Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
Includes links, chronology, and etexts. [Mitsuharu Matsuoka, Nagoya U]
Biographical note
[Authors Calendar]
Brief biographical note
[Wikipedia]
Joseph Sheridan LeFanu site
Includes brief biographical note and other info, with a special emphasis on "Carmilla." Watch out for factual errors. [Paco Quilis-Gómez]
Follow in LeFanu's
footsteps...
Brief biographical note
[Judy Edmonds]
Brief biographical note
[nationmaster.com]
Brief biographical note
[Columbia Encyclopedia, Bartleby]
Brief biographical note
[Gothic Labyrinth]
"A Memoir of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu" by Alfred Perceval Graves
From an early (unspecified) edition of The Purcell Papers. [U Adelaide Library]
Brief biographical note
[John W. Cousins, A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910]
J. Sheridan LeFanu: A Database
A very helpful collection of links to all things LeFanu, ranging from books and web pages to MA theses and adaptations of LeFanu's work. [Gary Crawford]
LeFanu page at Gaslight
Lists Gaslight etexts of LeFanu's works.
Bibliography
[FantasticFiction]
LeFanu Hyper-Concordance
Part of the The Victorian Literary Studies Archive, this concordance allows you to search etexts by LeFanu.
Portraits
[National Portrait Gallery, London]
One of the major texts of C19 supernaturalist literature is LeFanu's
In a Glass Darkly, published in 1872, and given its importance I've arranged the etexts below to match the contents of that volume:
"Green Tea"
Originally published in Dickens' annual
All the Year Round in 1869. For a very similar story that surely was inspired by this one, see
Robert Smythe Hichen's "How Love Came to Professor Guildea."
"The Familiar" [1872]
"Mr. Justice Harbottle" [1872]
see the note to "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances..." below.
"Carmilla"
LeFanu's famous lesbian vampire story, first published in the coolly named magazine Dark Blue, from December of 1871 through March of 1872. According to E. F. Bleiler, "probably the best vampire story of all" [Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 302].
"The Room in the Dragon Volant" [1872]
A mystery story that indulges so fully in Gothic atmospherics that it may readily be considered an "explained supernatural" Gothic thriller.
Other LeFanu texts:
"An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street" [1853]
LeFanu, like many C19 writers trying to make a living by the pen, frequently revised his works for later re-publication. This tale served as the basis for "Mr. Justice Harbottle," mentioned above.
"The Child that Went with the Fairies" [1870]
More of LeFanu's use of folkloric elements; the "fairy child" motif occurs also in "Laura Silver Bell," and the mysterious woman in the coach appears again in "Carmilla."
"The Dead Sexton"
"Dickon the Devil"
"The Evil Guest" [1851]
One of LeFanu's "locked room" mystery stories, heavily influenced by the Gothic.
"The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh"
First published in Dublin University Magazine in 1838, this tale was based on "Sir Dominick's Bargain." It was included in LeFanu's The Purcell Papers (1880).
"Ghost Stories of Chapelizod"
The Haunted Baronet [1871]
Thematically a variant of "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardaugh," which itself was based on "Sir Dominick's Bargain."
"Laura Silver Bell" [1872]
One of LeFanu's lesser-known tales, it draws (as do so many of his tales) on Celtic folklore for its references to demon lovers, fairies of various sorts (including "dobbies"), witchery, folklore (the "running water" and "stolen child" motifs, among others) and a narrow escape — at least for the old wise woman Mother Carke. Laura Silver Bell, she's not so lucky. But that's what she gets for being greedy and superficial, no? Classic LeFanu moralizing what Gothic scholar E. F. Bleiler has identified as "one of LeFanu's best stories" (
Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 305). It compares interestingly to LeFanu's "The Child that Went with the Fairies,"
Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" and, even, William Butler Yeats' poem "The Stolen Child," with its refrain popularized by the movie
AI.
- at
LitGothic 
; annotated PDF, with illustration.
"The Legend of Dunblane"
Attributed to LeFanu.
"Madam Crowl's Ghost"
"An Authentic Narrative of the Ghost of a Hand"
Actually Chapter 12 of LeFanu's classic novel The House by the Churchyard (1863).
jacket design for the 1851 edition
of Ghost Stories and Mysteries by LeFanu
(James McGlashan, Dublin) [GoogleBooks]
The Purcell Papers
This collection of 13 (of course) tales by LeFanu was first published in 1880; it collects pieces published by LeFanu in the
Dublin University Magazine. All of the tales except "Billy Malowney's Taste of Love and Glory" were from early in LeFanu's career. An excellent source for the complete text of
The Purcell Papers is the
U Adelaide Library, which is the source for the individual titles linked below unless otherwise noted.
There is also an introductory memoir of the life of LeFanu, linked in the "Sites" section above.
"Sir Dominick's Bargain"
Originally published in Dickens' magazine All the Year Round, July 1872. Compare to LeFanu's "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh," which in turn was the basis for "The Haunted Baronet."
"Spalatro" [1843] (2 files, 60K and 56K, respectively)
"Squire Toby's Will"
First published in Temple Bar magazine in 1868.
"Stories of Lough Guir"
"Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter"
"Ultor de Lacy"
Uncle Silas
E. F. Bleiler calls this "the finest Victorian mystery novel," yet it partakes so heavily of Gothic atmospherics and character touches that it belongs solidly in the (post-)Gothic tradition as well. Published in 1864, this is one of LeFanu's major works.
"The Vision of Tom Chuff"
"The Watcher" [1851] (89K) [Gaslight]
"The White Cat of Drumgunniol"
A riff on the Irish folklore motif of the banshee, and a nice color-companion to "black cat" tales such as
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and
Bram Stoker's "The Squaw."
- at
LitGothic [printable, with explanatory notes]
"Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling"
He's not really a captain, but he certainly is wicked — the old Captain "hated nearly everybody" — and when his dead wife's old Irish servingwoman curses him for his wickedness by binding his spirit to a candle, where it will remain until the candle is burnt away, well, let's just say the Captain puts in a return appearance after his death. This being a Le Fanu story, there's also some business about missing legal documents and, of course, themes of morality.
The Wyvern Mystery [1869]
This work was filmed in 2000 as part of PBS's
Mystery! series, which has a
Wyvern website.
