Sheridan Le Fanu

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (August 28, 1814 – February 7, 1873) was an Irish writer of short stories and mystery novels. His ghost stories are an early example of the genre of horror fiction in its modern form, in which (as in the famous tale "Schalken the Painter"), virtue does not always triumph and easy explanations for supernatural occurrences are not always forthcoming.

His work

Le Fanu's plots are well-crafted and vivid, though some find his prose too wordy and his characters frustratingly daft. He specialised in tone and effect rather than shock horror, often following a mystery format. Yet to delicate sensibilities, tales such as the vampire novella Carmilla can be profoundly effective.

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Carmilla was to greatly influence Bram Stoker in the writing of Dracula. A very early work, A Chapter in the History of the Tyrone Family (1839), may have influenced Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. He is sometimes said to be the father of the Victorian Irish ghost story. Considering the influence of his work, it is surprising that Le Fanu is not better appreciated.

Related Topics:
Bram Stoker - Dracula - 1839 - Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights

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His best-known works, still read today, are the macabre mystery novel Uncle Silas (1864), "The Rose and the Key" (1871), and the collection In a Glass Darkly (1872), which contains Carmilla as well as "Green Tea" and "The Familiar", two famous stories of enigmatic hauntings apparently provoked by obscure guilt.

Related Topics:
Uncle Silas - 1864 - The Rose and the Key - 1871 - In a Glass Darkly - 1872 - Guilt

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Other fiction by Le Fanu includes: The Purcell Papers, divided into three volumes; The House by the Churchyard (1863); Wylder's Hand (1864);Guy Deverell (1865); Haunted Lives (1868); The Wyvern Mystery (1869); and the posthumously published The Watcher and Other Weird Stories (1894), another collection of short stories.

Related Topics:
1863 - 1864 - 1865 - 1868 - 1869 - 1894

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