Citizendia

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Le Fanu
Born 28 August 1814(1814-08-28)
Dublin, Ireland
Died 7 February 1873 (aged 58)
Dublin, Ireland
Occupation Novelist
Literary movement Gothic horror, dark romanticism, mystery
Influences
Influenced

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (August 28, 1814 – February 7, 1873) was an Anglo-Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story This is a list of modern literary movements: that is movements after the Renaissance. Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. For the Primordial demo see Dark Romanticism (Primordial album. Sir Walter Scott 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 &ndash 21 September 1832 was a prolific Scottish Historical novelist and Poet popular throughout Ann Radcliffe ( July 9, 1764 – February 7, 1823) was an English Author, a pioneer of the gothic novel. Samuel Warren may refer to Samuel Warren (English lawyer (1807&ndash1877 English barrister and author MP for Midhurst from 1856&ndash1859 (born Emanuel Swedberg; February 8 1688–March 29 1772 was a Swedish Scientist, Philosopher, Christian mystic, and Theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 &ndash 25 July 1834) was an English Poet, Critic and philosopher James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912 was an Irish writer of novels and short stories who is best known today for his 1897 horror Henry James, OM ( –) son of theologian Henry James Sr, brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James Charlotte Brontë (ˈbrɒnti (21 April 1816 &ndash 31 March 1855 was a British Novelist, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters whose Novels Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common " Anglo-Irish " was a term used historically to describe a privileged Social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. 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. 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 Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities

Contents

Biography

Sheridan Le Fanu was born at No. 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family of Huguenot origins. Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France (or French Calvinists) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth Both his grandmother Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and his great-uncle Richard Brinsley Sheridan were playwrights. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (30 October 1751 &ndash 7 July 1816 was an Irish playwright and Whig Statesman. His niece Rhoda Broughton would become a very successful novelist. Rhoda Broughton ( November 20, 1840 &ndash June 5, 1920) was a 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. General The buildings housing the Royal Hibernian Military School Dublin were erected in Phoenix Park, overlooking the village of Chapelizod The Phoenix Park (Páirc an Fhionn-Uisce is the largest enclosed urban public Park in Europe located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland Phoenix Park and the adjacent village and parish church of Chapelizod were to feature in Le Fanu's later stories. Chapelizod ( Séipéal Iosóid in Irish, meaning " Iseult 's Chapel" is a village in Dublin, Ireland.

Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected Auditor of the College Historical Society. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Trinity College Dublin ( TCD; Irish Coláiste na Tríonóide Baile Átha Cliath; Latin: Collegium Sacrosanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae History Foundation The College Historical Society was founded by Edmund Burke in 1770 with James Reid as its first Auditor when Burke's Club (founded He was called to the bar in 1839, but he never practiced and soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine, including his first ghost story, entitled "The Ghost and the Bone-Setter" (1838). He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. The Dublin Evening Mail (renamed the Evening Mail in 1928 was between 1823 and 1962 one of Dublin 's evening newspapers

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. John Mitchell may refer to Politics John N Mitchell (1913-1988 U Sir Thomas William Meagher ( 26 March[[ 902]]&ndash 27 June[[ 979]] was a medical practitioner who starting in 1939 served as Lord Mayor of Perth Western His support cost him the nomination as Tory MP for County Carlow in 1852. Carlow ( is an inland Town in the south-east of Ireland in County Carlow, 84 km from Dublin. 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.

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. The House by the Churchyard (1863 is a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu that combines elements of the Mystery novel and the Historical novel. 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. The Phoenix Park (Páirc an Fhionn-Uisce is the largest enclosed urban public Park in Europe located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland Le Fanu succeeded in this aim in 1864, with the publication of Uncle Silas, which he set in Derbyshire. For the rural reprobate of stories by HE Bates, see My Uncle Silas Uncle Silas is a Victorian Gothic 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. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Today there is a road in Ballyfermot, near his childhood home in south-west Dublin, named after him.

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). Val Lewton ( 7 May  – 14 March) was an American Film producer and Screenwriter, who is best known for a sequence of nine brooding 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. Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living A novella is a written, Fictional Prose Narrative longer than a Novelette but shorter than a Novel. " Carmilla " is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. 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. Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, ( August 1, 1862 – June 12, 1936) who used the publication name M

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). The Purcell Papers (1880 are a collection of thirteen Gothic, supernatural historical and humorous short stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73 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:

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).

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 Ann Radcliffe (whose 1797 novel The Italian includes a repentant minor villain of the same name). Ann Radcliffe ( July 9, 1764 – February 7, 1823) was an English Author, a pioneer of the gothic novel. The Italian or the Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797 is a novel belonging to the Gothic genre and written by the English author Ann Radcliffe More disturbing, however, is the hero Spalatro's necrophiliac passion for an undead blood-drinking beauty, who seems to be a predecessor 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.

Historical fiction

Le Fanu's first novels were historical, in the mode of Sir Walter Scott, though with an Irish background. Sir Walter Scott 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 &ndash 21 September 1832 was a prolific Scottish Historical novelist and Poet popular throughout Like Scott, Le Fanu gave a sympathetic account of the old Jacobite cause:

Sensation novels

Le Fanu published many novels in the contemporary sensation fiction mode of Wilkie Collins and others:

Major works

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

The seductive vampire Carmilla attacks the sleeping Bertha Rheinfeldt.
The seductive vampire Carmilla attacks the sleeping Bertha Rheinfeldt.
  • "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. In a Glass Darkly is a collection of five short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu, first published in 1872, the year before his death Occult detective stories combine the genres of the Detective story with supernatural horror fiction " Carmilla " is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Lesbian vampirism is a trope in 20th century Exploitation film that has its roots in Joseph Sheridan le Fanu 's novella Carmilla (1872 This story was to greatly influence Bram Stoker in the writing of Dracula. Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912 was an Irish writer of novels and short stories who is best known today for his 1897 horror Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary Antagonist the vampire Count 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). Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British Hammer Horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Polish actress Carl Theodor Dreyer Jr ( February 3, 1889 - March 20, 1968) was a Danish Film director. Vampyr is a French - German film by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, released in 1932.

Other short-story collections

  • "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. A novella is a written, Fictional Prose Narrative longer than a Novelette but shorter than a Novel.
  • "The Bird of Passage".
  • "Madam Crowl's Ghost", from All the Year Round, December 1870. Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, ( August 1, 1862 – June 12, 1936) who used the publication name M All the Year Round was a Victorian periodical being a British weekly Literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published
  • "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.

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). Jack Sullivan (born 1946) is an American literary scholar Essayist, Author, editor, Musicologist, and Short story 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).

See also

External links

This is a list of some (not all notable Writers in the Horror fiction genre. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works
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