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Summary: LeFanu - Greatest Writer of Victorian Ghost Stories
Review: Among the remarkable literary creations of the Victorian period are stories of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. The tales of J. Sheridan LeFanu are highly regarded as among the best early examples of psychological horror stories. LeFanu was born in Dublin in 1814 and died there in in 1873.LeFanu's style is indeed Victorian. The writing is more leisurely. Careful attention is paid to establishing the mood and atmosphere. Descriptions are more detailed. The sense of supernatural horror builds slowly, much like the tales of Poe. The four entertaining ghost stories in this inexpensive Dover Thrift edition are a good introduction to the J. Sheridan LeFanu and include Green Tea, Squire Toby's Will, The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh, and Sir Dominick's Bargain. In the Victorian style LeFanu presents his stories as actual facts, narratives found in old diaries, medical writings, or first hand accounts from family friends or loyal servants. His stories remain popular today, due largely to their psychological depth and subtlety. In Green Tea Dr. Hesselius encounters a cleric suffering from periodic bouts of delusion, believing that he is being stalked by a malignant apparition. Squire Toby and his two sons, Scroope Marston, the elder, and Charles Marston, his handsome brother, are all three despicable characters whose mutual hatred for each other apparently transcends the grave. The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh is told as two stories. The first is the legend and local lore of the peasants living near the secluded fortress Ardagh. The other is an eye witness, factual account, possibly even more chilling than the local legend. Sir Dominick's Bargain is disturbing version of a man's pact with the devil. Note: Is it LeFanu or Le Fanu? Both variations seemed to be equally common. This Dover edition uses the form J. Sheridan LeFanu. The Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature prefers Le Fanu with a space. Many computer search algorithms yield quite different results for these two nearly identical spellings.
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Summary: Psychiatrists, get your teacup ready!
Review: LeFanu is by many considered the foremost of Victorian ghost story tellers, but (and I may now be incurring in literary sin) although his writing skills are undisputedly of the finest caliber, I did not find his stories as poignant and spine-tingling as Edgar Allen Poe's or his style as graceful and fluent as E. F. Benson's, for example; in fact, I'd say there is something a little bit too elaborate and artful about some of the passages in this book as if LeFanu had thought it worthwhile sacrificing the pleasure of reading to the exquisiteness of his occasionally almost labored literary expression. There are actually instances in which I find it difficult to picture the scenes and characters in the narrative - take the descriptions of the inside and outside of Gylingden Hall (story 2) or of Sir Ardagh's castle (story 4) - though I recognize that such impressions may of course be unjust and ensue not from the text but from the limitations of the reviewer himself. The first and last of the four stories collected in this Dover edition are definitely the most exciting and convey a feeling of completeness which is rather absent from the second and third tales. A very striking feature of the story "Green Tea", for instance, is the razor-sharp precision with which LeFanu distinguishes between subjective and objective psychic realities, and between suggestion and predisposition. The reverend in the tale has suffered damage to the subtle involucre protecting his physical body against unwanted sensory impressions and the leaking out of vital force, and so has become permanently exposed not to hallucinations but to involuntary contacts with entities or energies pertaining to the lower psychic realms, the intimacy of which most of us are mercifully spared. The problem seems to be mendable by physically occluding the fissures produced in his natural defense and thus restoring his involucre to normality, but the reverend himself sees these deeply disquieting trials as a personal chastisement from God - an interpretation of the facts which is always a valid possibility - and eventually succumbs, not to the charges of the enemy but to his own weaknesses and inclinations. A complex and fine plot, indeed. The story "Green Tea" should be carefully examined by all whose job it is to treat or otherwise help people who suffer from psychic disorders or claim to be haunted by hallucinations - and by those, of course, who love to spend a couple of hours by the fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate and a good yarn.
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Summary: dusting off relics in the attic
Review: This is another great find. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu was an Irish writer in the 19th Century. This thin selection of short stories is a tasty little collection. It is a forgotten art form: the ghost story but LeFanu does it quite well. This is Victorian age literature with guts. The tales are spooky but also reveal human psychology in the way great literature should. This is a classic of a bygone era. I will think twice when I hear footsteps in the attic and no one else is home. Many themes of suspense and terror are set down in these tales. Freddie Krueger can not hold a candle to tales like these.
Rating:
Summary: dusting off relics in the attic
Review: This is another great find. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu was an Irish writer in the 19th Century. This thin selection of short stories is a tasty little collection. It is a forgotten art form: the ghost story but LeFanu does it quite well. This is Victorian age literature with guts. The tales are spooky but also reveal human psychology in the way great literature should. This is a classic of a bygone era. I will think twice when I hear footsteps in the attic and no one else is home. Many themes of suspense and terror are set down in these tales. Freddie Krueger can not hold a candle to tales like these.
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