‘Coffins’ dark, disturbing tale of Mainers’ woe Civil War-era plot has Poe-like karmic ending

COFFINS, by Rodman Philbrick, Forge, New York, 2002, 319 pages, $23.95.

For his latest novel, Kittery author Rodman Philbrick takes readers back to not just a dark time for the United States, but for one Maine family in particular.

The title has a double meaning, as it’s both the surname of the seafaring clan under siege, as well as the final resting place for many of them.

“Coffins,” set just before the outbreak of the Civil War, is drawn from the journals of Dr. Davis Bentwood, a modern man of science who has rejected superstition and religion in favor of the Transcendental teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. But nothing in Bentwood’s philosophies could have prepared him for the horrors he is to endure.

Bentwood gets drawn into this tragedy through his friendship with the dwarfish Jebediah Coffin, the youngest son of Capt. Cassius Coffin. The fervent abolitionist entreats upon his friend to come minister to his father, who has locked himself in the tower of the family’s homestead in White Harbor after his two twin sons come to an untimely end in a bizarre shipbuilding accident.

As one inexplicable accident after another befalls the Coffins, it appears to Bentwood that the family is cursed, even if he doesn’t accept such an explanation. He begins to dig into the family history, for some clue as to the source of their troubles. Even though he eventually solves the mystery, the Coffins’ woes continue.

Philbrick does an admirable job in capturing the flavor of the times, and it’s enjoyable to see such historical figures as Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton pop up seamlessly in the narrative. He turns the Coffin mansion into a claustrophobic place, with grim fates awaiting all who remain within.

Like the best works of Poe, “Coffins” has no happy ending. It’s an old-fashioned morality tale, with the children paying for the sins of the father. It’s difficult reading at times, as bad things continue to happen to good people, but it still makes a kind of karmic sense in the end.