Said to be the first Finnish horror novel (although written in Swedish because of the historical period that I won't go into detail now).

My expectations weren't too high, but this turned out to be quite a nice story (although not standing a chance internationally). Especially the beginning was fairly eerie, because a swamp at night sounds scary (something that would be featured in the film Sauna), especially when suddenly you hear faint moaning and there's a girl being sucked into the earth. It can't be proven if Ingelius got his inspiration from a certain Finnish mansion, but according to the afterword there are some striking similarities in the events and persons.

In the afterword Jukka Sarjala also claims this to be both horror and gothic, but I'd categorize this as only gothic. Almost all of the traditional features of the genre can be found, like mixing horror-like elements and romance, extreme virtue vs. evil, melodrama, subtle humour and an innocent fainting maiden, whose past is a mystery.

Despite the formulaic plot Ingelius's interpretation is still very entertaining, even though after the beginning there were no scary or even eerie moments. Ingelius has clearly been inspired by early 18th century gothic literature with its power hungry noblemen, who want to maintain their fortune and power whatever the cost. Maybe a little bit more descriptions of the surroundings would have been nice, because the atmosphere was mostly quite superficial and hollow, so all the exciting twists and turns didn't seem that amazing or jaw droppingly horrific.

Gothic literature rarely has any supernatural features (although at first they may seem so), and the scariness of the Ristilä mansion stems entirely from its master, the baron, and the events that undeniably puts your head in a spin. So plot-wise this was quite nice (I confess my love towards mysterious cloaked figures), and the ending was also wonderful, because it isn't a traditionally simple happy ending. Although throughout the novel there was a bit too much romance for my liking (and the constant fainting, oh please). The belief that women are weak creatures is thankfully balanced by the character of Irene, who ponders whether to marry for love or obey his tyrannical father. She also stays firmly true to herself against an unwanted suitor. Good for you, girl!