= Sheridan_Le

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= Sheridan_Le_Fanu =
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Introduction
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Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (; 28 August 1814 - 7 February 1873),
popularly known as J. S. Le Fanu, was an Irish writer of Gothic
literature, mystery novels, and horror fiction. Considered by critics
to be one of the greatest ghost story writers of the Victorian era,
his works were central to the development of the genre during the late
19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for the
locked-room mystery 'Uncle Silas' (1864), the historical novel 'The
House by the Churchyard' (1863), and the collection of five stories
'In a Glass Darkly' (1872), which includes 'Carmilla', one of the
earliest works of vampire fiction and highly influential as a seminal
work in the lesbian vampire genre.

Le Fanu was a key figure in the dark romanticism movement during the
19th century, and had a major influence on later vampire fictions such
as Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' (1897). M. R. James described him as
"absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories".

Early life
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Sheridan Le Fanu was born at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a
literary family of Huguenot, Irish and English descent. He had an
elder sister, Catherine Frances, and a younger brother, William
Richard. His parents were Thomas Philip Le Fanu and Emma Lucretia
Dobbin.
Both his grandmother Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and his great-uncle
Richard Brinsley Sheridan were playwrights (his niece Rhoda Broughton
would become a successful novelist), and his mother was also a writer,
producing a biography of Charles Orpen. Within a year of his birth,
his family moved to the Royal Hibernian Military School in the Phoenix
Park, where his father, a Church of Ireland clergyman, was appointed
to the chaplaincy of the establishment. The Phoenix Park and the
adjacent village and parish church of Chapelizod would appear in Le
Fanu's later stories.

In 1826 the family moved to Abington, County Limerick, where Le Fanu's
father Thomas took up his second rectorship in Ireland. Although he
had a tutor, who, according to his brother William, taught them
nothing and was finally dismissed in disgrace, Le Fanu used his
father's library to educate himself. By the age of fifteen, Joseph was
writing poetry which he shared with his mother and siblings but never
with his father. His father was a stern Protestant churchman and
raised his family in an almost Calvinist tradition.

In 1832 the disorders of the Tithe War (1831-36) affected the region.
There were about six thousand Catholics in the parish of Abington and
only a few dozen members of the Church of Ireland. (In bad weather the
Dean cancelled Sunday services because so few parishioners would
attend.) However, the government compelled all farmers, including
Catholics, to pay tithes for the upkeep of the Protestant church. The
following year the family moved back temporarily to Dublin, to
Williamstown Avenue in the southern suburb of Blackrock, where Thomas
was to work on a Government commission.

Later life
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Although Thomas Le Fanu tried to live as though he were well-off, the
family was in constant financial difficulty. Thomas took the
rectorships in the south of Ireland for the money, as they provided a
decent living through tithes. However, from 1830, as the result of
agitation against the tithes, this income began to fall, and it ceased
entirely two years later. In 1838 the government instituted a scheme
of paying rectors a fixed sum, but in the interim, the Dean had little
besides rent on some small properties he had inherited. In 1833 Thomas
had to borrow £100 from his cousin Captain Dobbins (who himself ended
up in the debtors' prison a few years later) to visit his dying sister
in Bath, who was also deeply in debt over her medical bills. At his
death, Thomas had almost nothing to leave to his sons, and the family
had to sell his library to pay off some of his debts. His widow went
to stay with the younger son, William.

Sheridan Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College Dublin, where he was
elected Auditor of the College Historical Society. Under a system
peculiar to Ireland he did not have to live in Dublin to attend
lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the
university when necessary. He was called to the bar in 1839, but he
never practised 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 the owner of several newspapers from
1840, including the 'Dublin Evening Mail' and the 'Warder'.

On 18 December 1844, Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of
a leading Dublin barrister, George Bennett, and granddaughter of John
Bennett, a justice of the Court of King's Bench. Future Home Rule
League MP Isaac Butt was a witness. The couple then travelled to his
parents' home in Abington for Christmas. They took a house in
Warrington Place near the Grand Canal in Dublin. Their first child,
Eleanor, was born in 1845, followed by Emma in 1846, Thomas in 1847
and George in 1854.

In 1847 Le Fanu supported John Mitchel and Thomas Francis Meagher in
their campaign against the indifference of the government to the Irish
Famine. Others involved in the campaign included Samuel Ferguson and
Isaac Butt. Butt wrote a forty-page analysis of the national disaster
for the 'Dublin University Magazine' in 1847. His support cost him the
nomination as Tory MP for County Carlow in 1852.

The house on Merrion Square where Le Fanu lived

In 1856 the family moved from Warrington Place to the house of
Susanna's parents at 18 Merrion Square (later number 70, the office of
the Irish Arts Council). Her parents retired to live in England. Le
Fanu never owned the house, but rented it from his brother-in-law for
£22 per annum, equivalent in 2023 to about £2,000 (which he failed to
pay in full).

His personal life also became difficult at this time, as his wife
suffered from increasing neurotic symptoms. She had a crisis of faith
and attended religious services at the nearby St. Stephen's Church.
She also discussed religion with William, Le Fanu's younger brother,
as Le Fanu had apparently stopped attending services. She suffered
from anxiety after the deaths of several close relatives, including
her father two years before, which may have led to marital problems.

In April 1858 she suffered an "hysterical attack" and died the
following day in unclear circumstances. She was buried in the Bennett
family vault in Mount Jerome Cemetery beside her father and brothers.
The anguish of Le Fanu's diaries suggests that he felt guilt as well
as loss. From then on he did not write any fiction until the death of
his mother in 1861. He turned to his cousin Lady Gifford for advice
and encouragement, and she remained a close correspondent until her
death at the end of the decade.

In 1861 he became the editor and proprietor of the 'Dublin University
Magazine', and he began to take advantage of double publication, first
serialising in the 'Dublin University Magazine', then revising for the
English market. He published both 'The House by the Churchyard' and
'Wylder's Hand' in this way. After 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 for Le Fanu to satisfy the
English audience. Le Fanu succeeded in this aim in 1864, with the
publication of 'Uncle Silas', which he set in Derbyshire. In his 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 of a heart attack in his native Dublin on 7 February
1873, at the age of 58. According to Russell Kirk, in his essay "A
Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale" in 'The Surly Sullen Bell', Le
Fanu "is believed to have literally died of fright"; but Kirk does not
give the circumstances. Today there is a road and a park in
Ballyfermot, near his childhood home in southwest Dublin, named after
him.

Work
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Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his horror
fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman and frequently reworked plots
and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces. Many of his
novels, for example, are expansions and refinements of earlier short
stories. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror"
and liked to leave important details unexplained and mysterious. He
avoided overt supernatural effects: in most of his major works, the
supernatural is strongly implied but a "natural" explanation is also
possible. 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 supernatural but is not
actually witnessed, and the ghostly owl may be a real bird. This
technique influenced later horror artists, both in print and on film
(see, for example, the film producer Val Lewton's principle of
"indirect horror"). Though other writers have since chosen less subtle
techniques, Le Fanu's finest tales, such as the vampire novella
'Carmilla' and the short story "Schalken the Painter", remain some of
the most powerful in the genre. He had an enormous influence on one of
the 20th century's most important ghost story writers, M. R. James,
and although his work fell out of favour in the early part of the 20th
century, towards the end of the century interest in his work increased
and remains comparatively strong.

''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).
They are mostly set in Ireland and include some classic stories of
Gothic horror, with gloomy castles, supernatural visitations from
beyond the grave, madness, and suicide. Also apparent are nostalgia
and sadness for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland,
whose ruined castles stand as a mute witness to this history. Some of
the stories still often appear in anthologies:
# "The Ghost and the Bonesetter" (January 1838), his first-published,
jocular story
# "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh" (March 1838), an enigmatic story
which partially involves a Faustian pact and is set in the Gothic
ambiance of a castle in rural Ireland
# "The Last Heir of Castle Connor" (June 1838), a non-supernatural
tale, exploring the decline and expropriation of the ancient Catholic
gentry of Ireland under the Protestant Ascendancy
# "The Drunkard's Dream" (August 1838), a haunting vision of Hell
# "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (November
1838), an early version of his later novel 'Uncle Silas'
# "The Bridal of Carrigvarah" (April 1839)
# "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (May 1839), a
disturbing version of the demon lover motif. This tale was inspired by
the atmospheric candlelit scenes of the 17th-century Dutch painter
Godfried Schalcken, who is the model for the story's protagonist. M.
R. James stated that "Schalken' conforms more strictly to my own
ideals. It is indeed one of the best of Le Fanu's good things." It was
adapted and broadcast for television as 'Schalcken the Painter' by the
BBC for Christmas 1979, starring Jeremy Clyde and John Justin.
# "Scraps of Hibernian Ballads" (June 1839)
# "Jim Sulivan's Adventures in the Great Snow" (July 1839)
# "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family" (October 1839), which
may have influenced Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre'. This story was
later reworked and expanded by Le Fanu as 'The Wyvern Mystery' (1869).
# "An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain" (February
1840)
# "The Quare Gander" (October 1840)

Revised versions of "Irish Countess" (as "The Murdered Cousin") 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 'Dublin University Magazine' in 1843, was added to
the Le Fanu canon as late as 1980, being recognised as Le Fanu's work
by W. J. McCormack in his biography of that year. 'Spalatro' has a
typically Gothic Italian setting, featuring a bandit as the hero, as
in Ann Radcliffe (whose 1797 novel 'The Italian' includes a repentant
minor villain of the same name). 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 way and attempts, but fails, to save the hero
Spalatro from the eternal damnation that seems to be his destiny.

Le Fanu wrote this story after the death of his elder sister Catherine
in March 1841. She had been ailing for about ten years, but her death
came as a great shock to him.

Historical fiction
====================
Le Fanu's first novels were historical, 'à la' Sir Walter Scott,
though with an Irish setting. Like Scott, Le Fanu was sympathetic to
the old Jacobite cause:
* 'The Cock and Anchor' (1845), a story of old Dublin. It was reissued
with slight alterations as 'Morley Court' in 1873.
* 'The Fortunes of Colonel Torlogh O'Brien' (1847)
* 'The House by the Churchyard' (1863), the last of Le Fanu's novels
to be set in the past and, as mentioned above, the last with an Irish
setting. It is noteworthy that here Le Fanu's historical style is
blended with his later Gothic style, influenced by his reading of the
classic writers of that genre, such as Ann Radcliffe. This novel,
later cited by James Joyce in 'Finnegans Wake', is set in Chapelizod,
where Le Fanu lived in his youth.

Sensation novels
==================
Le Fanu published many novels in the contemporary sensation fiction
style of Wilkie Collins and others:
* 'Wylder's Hand' (1864)
* 'Guy Deverell' (1865)
* 'All in the Dark' (1866), satirising spiritualism
* 'The Tenants of Malory' (1867)
* 'A Lost Name' (1868), an adaptation of 'The Evil Guest'
* 'Haunted Lives' (1868)
* 'The Wyvern Mystery' (1869)
* 'Checkmate' (1871)
* 'The Rose and the Key' (1871), which describes the horrors of the
private lunatic asylum, a classic Gothic theme
* 'Willing to Die' (1872)

Major works
=============
His best-known works, still widely read today, are:The seductive
vampire Carmilla attacks the sleeping Bertha Rheinfeldt.
* 'Uncle Silas' (1864), a macabre mystery novel and classic of gothic
horror. It is a much-extended adaptation of his earlier short story
"Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess", with the setting
changed from Ireland to England. A film version under the same name
was made by Gainsborough Studios in 1947, and a remake entitled 'The
Dark Angel', starring Peter O'Toole as the title character, was made
in 1989.
* 'In a Glass Darkly' (1872), a collection of five short stories in
the horror and mystery genres, presented as the posthumous papers of
the occult detective Dr Hesselius:
:*"Green Tea", a haunting narrative of a man plagued by a demonic
monkey
:*"The Familiar", a slightly revised version of Le Fanu's 1847 tale
"The Watcher". M. R. James considered this to be the best ghost story
ever written.
:*"Mr Justice Harbottle", another panorama of Hell and much loved by
M. R. James
:*"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 female vampire, set in central
Europe. It has inspired several films, including Hammer's 'The
Vampire Lovers' (1970), Roger Vadim's 'Blood and Roses' (1960), and
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's 'Vampyr' (1932). Scholars like
A. Asbjørn Jøn have also noted the important place that 'Carmilla'
holds in shifting the portrayal of vampires in modern fiction.

Other short-story collections
===============================
* 'Chronicles of Golden Friars' (1871), a collection of three novellas
set in the imaginary English village of Golden Friars:
:* "A Strange Adventure in the Life of Miss Laura Mildmay",
incorporating the story "Madam Crowl's Ghost"
:* "The Haunted Baronet"
:* "The Bird of Passage"
* 'The Watcher and Other Weird Stories' (1894), a posthumous
collection of short stories; all but "The Watcher" were reprinted from
'The Purcell Papers':
:* "The Watcher"
:* "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess"
:* "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter"
:* "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh"
:* "The Dream" ("The Drunkard's Dream")
:* "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family"
* 'Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery' (1923), uncollected
short stories gathered from their original magazine publications and
edited by M. R. James:
:*"Madam Crowl's Ghost", from 'All the Year Round', December 1870
:*"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.

Legacy and influence
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Le Fanu is considered by many to be one of the foremost ghost story
writers of the 19th century. In addition to M. R. James, several other
writers have expressed strong admiration for Le Fanu's fiction. E. F.
Benson stated that Le Fanu's stories "Green Tea", "The Familiar", and
"Mr. Justice Harbottle" "are instinct with an awfulness which custom
cannot stale, and this quality is due, as in 'The Turn of the Screw'
[by Henry James], to Le Fanu's admirably artistic methods in setting
and narration". Benson added, "[Le Fanu's] best work is of the first
rank, while as a 'flesh-creeper' he is unrivalled. No one else has so
sure a touch in mixing the mysterious atmosphere in which horror
darkly breeds". Jack Sullivan has asserted that Le Fanu is "one of the
most important and innovative figures in the development of the ghost
story" and that Le Fanu's work has had "an incredible influence on the
genre; [he is] regarded by M. R. James, E. F. Bleiler, and others as
the most skilful writer of supernatural fiction in English."

Le Fanu's work influenced several later writers. Most famously,
'Carmilla' influenced Bram Stoker in the writing of 'Dracula'. M. R.
James' ghost fiction was influenced by Le Fanu's work in the genre.
Oliver Onions's supernatural novel 'The Hand of Kornelius Voyt' (1939)
was inspired by Le Fanu's 'Uncle Silas'.

See also
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* List of horror fiction writers

Further reading
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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). 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, 'Le Fanu's Gothic: The Rhetoric of Darkness'
(2004) by Victor Sage 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). Gary
William Crawford's 'J. Sheridan Le Fanu: A Bio-Bibliography' (1995) is
the first full bibliography. Crawford and Brian J. Showers's 'Joseph
Sheridan Le Fanu: A Concise Bibliography' (2011) is a supplement to
Crawford's out-of-print 1995 bibliography. With Jim Rockhill and Brian
J. Showers, Crawford has edited 'Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays
on J. Sheridan Le Fanu'. Jim Rockhill's introductions to the three
volumes of the Ash-Tree Press edition of Le Fanu's short supernatural
fiction ('Schalken the Painter and Others' [2002], 'The Haunted
Baronet and Others' [2003], 'Mr Justice Harbottle and Others' [2005])
provide a perceptive account of Le Fanu's life and work.

Julian Moynahan's 'Anglo-Irish: The Literary Imagination in a
Hyphenated Culture' (Princeton University Press, 1995) includes a
study of Le Fanu's mystery writing.

External links
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*
*
*
*
*
* "[http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/fe.php?nm=le_fanu_j_sheridan Le Fanu,
J Sheridan]" in 'The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'
*
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150320063608/http://www.lefanustudies.com/
Le Fanu Studies journal (archived)]
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140907030235/http://www.lefanustudies.com/database.html
Sheridan Le Fanu secondary bibliography (archived)]
* [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveLeFanu.html A talk
by M. R. James on LeFanu]
* [http://www.brianjshowers.com/articles_boneyard.html Article by
Brian Showers on the location of the Le Fanu burial plot]
*
* Archival material at
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspPzYyOw44 'The White Cat Of
Drumgunniol' audiobook with video at YouTube]
*
[https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/backofthebookshelf/id/6871944
'The White Cat Of Drumgunniol' audiobook at Libsyn]

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheridan_Le_Fanu