Madam Crowl's Ghost & Other Stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

While I have all of Le Fanu's novels, I've never before ventured into his shorter tales, but I must say that they are very satisfying for someone like me who loves a good ghostly yarn. I also noticed that in many or most of these stories, there are clues at the very beginning that lead the reader toward the climax - when all is revealed.

And, for the haunted house story reader, there are a number of those here - for example, my favorite of this type found in this book, 'An Account of Some Strange Disturbances In Aungiers Street.' I really liked the stories set in among the hills of Ireland, largely because Le Fanu steeps these tales in atmosphere from the outset. Most of these tales have to do with vengeance of wrongs brought forth to the present because of actions of someone in the past, while some are folkloric in nature. While these stories aren't a complete set of terrifying tales by Le Fanu, they've certainly been enough to whet my appetite for more. For the ghost-story aficionado, this collection is definitely one not to miss.

Perhaps these aren't the best ghost stories I've ever read, but Le Fanu is a master of atmosphere, which helps to produce the sense of dread or doom I look for when I read these sorts of tales. I've listed and summarized all of the stories in this book at my reading journal blog, in case you're interested in what you have to look forward in this book. A few others are memorable as well, particularly the three short tales in 'Ghosts of Chapelizod' and the sophisticated use of Irish folklore demonstrated in 'The Child Who Went With the Fairies' and 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol.'Įven in his most inferior stories-which are still very good-Le Fanu shows a talent for choosing the unsettling detail which can produce a genuine thrill. This anthology is slightly inferior to In a Glass Darkly, the collection of later stories Le Fanu published during his lifetime, but the entire book is nevertheless enjoyable and contains two stories ('Madame Crowl's Ghost' and 'Squire Toby's Will') that are masterpieces of the form. They were selected primarily from Le Fanu's early 'Dublin Magazine' period, when his stories-like those of many of the authors published there by editor Le Fanu-were characterized by a leisurely, folkloric narrative style and the often humorous exploitation of Irish stereotypes. This is a good posthumous anthology of ghost stories, chosen by no less an authority than M.R.

Madam Crowl's Ghost & Other Stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu