Like most gothic novels, The Other is replete with symbols and allusions. In one scene, Niles is trying to interest Holland in the constellations, especially the Gemini, those famous brothers of classical myth, Castor and Pollux, models of brotherly love. Although there is no direct mention of the story, students of mythology may remember that the bond of the Gemini extended beyond the death of Castor. When the surviving twin prayed for death, Zeus allowed him to share his life with his brother, both brothers spending every other day in Hades and every other day alive on earth.

Grandmother Ada always wears on her dress a pin shaped like the crescent moon, symbol of the ancient queen of heaven, who, in another phase, was the death goddess. Niles scratches his cheek on the moon pin in the compulsive, despairing embrace of Ada when she realizes the truth about...