Sheridan Le Fanu

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (August 28, 1814 – February 7, 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. Image File history File links LeFanu. ... Image File history File links LeFanu. ... is the 240th day of the year (241st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1814 (MDCCCXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Gothic novel. ... A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or the belief of some character(s) in them. ...

Biography

Sheridan Le Fanu was born at No. 45 Lower Dominick Steet, Dublin, into a literary family of Huguenot origins. Both his grandmother Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and his great-uncle Richard Brinsley Sheridan were playwrights. His niece Rhoda Broughton would become a very successful novelist. Within a year of his birth his family moved to the Royal Hibernian Military School in Phoenix Park, where his father, an Anglican clergyman, was the chaplain of the establishment. Phoenix Park and the adjacent village and parish church of Chapelizod were to feature in Le Fanu's later stories. Dublin city centre at night WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: , Statistics Province: Leinster County: Dáil Éireann: Dublin Central, Dublin North Central, Dublin North East, Dublin North West, Dublin South Central, Dublin South East European Parliament: Dublin Dialling Code: +353 1 Postal District(s): D1-24, D6W Area: 114. ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists. ... Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Sheridan (October 30, 1751 – July 7, 1816) was an Irish playwright and Whig statesman. ... Rhoda Broughton (November 29, 1840 – June 5, 1920) was a novelist. ... // The buildings housing the Royal Hibernian Military School, Dublin were erected in Phoenix Park, overlooking the village of Chapelizod in the Liffey valley (in full view of Wicklow mountains) in Ireland first taking in 90 boys and 50 girls as pupils (in the charge of an Inspector and Inspectress, assisted... Deer grazing near the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park Phoenix Park (in Irish, Páirc an Fhionn-Uisce) is a large park located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland. ... Chapelizod is Ireland oldest villege. ...

Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected Auditor of the College Historical Society. He was called to the bar in 1839, but he never practised and soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine, including his first ghost story, entitled "A Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (1839). He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Lady Justice or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system (particularly in Western art). ... Trinity College, Dublin TCD, corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I, and is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ... The College Historical Society (commonly known as The Hist) was founded in Trinity College in 1770 and traces its creation to the historical society founded by the philosopher Edmund Burke in Dublin in 1747. ... The Dublin Evening Mail (renamed the Evening Mail in 1928) was between 1823 and 1962 one of Dublins evening newspapers. ... The word warder can mean:- A prison guard. ...

In 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. In 1847 he supported John Mitchell and Thomas Meagher in their campaign against the indifference of the Government to the Irish Famine. His support cost him the nomination as Tory MP for County Carlow in 1852. His personal life also became difficult at this time, as his wife Susanna suffered from increasing neurotic symptoms. She died in 1858 in unclear circumstances, and anguished excerpts from Le Fanu's diaries suggest that he felt guilt as well as loss. However, it was only after her death that, becoming something of a recluse, he devoted himself full time to writing. The name John Mitchell can refer to several different people. ... Thomas Francis Meagher aka: OMeagher, or Meagher of the Sword (August 3, 1823 – July 1, 1867) was an Irish revolutionary, who also served in the United States Army as a Brigadier General during the U.S. Civil War. ... Starvation during the famine The Irish Potato Famine, also called The Great Famine or The Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór), is the name given to a famine which struck Ireland between 1846 and 1849. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 52. ...

In 1861 he became the editor and proprietor of the Dublin University Magazine and he began exploiting double exposure: serializing in the Dublin University Magazine and then revising for the English market. The House by the Churchyard and Wylder's Hand were both published in this way. After the lukewarm reviews of the former novel, set in the Phoenix Park area of Dublin, Le Fanu signed a contract with Richard Bentley, his London publisher, which specified that future novels be stories "of an English subject and of modern times", a step Bentley thought necessary in order for Le Fanu to satisfy the English audience. Le Fanu succeeded in this aim in 1864, with the publication of Uncle Silas, which he set in Derbyshire. In his very last short stories, however, Le Fanu returned to Irish folklore as an inspiration and encouraged his friend Patrick Kennedy to contribute folklore to the D.U.M. Le Fanu died in his native Dublin on February 7, 1873. Today there is a road in Ballyfermot, near his childhood home in south-west Dublin, named after him. The House by the Churchyard (1863) is a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu that combines elements of the mystery novel and the historical novel. ... Deer grazing near the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park Phoenix Park (in Irish, Páirc an Fhionn-Uisce) is a large park located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland. ... for the rural reprobate of stories by H.E. Bates, see My Uncle Silas Uncle Silas is a Victorian Gothic mystery/thriller novel by the Anglo-Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. ... is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

His work

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. (Many of his novels are expansions and refinements of earlier short stories). 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: in most of his major works, the supernatural is strongly implied but a possible "natural" explanation is left (barely) open—for instance, the demonic monkey in "Green Tea" could be a delusion of the story's protagonist, who is the only person to see it; in "The Familiar", Captain Barton's death seems to be of supernatural causes, but is not actually witnessed, and the ghostly owl may just be a real bird. This approach has proven important for later horror writers and also for other media (it is surely an antecedent to the film producer Val Lewton's principle of indirect horror). Though other writers have since chosen blunter approaches to supernatural fiction, Le Fanu's best tales, such as the vampire novella "Carmilla", remain some of the most chilling examples of the genre. Considering the influence of his work—including his enormous influence on the 20th century's most important ghost story writer, M. R. James—it is surprising that Le Fanu is not better appreciated. Val Lewton Vladimir Ivan Leventon (7 May, 1904-14 March, 1951) was an American screenwriter and producer who was born in what is now Yalta, Ukraine. ... Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire, 1897 Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings that subsist on human and/or animal lifeforce. ... A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu. ... Montague Rhodes James, (August 1, 1862–June 12, 1936). ...

The Purcell Papers

His earliest twelve short stories, written between 1838 and 1840 purport to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. They were published in the Dublin University Magazine and were later collected as The Purcell Papers (1880). They are mostly set in Ireland and include some classic stories of gothic horror, featuring gloomy castles, supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, madness and suicide. Also apparent is an elegiac political dimension concerning the dispossession of the former Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand as mute witness to this history. The stories include some widely anthologised pieces: The Purcell Papers (1880) are a collection of thirteen Gothic, supernatural, historical and humorous short stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73) originally written for the Dublin University Magazine. ...

• "The Ghost and the Bonesetter" (1838), his first published story, in a jocular vein.
• "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh" (1838), an enigmatic story involving a Faustian pact, set in the gothic surroundings of a castle in rural Ireland.
• "The Last Heir of Castle Connor" (1838), a non-supernatural tale, symbolic of the decline and expropriation of the ancient Catholic gentry of Ireland under the Protestant Ascendancy.
• "The Drunkard's Dream" (1838), of Hell.
• "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (1839), a disturbing story of a revenant coming back from beyond the grave to claim his bride: the old folkloric motif of the demon lover. This tale takes its inspiration from the atmospheric candlelit scenes of the 17th-century Dutch painter Godfried Schalcken, who is the hero of the story. It was adapted and broadcast for television by the BBC for Christmas 1979.[1].
• "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (1839), an early version of his later novel Uncle Silas.
• "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family" (1839), which may have influenced Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. This story was later reworked and expanded by Le Fanu as The Wyvern Mystery (1869).

Revised versions of "Irish Countess" and "Schalken" were reprinted in Le Fanu's first collection of short stories, the very rare Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery (1851). Saint Augustine and the Devil A Pact with the Devil or Faustian Pact is a widespread cultural meme, most familiar in the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles but an element in many folktales. ... The Protestant Ascendancy refers to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by Anglican landowners, Church of Ireland clergy, and professionals during the 17th, 18th, and 19th century. ... “The Inferno” redirects here. ... The Daemon Lover, also known as James Harris, James Herries, or The House Carpenter (Roud 14, Child 243) is a popular ballad from Britain. ... Godfried Schalcken (1643 - 1706), Dutch genre and portrait painter, was born at Dort. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... Charlotte Brontë (IPA: ) (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) was an English novelist and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become timeless pieces of English literature. ... Jane Eyre is a classic novel by Charlotte Brontë that was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, London, and is one of the most famous British novels. ...

Spalatro

An anonymous novella Spalatro: from the notes of Fra Giacomo published in the D.U.M. in 1843 was added to the Le Fanu canon as late as 1980, being recognised as being by Le Fanu by W.J. McCormack in his biography of that year. Spalatro has a typically Gothic period Italian setting, featuring a bandit as hero, in the mode of Anne Radcliffe. More disturbing, however, is the hero Spalatro's necrophiliac passion for an undead blood-drinking beauty, who seems to be a predeccesor of Le Fanu's later female vampire Carmilla. Like Carmilla this undead femme fatale is not portrayed in an entirely negative light and attempts, but fails, to save the hero Spalatro from the eternal damnation which seems to be his destiny. There are several people with this or a similar name: Ann Radcliffe, a 19th-century author Ann (Radcliffe) Mowlson, a 17th-century benefactor of Harvard, whose name is sometimes spelled with an e This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share...

Historical fiction

Le Fanu's first novels were historical, in the mode of Sir Walter Scott, though with an Irish background. Like Scott, Le Fanu gave a sympathetic account of the old Jacobite cause: For the first Premier of Saskatchewan see Thomas Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott (August 14, 1771 - September 21, 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe. ... Jacobite refers to: A follower of Jacobitism, the political movement dedicated to the return of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland A member of the Jacobite Orthodox Church of Syria. ...

• The Cock and Anchor (1845), a story of old Dublin. It was reissued with slight alterations as Morley Court in 1873.
• The Fortunes of Colonel Torlogh O'Brien (1847).
• The House by the Churchyard (1863), the last of Le Fanu's novels to be set in the past and, as mentioned above, the last with an Irish setting. It is noteworthy that here Le Fanu's historical mode is blended with his later Gothic mode, influenced by his reading of the classic writers of that genre, such as Anne Radcliffe. This novel was later an important source for Joyce's Finnegans Wake and is set in Chapelizod, where Le Fanu lived in his youth.

The House by the Churchyard (1863) is a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu that combines elements of the mystery novel and the historical novel. ... There are several people with this or a similar name: Ann Radcliffe, a 19th-century author Ann (Radcliffe) Mowlson, a 17th-century benefactor of Harvard, whose name is sometimes spelled with an e This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish expatriate writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... For the street ballad which the novel is named after, see Finnegans Wake. ... Chapelizod is Ireland oldest villege. ...

Sensation novels

Le Fanu published many novels in the contemporary sensation fiction mode of Wilkie Collins and others: The sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s. ... Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and writer of short stories. ...

• Wylder's Hand (1864).
• Guy Deverell (1865).
• All in the Dark (1866), satirising spiritualism.
• The Tenants of Malory (1867).
• A Lost Name (1868).
• Haunted Lives (1868).
• The Wyvern Mystery (1869).
• Checkmate (1871).
• The Rose and the Key (1871), which describes the horrors of the private lunatic asylum, a classic gothic trope.
• Willing to Die (1872).

By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was the object of intense curiosity. ...

Major works

His best-known works, still widely read today, are:

The seductive vampire Carmilla attacks the sleeping Laura.

• Uncle Silas (1864), a macabre mystery novel and classic of gothic horror. It is a much extended adaptation of his earlier short story "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess", with the locale switched from Ireland to England. A film version of the same name was made by Gainsborough Studios in 1947, and a remake entitled The Dark Angel, starring Peter O'Toole as the title character, was made in 1987.
• In a Glass Darkly (1872), a collection of five short stories in the horror and mystery genres, presented as the posthumous papers of the psychic investigator Dr Hesselius:

• "Green Tea"
• "The Familiar"
• "Mr Justice Harbottle" (perhaps better known in its earlier, very different version, "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street")
• "The Room in the Dragon Volant", not a ghost story but a notable mystery story that includes the theme of premature burial
• "Carmilla", a compelling tale of a lesbian vampire, set in darkest central Europe. This story was to greatly influence Bram Stoker in the writing of Dracula. It also served as the basis for several films, including Hammer's The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr (1932).

Illustration of Carmilla from The Dark Blue by D. H. Friston, 1872 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Illustration of Carmilla from The Dark Blue by D. H. Friston, 1872 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... for the rural reprobate of stories by H.E. Bates, see My Uncle Silas Uncle Silas is a Victorian Gothic mystery/thriller novel by the Anglo-Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. ... Gainsborough Pictures was a film studio based in Islington, London, active between 1924 and 1951. ... Peter Seamus OToole (born August 2, 1932, accepted but presumed date[5]) is an eight-time Academy Award-nominated Irish actor. ... In a Glass Darkly is a collection of five short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu, first published in 1872, the year before his death. ... “Buried Alive” redirects here. ... Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ... Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. ... Hammer horror refers to a series of gothic horror films produced from the late 1950s until the 1970s by the British film production company Hammer Film Productions Ltd. ... The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British Hammer Horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Polish actress Ingrid Pitt and Kate OMara. ... Carl Theodor Dreyer (February 3, 1889 - March 20, 1968) was a Danish film director. ... Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg (who appeared under the screen name Julian West). ...

Other short-story collections

• Chronicles of Golden Friars (1871), a collection of short stories set in the imaginary English village of Golden Friars, including:

• "A Strange Adventure in the Life of Miss Laura Mildmay", within which is incorporated the story "Madam Crowl's Ghost".
• "The Haunted Baronet", a novella.
• "The Bird of Passage".

• The Watcher and Other Weird Stories (1894), another collection of short stories, published posthumously.
• Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery (1923), uncollected short stories gathered from their original magazine publications and edited by M. R. James:

• "Madam Crowl's Ghost", from All the Year Round, December 1870.
• "Squire Toby's Will", from Temple Bar, January 1868.
• "Dickon the Devil", from London Society, Christmas Number, 1872.
• "The Child That Went with the Fairies", from All the Year Round, February 1870.
• "The White Cat of Drumgunniol", from All the Year Round, April 1870.
• "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street", from the Dublin University Magazine, January 1851.
• "Ghost Stories of Chapelizod", from the Dublin University Magazine, January 1851.
• "Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling", from the Dublin University Magazine, April 1864.
• "Sir Dominick's Bargain", from All the Year Round, July 1872.
• "Ultor de Lacy", from the Dublin University Magazine, December 1861.
• "The Vision of Tom Chuff", from All the Year Round, October 1870.
• "Stories of Lough Guir", from All the Year Round, April 1870.

The publication of this book, which has often been reprinted, led to the revival in interest in Le Fanu, which has continued to this day.

A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... Montague Rhodes James, (August 1, 1862–June 12, 1936). ... All the Year Round was a weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens which was published between 1859 and 1859. ...

Further reading

There is an extensive critical analysis of Le Fanu's supernatural stories (particularly "Green Tea", "Schalken the Painter" and "Carmilla") in Jack Sullivan's book Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story From Le Fanu to Blackwood (1978). Other books on Le Fanu include Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu and Others (1931) by S. M. Ellis, Sheridan Le Fanu (1951) by Nelson Browne, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1971) by Michael H. Begnal, Sheridan Le Fanu (third edition, 1997) by W. J. McCormack and Vision and Vacancy: The Fictions of J. S. Le Fanu (2007) by James Walton. Le Fanu, his works, and his family background are explored in Gavin Selerie's mixed prose/verse text Le Fanu's Ghost (2006). Jack Sullivan (born 1946) is an American literary scholar, essayist, author, editor, musicologist, and short story writer. ...

See also

• List of horror fiction authors

This is a list of some (not all notable) authors in the horror fiction genre. ...

External links

• E-texts of many Le Fanu stories and information on his life
• Sheridan Le Fanu database
• Complete text of Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
• Works by Sheridan Le Fanu at Project Gutenberg
• A talk by M. R. James on LeFanu
• Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies