the two of them were robbed by a pair of thieves named Paolo and Shorty. In Burkinwell, Castle met the two girls from the photographs, Clara and Anna Templeton, as well their father, Brian Templeton, who is allegedly syphilitic. Linda Drain turned out to be the wife of Thomas Drain, the local minister, who allowed Castle to set up a darkroom in the cellar of the church. Castle then traveled into the woods, seeking out a Gypsy camp where he would find Walsmear and ask his assistance in procuring more photographs of the fairies in the Templeton garden. Castle located Walsmear, but the constable was hesitant to help because Walsmear was partially responsible for the death of Mrs. Templeton, the mother of Anna and Clara. Castle then got drunk at the Gypsy camp and was attacked violently by Paolo and Shorty, the same thieves from the train. Castle woke up in a bed in the Templeton house. As he recovered from his injuries, the girls Anna and Clara showed him the fairies in their garden, though Castle could not see anything. Later, one night, Castle saw Thomas Drain enter the Templeton garden, alone and completely naked. Drain made orgiastic movements as if being fondled by someone, though no one was there. A few nights later, Castle saw Anna and Clara sneak out of their house, eat special flowers from the garden, and socialize with the fairies. Castle tried eating the same type of flower and saw a mysterious mist appear, followed by visions of fairies and tiny men (called "elves" in Castle’s narration). The following day Castle tried to locate more of the special flowers - described as having "short, purplish red, spiky" petals, a "single yellow tuft that protruded above them," and "sharply serrated leaf edges" - but Mr. Templeton took the only remaining flower of its kind and refused to give Castle access to it. Years ago Walsmear had mistakenly run over Mrs. Templeton with his car (Walsmear also once had an affair with her), and Walsmear believed Mrs. Templeton had run blindly into the road because she had been chasing fairies, under the influence of the mysterious flower. Walsmear’s only reason for proving to himself that the fairies were real, was to assuage his conscience – to convince himself that she died as a result of seeing fairies, as opposed to her committing suicide from guilt as a result of her having an affair with Walsmear. Castle’s interest in the fairies, by this time, was purely self-serving; he fancied he had made an amazing discovery in the garden and prepared to take some photographs of the garden at night, using special lighting techniques. On his way to the garden the next night, however, Castle once again ran into Paolo and Shorty, whom Walsmear hired to steal the photographs from the Templeton house. They were then joined by Thomas Drain, naked and about to have another orgy with the fairies. Paolo and Shorty mistakenly killed Drain and left Castle for dead. Castle was later found and arrested. Thus Castle is blamed for the murder of Thomas Drain, for several reasons: Paolo and Shorty vanished from the garden and were never seen again; it was discovered that Castle was having an affair with Linda Drain; and Castle cannot give any reasonable explanation as to why he came to the Templeton garden that night. Just the night before he is executed, Castle is visited one more time by the fairies in his prison cell. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Photographing Fairies (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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