• Edited by Gary William Crawford, Jim Rockhill and Brian J. Showers
• ISBN 978-1-61498-005-6
• 472 pp
• Trade paperback

2011 BRAM STOKER AWARD® NOMINEE: Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873) is one of the leading weird writers of the nineteenth century, the author of “Green Tea,” “Carmilla,” Uncle Silas, and other classic works. In this volume, the first collection of essays about Le Fanu, three distinguished scholars have amassed a wealth of material on every aspect of the author’s life, work, and influence. A biographical section features memoirs of Le Fanu along with reproductions of many portraits of the author. Early reviews of his many books are reprinted, as is important early criticism by M. R. James, E. F. Benson, V. S. Pritchett, and others. Recent essays by Jack Sullivan, John Langan, Victor Sage, and many others discuss a wide array of topics relating to Le Fanu’s writing. Nine of these essays are printed here for the first time. All in all, this book provides a definitive guide to the weird fiction of Le Fanu.

Gary William Crawford is a widely published poet, scholar, and fiction writer, and compiler of a bibliography of Le Fanu. Jim Rockhill is the editor of the complete supernatural fiction of Le Fanu. Brian J. Showers is a fiction writer and literary historian, and the co-compiler (with Gary William Crawford) of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: A Concise Bibliography. Together they edit the scholarly online journal Le Fanu Studies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD............W. J. Mc Cormack

INTRODUCTION............Gary William Crawford, Jim Rockhill and Brian J. Showers

I. SOME NOTES ON BIOGRAPHY

The Dictionary of National Biography............C. Litton Falkiner

A Memoir of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu ............Alfred Perceval Graves 

Excerpt from 70 Years of Irish Life ............William Le Fanu 

Anecdotes from Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu and Others............S. M. Ellis 

The Portraits of Le Fanu  ............Jim Rockhill, Brian J. Showers and Douglas A. Anderson

A Void Which Cannot Be Filled Up: The Obituaries of J. S. Le Fanu............Brian J. Showers 

II. GENERAL STUDIES

From The Supernatural in Fiction............Peter Penzoldt 

M. R. James on J. S. Le Fanu............M. R. James 

Sheridan Le Fanu............E. F. Benson 

An Irish Ghost............V. S. Pritchett 

“Prologue” and “Epilogue” to Madam Crowl’s Ghost............M. R. James 

Doubles, Shadows, Sedan-Chairs, and the Past:  “The Ghost Stories of J.S. Le Fanu” ............Patricia Coughlan

III. SOME SPECIAL TOPICS 

Making Light in the Shadow Box: The Artistry of Le Fanu............Kel Roop 

Le Fanu’s House by the Marketplace............Wayne Hall 

Sheridan Le Fanu and the Spirit of 1798............Albert Power 

H. P. Lovecraft’s Response to the Work of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu............Jim Rockhill 

“A Regular Contributor”: Le Fanu’s Short Stories, All the Year Round, and the Influence of Dickens............Simon Cooke 

A Shared Vision:  Le Fanu’s In a Glass Darkly and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr............Gary W. Crawford 

Vampyr’s Ghosts and Demons............Mark Le Fanu 

IV. CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS

V. STUDIES OF INDIVIDUAL WORKS

“Green Tea”: The Archetypal Ghost Story............Jack Sullivan 

Forgotten Creator of Ghosts—Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Possible Inspirer of the Brontës............Edna Kenton 

“Introduction” to The House by the Churchyard............Elizabeth Bowen 

Three Ghost Stories: “The Judge’s House”, “Some Strange Disturbances in an Old House on Aungier Street”, and “Mr. Justice Harbottle” ............Carol A. Senf 

“Introduction” to Uncle Silas............M. R. James 

Conversations in a Shadowed Room: The Blank Spaces in “Green Tea” ............John Langan 

“Introduction” to Uncle Silas............Elizabeth Bowen 

“Addicted to the Supernatural”: Spiritualism and Self-Satire in Le Fanu’s All in the Dark............Stephen Carver 

In the Name of the Mother: Perverse Maternity in “Carmilla” ............Jarlath Killeen 

Crossing Boundaries, Mixing Genres in The Wyvern Mysteries............Sally C. Harris 

“I resolved to play the part of a good Samaritan”: Metafiction in J. S. Le Fanu’s “The Room in the Dragon Volant”............William Hughes

The Child that Went with the Faeries ............Peter Bell 

The Smashed Looking Glass: Fragmentation and Narrative Perversity in Willing to Die............Victor Sage