by Editor
on February 8, 2015
Sheridan Le Fanu’s Birthplace In the Old Village Of Capelizod, Dublin City, Ireland. Photo: Damien Slattery
Sheridan Le Fanu: Father Of The Victorian Ghost Story
As we’ve mentioned elsewhere on this site, the so-called golden age of the English ghost story—a time of immense popularity for the ghost-story genre—began near the start of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837 and lasted until the beginning of World War I, a dozen years after her death in 1901. So, a great many, though not all, ghost stories from this golden period can be considered Victorian literature.
M.R. James, who is still considered to be one of the greatest crafters of ghost stories, produced most of his work in the early 1900s. But of course he owed a large debt to the classic Victorian writers who came before him—and by his own admission, none more than the Irish writer, Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873). Le Fanu was also greatly appreciated by his contemporary, Charles Dickens, who in his capacity as a magazine editor enthusiastically promoted Le Fanu’s work.
Le Fanu is now widely regarded as the “father” of the Victorian ghost story. In the words of Julia Briggs, author of Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story (1977):
The work of all these writers of the [eighteen] sixties and seventies, however, was overshadowed by that of one man, who has high claims to be considered one of the finest ghost story writers of all time, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. M.R. James considered that ‘he stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories.’ . . . It is the quality of his insights which make his work remarkable; his intuitive understanding and vivid portrayal of fear, guilt and anxiety lifts his writing to true distinction, as his best critics have observed. . . . Behind Le Fanu’s imaginative descriptions of psychological states, especially the states of fear, lay a profound concern with the relationship between mind and body, and the way one might exert its influence over the other.” [continue reading…]
by Editor
on January 30, 2015
Words From The Masters On Writing A Chilling Supernatural Story. Image: Curtis MacNewton
Advice On Crafting A Scary Supernatural Tale
In the early 1800s, when Ivanhoe author Sir Walter Scott was writing, the short story was a fairly new fictional form, with novels having comprised most of the fiction published up to then. However, the rapid proliferation of newspapers and magazines throughout the 19th century made the short story both a practical and a highly popular commodity to produce.
Scott found this new form to be superior to the novel for telling his ghostly tales because he thought it was far too difficult to keep a reader sufficiently frightened over the course of several hundred pages. In his opinion, it was far easier and more effective to maintain that icy grip on the spine of his audience throughout a read that lasted only an hour. In his essay, On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition, he wrote: [continue reading…]
by Editor
on January 24, 2015
Ghost Walks Into A Bar, And He Says. . . . Image: Justin Brown
Did You Hear The One About The Ghost?
So this ghost walks into a bar.
No, wait. That’s not right. A store. He walks into a store. And he doesn’t walk; he floats. Because he’s a ghost.
So this ghost floats into a store, drifts up to the counter, and he says to the cashier, he says, “I want to buy a pint of vodka.”
The cashier studies the ghost for a moment, and then he says, the cashier says . . . [continue reading…]
by Editor
on January 23, 2015
The World Is Full Of Ghost-Ridden Castles. But Even A Humble Trailer Can Be Haunted. Photo: Carolyn Srygley-Moore
Ghost Light
Sure, ghosts prefer haunting big, rambling places with a lot of history behind them. But not every disembodied spirit can afford spacious digs. And, come to think of it, it’s certain that a lot more people give up the ghost in cramped apartments, mobile homes, trailers, and hovels than in Victorian mansions.
Photographer Carolyn Srygley-Moore captured this image while waiting for a ride home after working a nightshift job in upstate New York. The trailer is unused, and she’d never before seen a light on inside of it.
She tells us she decided not to investigate further, which probably was a wise choice. . . .
