From the author of the vampire classic "Carmilla" comes a Victorian novel of menace and dread. Death prowls the chilly atmosphere at Knowl, and an even more haunting terror pervades Bartram-Haugh, in the gloomy thoughts and somber reflections of inhabitants.

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Uncle Silas (1864) is a macabre mystery novel and classic of gothic horror. Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814 1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century. In his stories the supernatural explanation is implied, but there is always a remote but possible natural explanation. Maud Ruthyn, the heroine of this classic Victorian novel, recalls her fear of death, her moody father, the grotesque Madame de la Rougierre, and the suspicions surrounding her Uncle Silas. Uncle Silas is an extended adaptation of his earlier short story "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess," with the locale switched from Ireland to England.

From the author of the vampire classic "Carmilla" comes a Victorian novel of menace and dread. Death prowls the chilly atmosphere at Knowl, and an even more haunting terror pervades Bartram-Haugh, in the gloomy thoughts and somber reflections of inhabitants.

A world of spirits, a locked cabinet, an abduction, past secrets that spill into the present combine to make Uncle Silas, Le Fanu's most celebrated novel of sensation. From the moment that Madame de la Rougierre is hired as governess to the young, naïve Maud Ruthyn, a dark cloud of foreboding hangs over the entire household. A liar, a bully and a spy, Madame eventually leaves, taking her dark secret with her.

But unhappily for Maud, that is not the last of Madame de la Rougierre. For when Maud is orphaned she is sent to live with her Uncle Silas, her father's mysterious brother, a man with a scandalous - even murderous - past. Here she encounters Madame once more. This time her sinister role in Maud's destiny is all too clear.

With its subversion of reality and illusion and its depiction of the 'filmy layers' of Maud's passions and fears, Uncle Silas goes beyond the bounds of the conventional horror story to become a chilling psychological thriller.

This edition contains an introduction, chronology and explanatory notes.