Full Description
'Well, a corpse is a natural thing; but this was the dreadfullest sight I ever sid...'
Sheridan Le Fanu is one of the indispensable figures in the history of Gothic and horror fiction-the most important such writer in English, certainly, between Poe and M. R. James. While a number of his sensation and mystery novels were popular with mid-Victorian readers, it was in shorter forms that he truly excelled, and most showed himself an innovator in the field of uncanny fiction. Tales such as 'Carmilla' and 'Green Tea' prompted M. R. James to remark, 'he succeeds in inspiring a mysterious terror better than any other writer'.
This landmark critical edition includes the original versions of all five stories later collected in the superb In a Glass Darkly, along with seven equally chilling tales spanning the length of Le Fanu's career, from 'Schalken the Painter', a pioneering story of the walking dead, to 'Laura Silver Bell', a haunting exploration of the dark side of fairy lore.
Aaron Worth's introduction discusses the paranoid, claustrophobic world of Le Fanu's fiction as a counterpoint-one in its own way equally modern-to the cosmic horror tale as practiced by such writers as H. P. Lovecraft.
Contents
Introduction
Note on The Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Sheridan Le Fanu
The Ghost and the Bonesetter
The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh
The Drunkard's Dream
A Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family
The Mysterious Lodger
Spalatro: From the Notes of Fra Giacomo
Ghost Stories of Chapelizod
An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street
Ultor de Lacy
An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House
Ghost Stories of the Tiled House
Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling
Squire Toby's Will
Madam Crowl's Ghost
The Haunted Baronet
The Vision of Tom Chuff
Stories of Lough Guir
The White Cat of Drumgunniol
The Child that Went with the Fairies
Laura Silver Bell
Sir Dominick's Bargain
Dickon the Devil
Green Tea
The Familiar
Mr Justice Harbottle
The Room in the Dragon Volant
Carmilla
Explanatory Notes
