This book considers the fiction of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–73) in its original material and cultural contexts of the early-to-mid Victorian period in Ireland. Le Fanu’s longstanding relationship with the Dublin University Magazine, a popular literary and political journal, is crucial in the examination of his work; likewise, his fiction is considered as part of a wider surge of supernatural, historical and antiquarian activity by Irish Protestants in the period following the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland (1801). This study discusses in detail Le Fanu’s habit of writing and re-writing stories – a practice that has engendered much confusion and consternation – while posthumous collections of his work are compared with original publications to demonstrate the importance of these material and cultural contexts. In new critical readings of aspects of Le Fanu’s best-known fiction, light is cast on some of his overlooked work through recontextualisation.

Dr. Martin Hesselius, a physician and occult enthusiast, attempts to help Jennings, a clergyman plagued by an ethereal demon. As Hesselius gets closer to finding a 'cure' for Jennings, the demon's attacks increase in frequency and severity. Unsure whether the affliction is psychological or supernatural, Hesselius contacts an associate in an attempt to prevent the clergyman's destruction.

Sheridan Le Fanu was lauded by contemporaries such as M. R. James for his innovations in the ghost story and mystery genres, and his mastery of conjuring atmosphere and driving stories to thrilling narrative crescendos. And yet, aside from some regularly anthologized short stories and novellas, much of the writer's fiction remains unknown despite its quality. Aiming to firmly position Sheridan Le Fanu alongside other canonical horror writers published by the British Library, this anthology focuses on some of his lesser-known stories, exploring eight thoroughly Gothic tales of murderous families, dark castles, and ghosts whose business with the living remains unfinished.

A compilation of the Victorian master's classic tales of horror reveals his ability to depict the supernatural

trange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter is a series of short stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Mostly set in Ireland, they include some classic stories of gothic terror, with ominous castles, madness and suicide.