The novels original success (15 printings by 1913 ) was partly due to Marsh’s choice of discourse structure. The employment of multiperspectivity was crucial in creating suspense and horror as the reader never learns the full story from one character, and is therefore forced to piece parts together in a disjointed manner. This is supported by Davies who exclaims that: ‘Marsh leads us gently into the nightmare and tantalises and torments with fragments.’ A prime example of this is the character of Paul Lessingham, as the reader is only given fragmented information regarding his character until he speaks out to Augustus Champnell in Book Four. The multiple narrations further create suspense by the use of cliff-hangers such as:
‘I felt his
‘I felt his