In a Glass Darkly (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Le Fanu, J. Sheridan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192839470 ISBN 13: 9780192839473

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 1999

Synopsis

`the ideal reading...for the hours after midnight' Thus Henry James described the style of supernatural tale of which Sheridan Le Fanu was a master. Known in nineteenth-century Dublin as `The Invisible Prince' because of his reclusive and nocturnal habits, Le Fanu was fascinated by the occult. His writings draw on the Gothic tradition, elements of Irish folklore, and even on the social and political anxieties of his Anglo-Irish contemporaries. In exploring sometimes inexplicable terrors, the tales focus on the unease of the haunted men and women who encounter the supernatural, rather than on the origin or purpose of the visitant. This makes for spine-chilling reading. The five stories presented here have been collected by Dr Hesselius, a `metaphysical' doctor, the forerunner of the modern psychiatrist, who is willing to consider the ghosts both as real and as hallucinatory obsessions. The reader's doubtful anxiety mimics that of the protagonist, and each story thus creates that atmosphere of mystery which is the supernatural experience.

About this title

Review:

'In a Glass Darkly, now published in the World Classics series, still makes for uneasy reading late at night.'Moy McCory, The Times Magazine

About the Author:

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814 - 1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was a leading ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are Uncle Silas, Carmilla and The House by the Churchyard. --Wikipedia

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0192839470
• ISBN 13: 9780192839473
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Tracy Robert