Ghost Stories and Mysteries

Joseph Sheridan LeFanu is generally recognized as the greatest Victorian writer of ghost stories, and his masterful Uncle Silas — the best Victorian mystery novel — compels our consideration of him as a preeminent mystery writer as well. The reasons for his greatness transcend the form he employed and include a remarkable craftsmanship, the ability to explore the absolute depths of terror, and the persistent probing of the sensitive human psyche. Long out of print, his best work is now beginning to be more widely read and appreciated.Among the ten exciting ghost stories are The Ghost and the Bone-Setter, an unexpectedly humorous story and probably LeFanu's first published fiction; two of his most chilling tales, Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling and Dickon the Devil; two tales that present a physical confrontation with Evil, The Drunkard's Dream and The Vision of Tom Chuff; several interesting stories based on folktales; and the problematic story The Mysterious Lodger, which is not signed by the author but assigned to him, and certainly unlike anything else he ever wrote. The four mystery stories are The Murdered Cousin, a sealed-room story which he later expanded into Uncle Silas; A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family, often cited as a source for Jane Eyre; an isolated-room mystery, The Evil Guest; and The Room in the Dragon Volant, easily one of the best mystery-adventure stories of the nineteenth century. Several of these stories have never before been reprinted.