Above the Dark Circus was published by Macmillan in 1931 (published in the United States as Above the Dark Tumult), and it is one of Walpole’s most personal and psychologically revealing novels. The story follows a young man newly arrived in London who is drawn into the orbit of a powerful, charismatic older man — a relationship that combines friendship, mentorship, and something darker: the exercise of power over a willing but gradually terrified subject.
The novel’s London setting — the “dark circus” of the title — is rendered as a place of temptation, sophistication, and moral danger. Walpole’s own experience of London literary society, with its intrigues, jealousies, and power games, informs the social texture of the novel. The protagonist’s initiation into this world is simultaneously thrilling and destructive: he gains knowledge, experience, and social position, but at the cost of his independence and ultimately his sense of self.
The relationship at the center of the novel has clear homoerotic undertones — coded, as such things had to be in 1931, but unmistakable to any attentive reader. Walpole, who was gay and unable to write openly about his sexual life, channeled his understanding of same-sex desire, power, and vulnerability into fiction that operated through implication rather than statement.
Collecting Above the Dark Circus
First edition (Macmillan, London, 1931): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First UK edition in dust jacket: $40–$100
- US edition (Above the Dark Tumult): $25–$60
- Without jacket: $8–$15