Fiction Reviews
Sheridan Le Fanu
Horror stories(2025) Sheridan Le Fanu, Flame Tree Press,
£20 / Can$40 / US$30, hrdbk, 430pp, ISBN 978-1-835-62254-4
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873) was a highly influential Irish author, born in Dublin, whose work spread across the English-speaking world, where his impression can be found in the stories of Wilkie Collins, M. R. James, Bram Stoker and many others. Although trained as a lawyer, he became a writer of sensational literature, exploring the dark and fantastic, becoming one of the foundational purveyors of classic horror ghost stories, including his famous early work of vampire fiction 'Carmilla'. His father was Richard Sheridan, playwright of The Rivalsand The School for Scandal. This new collection of Le Fanu's stories, with a new foreword, is a must-read selection of classic horror writing.
Here we have another good-looking tome from Flame Tree with a silver, black and white, embossed cover, this time in their 'Gothic Fantasy' line, devoted to Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu, better known as Sheridan Le Fanu who contributed several well-known classics to the oeuvre of supernatural and weird horror with many of those stories featuring in this collection.
Proceedings start with a brief foreword by Professor Jarlath Killeen, a professor of Victorian Literature at Trinity College in Dublin which is followed by an even briefer 'Publisher’s Note' before we get the stories which are divided into four sections – 'Haunted Houses', 'Haunted Men', Mystery Tales' and 'Female Monsters'. These range from stories first published in 1838, when Le Fanu was 24, right up to 1872, a year before his death. Le Fanu had the good fortune to own magazines and newspaper in which to publish his own work, and he was also the author of several Irish historical novels which have largely been forgotten.
'Haunted Houses' contains seven stories, and in my opinion some of the highlights are “Ultor De Lacy” where there are worse things than staying at a remote, dilapidated tower as two sisters are about to discover in a dream-like, vampyric, tale. In 'Ghost Stories of the Tiled House/The Ghost of a Hand', the reader is about to find out that Tiled House is haunted, not only by ghosts, but parts of them.
'Dickon the Devil' is a story which has inspired many other writers down the years with its central theme of ignoring the wishes of a landowner who comes back from the dead to deal those who have not followed his instructions.
'An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street' highlights the importance to sticking to one’s own life rules, namely not to stay in a room where someone hanged themselves, but in this story, two students make that very mistake.
'Haunted Men' contains eight stories, including 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol', and it is fitting that it appears under the 'Haunted Men/ section, but as with other Le Fanu stories, is it supernatural or only in the mind of the main character? 'The Vision of Tom Chuff' does what it says on the tin, or in the title, as poacher Tom Chuff dreams of his impending death, but can he avoid it, or is his fate sealed?
'Mr Justice Harbottle' is a hanging judge, soon to be judged by those he has condemned in a trial taking place in Hell. 'Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling' is a great little story of a wicked man (as per the title), a ruined woman and the revenge of her sisters, oh, and a haunted candle.
'Squire Toby’s Will' concerns the events of the Squire’s will and the fortune and misfortune it places on his two sons. In 'The Familiar/The Watcher', a ship’s captain is stalked by “the watcher”, a strange dwarf who reminds him of an old acquaintance, then he starts to hear accusing voices.
In 'Green Tea' a clergyman is haunted by a monkey only he can see, and the title refers to Dr. Martin Hesselius’ idea that the drinking of green tea has activated the victim’s “inner eye” allowing him to see the monkey – let that be a warning to all green tea drinkers everywhere.
'Mystery Tales' contains nine stories, the first of which is 'The Ghost and the Bonesetter', and as the title of this section would suggest it is not particularly supernatural, even though this story is about a man encountering a thirsty ghost in a tale more humorous than horror.
Alcoholic thirst also crops up in 'The Drunkard’s Dream' where a dying man sees a vision of the hell which awaits him, and vows to lead a better life, that is until he goes to the pub!
In 'The Murdered Cousin' we are firmly in gothic melodramatic romance territory with family fortunes, family debts, sinister goings-on and a locked-room mystery all stirred into the mix.
'Female Monsters' contains six stories, including 'Carmilla', arguably the story Le Fanu is most famous for. A vampire tale that pre-dated Dracula by 25 years. 'Carmilla' was serialised in 1871 and 1872, and is presented as a case investigated by Dr. Martin Hesselius who can be seen as the first of a long line of occult detectives. 'Carmilla' is cited as having a great influence on Bram Stoker when writing Dracula, its influence is certainly there to see in Stoker’s short story 'Dracula’s Guest'.
'Laura Silver Bell' concerns a young woman who is unsatisfied with village life and yearns for romance and adventure, but be careful what you wish for, because people aren’t always what they seem.
'The Child That Went with the Fairies' is another tale of abduction or disappearance. The title gives the story away, but it has more than a nod to young Irish men joining the British Army and never been seen again.
'Madam Crowl’s Ghost' appears to be an almost nicer version of her living self, or so it seems to the new housekeeper of the old gothic mansion where the old lady lived, but why is there a straitjacket hanging on the wall, and what lies behind the secret door?
'Schalken the Painter' is another contender for Le Fanu’s most famous story and is another tale mixing abduction, vampyric influences with a particularly horrific ending. Schalken is in love with Rose who is his master’s niece, but the arrival of a strange, rich stranger threatens his future happiness, but more than happiness is in danger here. A great story to end this collection.
Flame Tree should be congratulated for bringing out this volume of Le Fanu’s best stories to a new audience, and is recommended reading for all those interested in supernatural tales.
Ian Hunter
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