The Raven Post

Biography

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born August 28, 1814, and died February 7, 1873. He was an Irish author known for his robust body of work in the supernatural, horror, and mystery genres.

Le Fanu was born in Dublin to a family of writers—his grandmother and great-uncle were playwrights, his mother a biographer, and his niece eventually a successful novelist. Le Fanu himself was somewhat self-educated, a feat he accomplished through use of the resources in his father’s library; while the family employed a tutor for a time, he reportedly taught the children very little and was eventually terminated.

Despite his family’s persistent money troubles, Le Fanu began studying law and was eventually called to the bar. Before long, however, he abandoned this career path in favor of pursuing journalism. After contributing several pieces to Dublin University Magazine, he published his first supernatural tale, “The Ghost and the Bone-Setter,” in 1838. After some time (and a great deal of writing), he came to own several newspapers and eventually became the proprietor of Dublin University Magazine.

As is the case with many historical authors, elements of Le Fanu’s life at times reflected his stories’ mysterious twists of fate—or, perhaps, vice-versa. The writer’s wife, Susanna Bennett, whom he married in 1844 and with whom he had four children, began developing numerous neuroses sometime during the 1850s and eventually died under unknown circumstances following a “hysterical attack.” Little else is known about these events besides the feelings of anguish and—seemingly—remorse Le Fanu recorded in his own journal.

In 1873, at the age of fifty-eight, he died of a heart attack in Dublin. Today, Le Fanu is best known for his prolific horror fiction, notably 1872’s Carmilla and 1864’s Uncle Silas, as well as his part in developing—and pushing the boundaries of—the Victorian ghost story.

Below is a curated selection of Le Fanu’s notable work. Read at your own discretion—and please, enjoy.

Short Stories by Sheridan Le Fanu

An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street (1851)
Ghost Stories of Chapelizod (1851)
Ultor de Lacy (1861)
Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling (1864)
Squire Toby’s Will (1868)
Stories of Lough Guir (1869–1870)
The Child That Went with the Fairies (1870)
The White Cat of Drumgunniol (1870)
The Vision of Tom Chuff (1870)
Madam Crowl’s Ghost (1870)
Dickon the Devil (1872)
Sir Dominick’s Bargain (1872)