The novella “The Rose” by Charles L. Harness was published for the first time in 1953 in the magazine “Authentic SF”.

Anna van Tuyl is a composer, a dancer and a psychiatrist who is trying to finish a piece titled “The Rose”. When she realizes that her body is changing and thinks she’s getting ugly a period of crisis start for her. However, at the same time she finds more inspiration for her piece.

When Anna starts analyzing the famous painter Ruy Jacques, she realizes that he’s also undergoing the same physical changes and that they’re at a more advanced stage. The strange relationship that begins between Anna and Ruy aggravates the one between Ruy and his wife Martha, who is very jealous. Husband and wife are heatedly debating the conflict between art and science and Anna is caught in the middle.

“The Rose” has a history quite out of the ordinary, even for a peculiar author such as Charles L. Harness. This novella was initially published only in a British magazine, a fact abnormal for an American author. It was Michael Moorcock who rediscovered it after more than a decade and from there its fortune began, so much so that in 2004 it was nominated for the Retro Hugo Award for the best works published in 1953.

Charles L. Harness’ sources of inspiration for “The Rose” are the tragic death of his brother Billy from a brain tumor and the story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde. For the rest, this novella contains elements typical of this author, starting with the theme of the superhuman, in this case with some people who are going through a transformation.

Charles L. Harness has never been a hard science fiction author. His stories contain elements of pseudo-science that are far from rigorous and sometimes even make no sense from a scientific point of view. In “The Rose” the concept of evolution is expressed in a totally unscientific manner. What interests the author is the characters’ experience that brings them to a different mental level, another typical Harness theme.

The changes of the characters are included in a story that explores a conflict between art and science. Because of the pseudo-scientific content of this and other stories by Charles L. Harness it’s hard to take him seriously when he talks about science but in “The Rose” in my opinion he still managed to get some interesting results.

These themes, mixed with a kind of love triangle involving the main characters, form a story that’s a it chaotic but manages to reach an ending that somehow brings the various pieces together. It’s a rather philosophical science fiction, closer to the New Wave of the following years than the Golden Age of the previous years.

“The Rose” contains more dialogue than action so the pace is often slow even though there are very intense moments. The emotions come from the characters’ feelings, not the adventure. The balance between all the elements of this novella isn’t very stable and in some ways it’s dated and yet it remains a fascinating history.

“The Rose” is generally published together with the short story “The Chess Player” (1953), a humorous story about chess, and the novelette “The New reality” (1950), one of the most famous stories by Charles L. Harness that talks about the influence of what people believe on reality.

Despite some flaws and its age, I think “The Rose” is an intriguing read that I recommend to anyone who appreciates stories tending to the philosophical.