This remarkable collection of stories, includes Green Tea, The Familiar, Mr. Justice Harbottle, The Room in the Dragon Volant, and Carmilla. The five stories are purported to be cases by Dr. Hesselius, a 'metaphysical' doctor, 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.

From Green Tea: The evil spirits associated with man are, indeed from the hells, but when with man they are not then in hell, but are taken out thence. The place where they then are, is in the midst between heaven and hell, and is called the world of spirits -- when the evil spirits who are with man, are in that world, they are not in any infernal torment, but in every thought and affection of man, and so, in all that the man himself enjoys. But when they are remitted into their hell, they return to their former state... If evil spirits could perceive that they were associated with man, and yet that they were spirits separate from him, and if they could flow in into the things of his body, they would attempt by a thousand means to destroy him; for they hate man with a deadly hatred... Knowing, therefore, that I was a man in the body, they were continually striving to destroy me, not as to the body only, but especially as to the soul; for to destroy any man or spirit is the very delight of the life of all who are in hell; but I have been continually protected by the Lord. spirits, unless he be in the good of faith... Nothing is more carefully guarded from the knowledge of associate spirits than their being thus conjoint with a man, for if they knew it they would speak to him, with the intention to destroy him... Also included in this volume are Mr. Justice Harbottle, Madam Crowl's Ghost, and The Dead Sexton.

"Carmilla" is the book that set the text for "Dracula," that threw the light on our morbid fascination with the vampire legend. This is "Carmilla," J. Sheridan LeFanu's classic novel of blood, terror -- and a love that dare not speak its name.

Included in this volume of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's eerie tales are Ghost Stories of Chapelizod, including "The Village Bully," "The Sexton's Adventure," "The Specter Lovers"; "The Drunkard's Dream"; "The Ghost and the Bonesetter"; "The Mysterious Lodger"; "Laura Silver Bell"; "Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling"; "The Child That Went with the Fairies"; Stories of Lough Guir, including "The Magician Earl," "Moll Rial's Adventure," "The Banshee," "The Governess's Dream," and "The Earl's Hall"; "The Vision of Tom Chuff"; and "Dickon the Devil."

Included in this volume of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's marvellous ghost stories are "Madam Crowl's Ghost"; "Squire Toby's Will"; "Dickon the Devil"; "The Child That Went with the Fairies"; "The White Cat of Drumgunniol"; "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street"; Ghost Stories of Chapelizod, including "The Village Bully," "The Sexton's Adventure," "The Specter Lovers"; "Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling"; "Sir Dominick's Bargain"; "Ultor de Lacy"; "The Vision of Tom Chuff"; and Stories of Lough Guir, including "The Magician Earl," "Moll Rial's Adventure," "The Banshee," "The Governess's Dream," and "The Earl's Hall."

The foremost teller of scary stories in his day and a profound influence on both the novelists and filmmakers of the 20th century, Anglo-Irish author JOSEPH THOMAS SHERIDAN LE FANU (18141873) has, sadly, fallen out of scholarly and popular favor, and unfairly so. To this day, contemporary readers who happen across his works praise his talent for weaving a tense literary atmosphere tinged by the supernatural and bolstered by hints of ambiguous magic. Though his best-known works were horror tales, Le Fanus first novels were historical in nature. The House by the Churchyard, originally published in 1863, bridges the authors early work and his later experiments in Gothic horror, and is said to have inspired James Joyces Finnegans Wake. A rambling tale of the charming Irish town of Chapelizod in 1767, it sees men of the Royal Irish Artillery stationed in the village and disrupting the quiet life there... though the brooding Mr. Mervyn and his coffin and the mysterious newcomer Mr. Dangerfield lend elements of the unknown as well. With a series of new editions of Le Fanus works, Cosimo is proud to reintroduce modern book lovers to the writings of the early master of suspense fiction who pioneered the concept of psychological horror.

Included in this volume are the classic Le Fanu tales, "Green Tea," "The Familiar," "Mr. Justice Harbottle," "The Room in the Dragon Volant," and "Carmilla."

The foremost teller of scary stories in his day and a profound influence on both the novelists and filmmakers of the 20th century, Anglo-Irish author JOSEPH THOMAS SHERIDAN LE FANU (18141873) has, sadly, fallen out of scholarly and popular favor, and unfairly so. To this day, contemporary readers who happen across his works praise his talent for weaving a tense literary atmosphere tinged by the supernatural and bolstered by hints of ambiguous magic. First published in 1864, Uncle Silas, one of his more famous works, is a macabre tale of the death-haunted mansion known as Knowl, and Maud Ruthyn, who narrates for us the ominous goings-on there through her curtain of obsession with the dark and the dead. Considered by some to be among the best horror novels ever written, this is certainly a pinnacle of Victorian suspense that continues to grip sophisticated readers today. With a series of new editions of Le Fanus works, Cosimo is proud to reintroduce modern book lovers to the writings of the early master of suspense fiction who pioneered the concept of psychological horror.

In a Glass Darkly is Sheridan Le Fanu's most famous collection of ghost and mystery stories. There are five, all recounted by Martin Hesselius: "Green Tea," "The Familiar," "Mr Justice Harbottle," "The Room in the Dragon Volant" and "Carmilla."

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""What makes the Faber Finds edition unique is the illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. The original title-page says, 'with numerous illustrations by Edward Ardizzone.' That is true, there is an abundance of them from the full-page to the vignettes.

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""This illustrated edition was first published in November 1929. Eighty years to the month is it being reissued by Faber Finds. It is an anniversary worth celebrating. Edward Ardizzone was one of the best and most distinctive illustrators of the twentieth-century and this was the very first book to benefit from his work. It was an auspicious start.

'Well, a corpse is a natural thing; but this was the dreadfullest sight I ever sid...' Sheridan Le Fanu is one of the indispensable figures in the history of Gothic and horror fiction-the most important such writer in English, certainly, between Poe and M. R. James. While a number of his sensation and mystery novels were popular with mid-Victorian readers, it was in shorter forms that he truly excelled, and most showed himself an innovator in the field of uncanny fiction. Tales such as 'Carmilla' and 'Green Tea' prompted M. R. James to remark, 'he succeeds in inspiring a mysterious terror better than any other writer'. This landmark critical edition includes the original versions of all five stories later collected in the superb In a Glass Darkly, along with seven equally chilling tales spanning the length of Le Fanu's career, from 'Schalken the Painter', a pioneering story of the walking dead, to 'Laura Silver Bell', a haunting exploration of the dark side of fairy lore. Aaron Worth's introduction discusses the paranoid, claustrophobic world of Le Fanu's fiction as a counterpoint-one in its own way equally modern-to the cosmic horror tale as practiced by such writers as H. P. Lovecraft.

You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever. One of the most hugely influential vampire stories of all time, Le Fanu's Carmilla was written before Bram Stoker's Dracula. A true gothic novel, it is eery, rich in character and place and bathed in blood and moonlight. When a mysterious carriage crashes outside their castle home in Styria, Austria, Laura and her father agree to take in its injured passenger, a young woman named Carmilla. Delighted to have some company of her own age, Laura is instantly drawn to Carmilla. But as their friendship grows, Carmilla's character changes and she becomes increasingly secretive and volatile. As Carmilla's moods shift and change, Laura starts to become ill, experiencing fiendish nightmares, her health deteriorating night after night. It is not until she and her father, increasingly concerned for Laura's well-being, set out on a trip to discover more about the mysterious Carmilla that the terrifying truth reveals itself...

`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 THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The first volume of an eight book collection from 'the grandfather of the ghost story'
Whilst many highly regarded writers have created collections of strange and supernatural fiction and several other authors are now primarily known for their literary efforts within this genre, the author of this large collection surely stands alone. Not only is his body of supernatural and gothic fiction extremely substantial, he wrote ghost and horror fiction if not exclusively then certainly as the subject matter of the overwhelming majority of his considerable literary output. His authorship of novels and stories of the other worldly began from the first part of the nineteenth century making him one of the earliest specialist exponents of the genre in the 'modern' period. He is widely regarded as a master of his craft, and it is certain that once he had set out to create a thrill or chill in the minds of his reader one was sure to follow J. Sheridan Le Fanu was without doubt the premier writer of ghostly fiction during the Victorian age and his influence on the genre can be seen in the work of his peers and those who followed after. An Irishman, in 1861 Le Fanu became the editor of the 'Dublin University Magazine' and this gave his fiction ready access to the public. 'The House by the Churchyard' and 'Wylder's Hand' were originally published in the magazine. This special Leonaur edition of Le Fanu's weird and supernatural fiction runs to 8 substantial volumes and is possibly the most comprehensive collection of his work yet assembled. It includes his highly regarded novels and a plethora of shorter works designed to provoke fear and horror among his dedicated aficionados.
This volume contains the novels The Haunted Baronet and The Evil Guest, the novella Carmilla, a novelette A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family and ten short stories: A Debt of Honour; An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street; An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain; An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House; Billy Malowney's Taste of Love and Glory; Borrhomeo the Astrologer; Catherine's Quest; Devereux's Dream; Doctor Feversham's Story and The little Red Man.
All volumes are available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket for collectors. Leonaur hardcovers feature real cloth bindings, gold foil lettering on their spines and head and tail bands.

The foremost teller of scary stories in his day and a profound influence on both the novelists and filmmakers of the 20th century, Anglo-Irish author JOSEPH THOMAS SHERIDAN LE FANU (18141873) has, sadly, fallen out of scholarly and popular favor, and unfairly so. To this day, contemporary readers who happen across his works praise his talent for weaving a tense literary atmosphere tinged by the supernatural and bolstered by hints of ambiguous magic. First published in 1864, Uncle Silas, one of his more famous works, is a macabre tale of the death-haunted mansion known as Knowl, and Maud Ruthyn, who narrates for us the ominous goings-on there through her curtain of obsession with the dark and the dead. Considered by some to be among the best horror novels ever written, this is certainly a pinnacle of Victorian suspense that continues to grip sophisticated readers today. With a series of new editions of Le Fanus works, Cosimo is proud to reintroduce modern book lovers to the writings of the early master of suspense fiction who pioneered the concept of psychological horror.

Carmilla created the modern vampire. She was the first romantic vampire, and after inspiring Bram Stoker's Dracula she has continued with us, always in the shadow, influencing culture with a subtlety that is as alluring as it is elitist. A multi-layered story of love, loss, and a yearning for both a past and a future unobtainable, and finally of great sacrifice, Carmilla ranks as one of the world's great tragedies. A lonely young girl living in a desolate forest is befriended by a young countess after what seems a chance encounter. Laura's innocence prevents her from seeing the obvious, that her new friend Carmilla is a demon of the highest order, and one who has fallen passionately in love with her. Over time Carmilla's lust for Laura and her soul overpower her caution, and the serenity of a life of seclusion becomes a nightmarish existence for Laura as her world unravels in ways that can never be repaired. This is an archival quality presentation of the original unabridged story.