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LeFanu is highly thought of by a lot of horror aficionados, so I was exciting to have a chance to read this book. Dover’s edition is not the full volume that was published in the 40s; this book has four stories in it. “Green Tea” is the tale of a man haunted because he’s overstimulated his brain and body with, well, green tea; a demon of sorts follows him everywhere. “Squire Toby’s Will” is the tale of a father and two sons, and what happens when a parent favors one child too much over the other...
This Dover book collects four supernatural horror stories by Sheridan Le Fanu: "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh" (1838), "Squire Toby's Will" (1868), "Sir Dominick's Bargain" (1872) and "Green Tea" (1872)."Green Tea", the title story, is about a priest who after delving too deep into the occult starts being followed around by a demonic monkey; similarly "Squire Toby's Will" is about a man, enrapt with guilt, who is haunted by a ghostly familiar and other such apparitions. Both are great in the...
I was hoping for a bit of Henry James but instead got a bit of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" with sentences that just loop around themselves with no perceivable end. The writing is a perfectly serviceable example of its time but there are no eerie moments in this collection - green tea and spectral, red-eyed monkeys don't really put the hairs on my neck up. I mean, I find it hard to buy into a story when part of the big suspense/reveal is that drinking green tea thins the membranes between this
Loved it. I love the language, which is in the tritely overwrought Gothic style; these are just well-written ghost stories. The only fault I have is with the person who collected the stories together in this compilation, because the last two stories -- The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh and Sir Dominic's Bargain are very similar, robbing the second story of its punch because the reader has already been there and done that. Which is unfortunate, because Sir Dominic's Bargain is actually the better...
The blurb says that these four stories contain "a subtlety, awareness and psychological depth that elevate them far above most efforts in the genre," and that they offer "spine-tingling entertainment."As Mark Twain said in Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, "It seems to me that it was far from right [to] offer opinions... without having read some of it."
This book contained 4 short stories. The first was about a guy who drank too much green tea and started imagining a talking spectral monkey. My reaction to that was pretty much LOL, WUT? The second was a pretty basic "guilty conscience makes guy see/hear things until he's driven mad/mysteriously found dead etc. The third was a lackluster sold his soul to the devil story. The fourth, and in my opinion the best, was another sold his soul to the devil deal but it had a bit more finesse about it.
The Victorians wrote some of the best ghost stories still in print, and Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was widely considered to be one of the best tellers of the ghost tale ever to put pen to paper. Novels like Uncle Silas. Carmilla (which I read last year), and The House by the Churchyard are some of his best and best-known writings, but Le Fanu also wrote dozens of shorter stories, Gothic tales and supernatural mysteries, hauntings and deals with the devil. Four of the best have been col...
HELL FUCKING YES GIVE ME MORE.Sorry but this is exactly my cup of (not green) tea: horror stories set in the 1700/1800, which gave me such a trill!One thing I love about the horror of that time is that there were no real explanation. Modern horrors have to explain anything, every tiny thing, as if the author fears that it won't make sense if the zombie plague is not incredibly well explained on the how, when, and where.People in the 1800s had no such problems. There were lots of things unknown,
Just brilliant! So gripping & chilling. The title story in particular is fascinating and, in style, reminded me of Stoker's Dracula. The demonic monkey stays with you! I will certainly seek out more Le Fanu as a result - he is an under-appreciated Irish literary hero. By coincidence I first became interested in his writing when I wrote about his niece by marriage Rhoda Broughton: https://eafitzsimons.wordpress.com/20...
Four "ghost" stories from the early Victorian period (LeFanu was almost exactly contemporary with Dickens.) Not especially bad, but not really good either. But then I'm not a real fan of the supernatural.
J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla is one of my all time favourite vampire stories. I knew he'd written novels, but NO ONE TOLD ME HE WROTE GHOST STORIES. I happened to find this at a second hand book sale today, purely by chance. Atmospheric, not really suspenseful at all, they rely on slowly building dread for their effect. Very much in the line of M. R. James' style of ghost stories.
Gloriously gothic tales that build the atmosphere and tension layer by layer until your hanging off the edge of your seat before being shocked backward by the finale. Le Fanu has a of creating tension with words that will follow you even once you've finished the book, it even made me rethink the amount of tea I drink (although thankfully I favour the original everyday tea and not green tea).
If I mention Poe, Lovecraft, or Bierce, I end up having a long conversation on them but if I mention Le Fanu sometimes I get "who"? It is really a shame as he was a master of the gothic tale and his tales are just as wonderful as the other masters of classic horror. His stories are always original, and I love the style of writing. it takes a little getting used to but it worth it. I have to admit that I took my time with this one and read the stories late at night. Don't miss these wonderful tal...
