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This book considers the fiction of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–73) in its original material and cultural contexts of the early-to-mid Victorian period in Ireland. Le Fanu’s longstanding relationship with the Dublin University Magazine, a popular literary and political journal, is crucial in the examination of his work; likewise, his fiction is considered as part of a wider surge of supernatural, historical and antiquarian activity by Irish Protestants in the period following the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland (1801). This study discusses in detail Le Fanu’s habit of writing and re-writing stories – a practice that has engendered much confusion and consternation – while posthumous collections of his work are compared with original publications to demonstrate the importance of these material and cultural contexts. In new critical readings of aspects of Le Fanu’s best-known fiction, light is cast on some of his overlooked work through recontextualisation.
Each volume of the Irish Writers series is devoted to one Irish writer of the 19th or 20th century, giving a full account of their literary careers and major works, and considering the relationship of their Irish backgrounds to their writings as a whole.
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."
One of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) by 26 years.
Dr. Martin Hesselius, a physician and occult enthusiast, attempts to help Jennings, a clergyman plagued by an ethereal demon. As Hesselius gets closer to finding a 'cure' for Jennings, the demon's attacks increase in frequency and severity. Unsure whether the affliction is psychological or supernatural, Hesselius contacts an associate in an attempt to prevent the clergyman's destruction.
I say I know this; I could prove it to your own conviction." He paused for a minute, and then added, "And as to accosting it, I dare not, I could not; when I see it I am powerless; I stand in the gaze of death, in the triumphant presence of infernal power and malignity. My strength, and faculties, and memory, all forsake me. O God, I fear, sir, you know not what you speak of. Mercy, mercy; heaven have pity on me!"
This large print title is set in Tiresias 16pt font as recommended by the RNIB.