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| Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu | 
| Author: J. Sheridan Lefanu
Publisher: Dover Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.10
You Save: $11.85 (79%)
New (22) Collectible (4) from $7.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 51444
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 467
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0486204154
EAN: 9780486204154
ASIN: 0486204154
Publication Date: June 1, 1964
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Sound Copy. Mild Reading Wear.
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Amazon.com Review
Le Fanu is a Victorian writer who, along with Edgar A. Poe before him, invented the unity of mood and economy of means that characterizes the modern horror short story. Jack Sullivan, in Horror Literature, maintains that "Le Fanu was more revolutionary than Poe, for he began the process of dismantling the Gothic props and placing the supernatural tale in everyday settings." These quietly elegant tales include a female vampire who predates Dracula, a vicar troubled by a spectral monkey, a cruel hanging judge who gets his due and many other fine portents and hauntings.
Product Description
Here are 16 classic ghost stories: "Carmilla," (perhaps the classic vampire thriller), "Green Tea," "The Familiar," "The Haunted Baronet," "Madam Crowl's Ghost," "The Dead Sexton," "An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House," plus nine others. Half these stories never published before in U.S.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Best Gothic Tales of Yestreday that Still Thrills Today's Ghost-Story Readers October 22, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For anyone who is looking for some excellent gothic ghost-stories,this is the book to start with.Le fanu is largely forgotten by today's reading public and the television absorbed culture.They don't know what their missing out on.Poe is the American grand-daddy of the mysterious horror story,yet the French-Irishman ,Sheridan LeFanu, is on the same level too.I can only recommend this gothic horror collection for all who what to be intellectually thrilled and pleasantly chilled .All before the witching hour surrenders,at the stroke of midnight,on the Eve of All-Hallows.For another year.Delicious reading for the Autumn season,til Samhain parts for another spell.-Beware of sleep,and Beware of Cats!
TERRIFIC STORIES August 18, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
These are great stories for bedtime reading. Compared to today's scary stories, these are elegant and inspired. If you have a taste for the fiction of bygone eras -- don't draw the line with today's best sellers -- you'll find a lot of magnificent writing. I'm still reading this book, and I plan to pass it around to all my pals. PBS and British Telly buffs will adore this book.
Bar none the best..... April 21, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Le fanu is the BEST writer of supernatual fiction there is...no questions!
I am the biggest fan...I collect all his works...old and new when I can find them.
The stories collected here are some rare ones indeed. The Haunted Baronet (from the Golden Friars) is a stunning gem of a novellete. Included in this volume are some very hard to come by edtions. And they have been reprinted exactly from the periodicals they were originally in.
I am sure you will not be disappointed in this book....like me you will read it again and again. The evocative power of Le Fanu is unparalled.
Deceased judges, a vampire, & a nasty supernatural monkey October 22, 2004
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
Until the Dover edition of Sheridan Le Fanu's stories appeared in 1964, this nineteenth-century Irish author's tales were almost impossible to find. This is a shame, since M.R. James considered Le Fanu the best of all ghost story writers (I would put M.R. James at the top of my list, and J. S. Le Fanu, second). According to Jack Sullivan in "Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood," "...Nearly all of the early twentieth-century writers in the [supernatural story] field paced and structured their narratives in the Le Fanu manner."
This edition has an introduction by E.F. Bleiler who limns a brief biography of the author, and his influence on the ghost story writers who followed him. The sixteen stories in this collection range from 1837 to 1871. One is an essay presented as non-fiction, i.e. "An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House." Concerning this essay, Bleiler states, "Personally, I am inclined to accept Le Fanu's strong statement that he was not writing fiction in the guise of fact, and that he is simple reproducing what others had told him."
Some of the stories are obscured by dialect, e.g. "Madame Crowl's Ghost" and parts of "The Haunted Baronet." Lines like "...twad gar ye dodder to hear him" can usually be worked out in the context of the plot and Le Fanu's stories are worth the extra effort. Quoting Jack Sullivan again, "Le Fanu's tales suggest a world in which we are unbearably alone in situations of escalating awfulness." The little maid is sleeping alone in one of Madame Crowl's chambers when the old beldame's ghost appears, "her eyes as wide as saucers, and her face like the fiend himself." Rose in "Schalken the Painter" is deserted by her guardian and minister after she begs them not to leave her alone, and she is doomed. In one of my favorite stories, "An Account of some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street," two medical students move into a house once owned by an infamous, hanging judge. They are afraid to tell each other about their supernatural encounters for fear of being mocked--at least until one of them almost dies.
This book is the finest collection of Le Fanu stories ever compiled, and all ghost story connoisseurs should hasten to read it.
 Not your standard ghostly fare September 14, 2003
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
Probably the most distinguishing characteristic of LeFanu's writing to me is that he doesn't explain why something is happening in his stories. Ghosts search through drawers, skeletons are dug up, heroes disappear, and barons die of unseen causes, and we are never told what happened. LeFanu doesn't necessarily explain the motives and occurrences of his stories and loose ends are not all tied up. At first, I was unsure about what to think; what kind of ghost story doesn't explain all the events at the end? How am I supposed to be terrified if I don't know the ultimate cause of Baron X's demise? The method of storytelling began to grow on me, though, and I now feel that a lack of resolution on every issue creates a better story. Why should the supernatural be fully explained in 20 pages? When the reader is demoted from an omniscient viewpoint to that of only an eyewitness, the tale is more compelling. My favorite stories are probably "Sir Dominick's Bargain" and "An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House," the former for its mood and atmosphere, and the latter for its minimalist telling. "The Haunted Baronet" is another excellent story, with strong attention to detail and background that help in the story-telling; it was a very satisfactory read. "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh" is the same story told sans background and detail, and is clearly inferior. The other stories I enjoyed based on the setting, which is 19th century Ireland, which evokes a mood much like James'. Overall, it is the sort of book that makes you wish for a warm fireplace and a stormy night. Enjoy!
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