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A gothic novella that put me in mind of Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, having the same atmosphere and underlying horrors. The story is that of Richard Beckett, a young Englishman on holiday in France, who runs into a rather wicked situation in his efforts to save an unhappy young wife from her jealous elderly husband.Like so much gothic writing, it is patently predictable, but that would hardly have been the case at the time it was written. We have simply seen the plots of this time r...
Did Le Fanu mean for us to be surprised? Perhaps the plot was innovative at the time, but I found it irritating knowing what was coming while the protagonist was oblivious. Not Le Fanu's best work.
Reminded me of Poe in parts - a love struck young idiot is drawn into a plot to steal all his money and bury him alive. Clever and with a great dramatic ending. The plot slowly dawns on you as you read. Some wonderful and fantastic descriptions of a masquerade and fabulous costumes, groves with ivy choked ruins etc.
A fantastic tale... even if you want to smack the narrator on the back of the head for being so naive.
It's Gothic schlock. I normally don't mind Gothic schlock but this was predictable Gothic schlock.
10 chapters in and I just can’t go on! I refuse to believe anyone is foolish enough to trust a random man they meet in a foreign country who warns him often not to trust strangers 👀👀
Sheridan le Fanu is just about my favourite 19th century writer of supernatural and gothic tales. The Room in the Dragon Volant is somewhat unusual for le Fanu, since it’s not really a supernatural tale. It does however have plenty of gothic elements and some genuine horror, and it’s an ingenious and entertaining tale. It’s set in France just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and involves a young rich Englishman who falls in love with a beautiful but mysterious, and unhappily married, counte...
Not a ghost story but a remarkable mystery story, in 26 chapters, which includes the themes of drug-induced catalepsy and premature burial. A naïve young Englishman traveling in France attempts to save a beautiful and mysterious woman from a gang of murderous thieves who bury their victims alive. A frightening short tale that gave me Goosebumps!
Rip-roaring fun. And this novella is not even considered one of LeFanu's top 3. How is LeFanu not more famous? And as an added bonus, his description of the scrum of carriages trying to get a hotel at Versailles for a masked ball is exactly like an 1810s version of the last college move-in day I attended.
As with Le Fanu's uniquely enjoyable House by the Churchyard, one cannot help feeling somewhat disappointed when this Gothic novella, marketed as a ghost story - (at least with the anthology I find it in) - ends up just being a maudlin romance-mystery with only the fainstest hint of supernaturalism. However, the tale is still told well enough and it's hard to really criticise it for the most part. The climax, also, is excellent. Le Fanu utilises a fairly notorious trope of the genre, and manages...
The Room in the Dragon Volant By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was first published 1872This gothic mystery story was about a Long con of a wealthy young Englishman named Richard Beckett.Beckett helps the Count de St Alyre and his younger wife the Countess de St Alyre (with her exotic Violet eyes).He then is infatuated with the married woman and plans to run off with her.For most of the novel I kept trying to figure out who was in on the con.After the Napoleonic Wars the French resented English Tourist...
This was an entertaining short story, even if very predictable.I liked the atmosphere and the sense of impending danger, and the cast of characters was interesting. They were all mysterious and (view spoiler)[it was clear they couldn't be trusted. The main character was painfully naive. (hide spoiler)]The ending was really quite predictable. I saw it coming right from the beginning. Maybe it was considered shocking at the time it was written, but, having read many mysteries, it didn't surprise m...
Loaded with mystery and suspense and ready for anyone who likes classics in these genres, the 'Dragon Volant' can be summed up thus... 'having a handsome fortune and maybe also seeking a bit of adventure, a young man leaves his home country to do some travels but is enraptured by a beautiful woman who causes him to become as his slave, who makes him a victim of her poisons, whose actions only lead to death...' Do enjoy reading this book :):)
Eh. Long lead-in; predictably the main character was being set up to be robbed and murdered (and had no suspicions of it whatsoever). Also the paralyzing agent they slipped him that apparently stopped his lungs really bothered me. He was paralyzed for over three hours and came out of it perfectly fine. The only mystery in it for me was trying to figure out how many of the other characters were working together to con him.
