Book Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

Book Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

Book Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

Book Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

Book Description
Included in this volume of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's eerie tales are Ghost Stories of Chapelizod, including "The Village Bully," "The Sexton's Adventure," "The Specter Lovers"; "The Drunkard's Dream"; "The Ghost and the Bonesetter"; "The Mysterious Lodger"; "Laura Silver Bell"; "Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling"; "The Child That Went with the Fairies"; Stories of Lough Guir, including "The Magician Earl," "Moll Rial's Adventure," "The Banshee," "The Governess's Dream," and "The Earl's Hall"; "The Vision of Tom Chuff"; and "Dickon the Devil." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good mystery that will keep you guessing
Although this book starts off a bit slow, you'll be rewarded if you stick with it. The plot concerns two wealthy families - somehow related - that are to unite fortunes with the (arranged) marriage of Mark and Dorcas. Mark leaves town on business just before the wedding, promising to be there for the event. He keeps postponing his arrival and allows Dorcas the right to dissolve their engagement. Does Mark have cold feet, or is he being coerced into cancelling the marriage? If so, by whom? After you get to the half-way mark of this book, you won't want to put it down. The suspense bulids up to the very last chapter, and you won't be dissapointed. ... Read more

Book Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

Book Description
Memoir Of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. The Ghost And The Bone-Setter. The Fortunes Of Sir Robert Ardagh. The Last Heir Of Castle Connor. The Drunkard's Dream. Passage In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess. The Bridal Of Carrigvarah. Strange Event In The Life Of Schalken The Painter. Scraps Of Hibernian Ballads. Jim Sulivan's Adventures In The Great Snow. A Chapter In The History Of A Tyrone Family. An Adventure Of Hardress Fitzgerald. A Royalist Captain. 'The Quare Gander'. Billy Malowney's Taste Of Love And Glory ... Read more

Book Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

Book Description
When an accident occurs on a road near their castle, Laura and her father take in the stranded survivor. Carmilla and Laura both appear young, beautiful, and innocent. But one is an ageless vampire; the other, an unsuspecting victim. True to vampire rituals involving blood, fear of dying, and obsessive eroticism, Carmilla herself falls victim to the "rapture of cruelty that is love." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Classy version of classic horror story
"Carmilla," which predates Stoker's "Dracula," introduced the lesbian vampire to literature, and this reading of the entire text by Megan Follows breathes real life into LeFanu's somewhat antiquated Victorian style.Follows makes the narrator Laura into an intelligent and compelling guide through the tale; she also puts the proper ambivalence in the descriptions of Carmilla's advances, vampiric and otherwise.Indeed, what's most impressive is how clearly the lesbian subtext is presented, and how much emotion is involved. Altbough the plot is a little obvious after two centuries of rip-offs, LeFanu's innate storytelling skill and Follows' presentation make the anachronisms fairly painless, and the uniquely unsettling bits still have their chills. ... Read more

Book Description
Introduction by Jessica de Mellow."The ideal reading in a country house for the hours after midnight." -- Henry James ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Checkmate - A Lesser Known Sensation Novel by Le Fanu
J. Sheridan Le Fanu's lesser known novel, Checkmate, involves self-interest, dishonesty, deception, revenge, and murder.Sir Reginald Arden, worried by mortgages on Mortlake Hall, is arranging marriage of his daughter Alice, unbeknownst to her, to Lord Wynderbroke, a middle-aged, wealthy peer. Some time previously Sir Reginald had ostracized his fiery, proud, spendthrift son Richard, but nonetheless he temporarily recruits his son's efforts in disguising the family discord from Lord Wynderbroke. Richard sees advantages to himself if Alice marries Wynderbroke, and discredits Mr. Longcluse, a recently arrived wealthy gentleman that has been showing romantic interest in Alice. Meanwhile, we readers are puzzled by Mr. Longcluse's relationship with a French citizen, a Monsieur Lebas, who is unexpectedly murdered in a betting parlor. The plot is further complicated by a murder that occurred some twenty years previously. Harry, a brother of Sir Reginald, was robbed and murdered outside Mortlake Hall. And so goes the early chapters.

The atmosphere is not as dark and threatening as in Le Fanu's highly popular Uncle Silas, but early on there is a vague concern that something is not quite right. A gentleman of apparently good credentials is ultimately revealed to be a formidable, highly wicked man; his meticulous steps to achieve revenge are reminiscent of a carefully played game of chess. The solution to this Victorian mystery is perhaps a little farfetched as it involves rather fanciful surgical techniques practiced by an unethical Prussian doctor. Nonetheless, Checkmate makes good reading and I give it four stars.

Checkmate (1871) is a good example of the sensation novel, a genre popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s. The Victorian public was accustom to Gothic tales involving adultery, theft, kidnapping, insanity, bigamy, forgery, seduction and murder. However, the sensation novels authored by Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Le Fanu, and others were considered particularly shocking because these crimes take place not in fictionalized Gothic locales, but in familiar Victorian domestic settings.

As editor and owner of the Dublin University magazine, J. Sheridan Le Fanu's literary influence was substantial, but following his death in 1873 his works faded into obscurity. Fortunately for the modern reader, M. R. James, a scholar of medieval manuscripts and a writer of ghost stories himself, helped restored Le Fanu's reputation by editing and reprinting (in 1923) Le Fanu's Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Stories. Today, Le Fanu's short stories and novels are all available in reprint editions. Some have become television screenplays. Sutton Publishing released a reprint edition of Checkmate in 2000. ... Read more