| Title | : | In a Glass Darkly |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0192839470 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780192839473 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1872 |
NB: The Familiar is a revision of The Watcher; Mr. Justice Harbottle is a revision of An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street.
In a Glass Darkly Reviews
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"What a fool I was! and yet, in the sight of angels, are we any wiser as we grow older? It seems to me, only, that our illusions change as we go on; but, still, we are madmen all the same."
DEMON MONKEY
I read the Folio Society edition of this book and that red-eyed demon monkey was on the front cover. Every time my eyes inadvertently met his gaze I felt like I was being mesmerized. When not reading the book I kept the book facing down.
I read this book predominately in the middle of the night. I go through restless sleeping patterns that wake me up sometime between 1:30 and 2:30AM. The only way I can get back to sleep is to sit and read in the antique rocking chair, under the glass balled chandelier, in what was once my dining area, but has been converted to a reading nook. (I guess you know where our priorities are.) Everyone knows that Victorian Gothic horror is best read after midnight anyway.
The book contains five stories all based around the posthumous papers of Dr. Martin Hesselius. It turns out the Doctor has a strong belief in the occult, and in this time period provided an unusually sympathetic ear to those with diabolic tales of terror.
Green Tea
An English clergyman named Jennings confides to Hesselius that he is being followed by a demon in the form of an ethereal monkey, invisible to everyone else, which is trying to invade his mind and destroy his life. The creature escalates the level of it's attacks and exponentially increases the level of terror experienced by Jennings.
The Familiar
A sea captain, living in Dublin, is stalked by a sinister dwarf who reminds him of the nefarious parts of his past he'd best left forgotten. To escape his stalker he becomes housebound, but the stress of the presence of the dwarf is replaced with voices accusing him of deeds most foul.
Mr Justice Harbottle
You can condemn them, but they don't stay gone. Judge Harbottle finds out that karma is landing on his sanctimonious ass in the form of vengeful spirits. His dreams are dominated by the condemnations of a murderous doppelgänger.
The Room in the Dragon Volant
A naive young Englishman, the recent recipient of a large inheritance, finds himself enamored with a lovely and mysterious Countess. She is married to a bastard of a Count and makes it clear to our young hero that she wishes to be saved. With a few swishes of her tail feathers and a few words of endearment the Countess weaves a bit of spellbound madness into our young hero who finds himself in dire straits about to be buried ALIVE. One of my favorites of the five.
THE COUNTESS
Carmilla
As I was reading this tale I kept noticing elements of the story that reminded me of
Dracula. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this was not only one of the earliest vampire stories, but was also published 25 years before Bram Stoker's classic. Stoker, must have read it, and used some of the atmosphere of this tale in his own work. I was also shocked to read a story from 1872 involving some fairly explicit allusions to lesbian vampire desires. I would highly recommend reading this story if you don't have time to read the whole collection. The story served as the basis for several films including Hammer's The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr (1932).
ADDENDUM: Recently during a night of hell, fighting a pinched nerve under the left scapula. I found I could not concentrate enough to read because of the constant rolling waves of pain, so I queued up The Vampire Lovers on Netflix Instant. I wanted something I did not have to pay much attention to and this fit the bill perfectly. Bonus: Ingrid Pitt is starkers at several points in the movie. She was almost a Bond Girl. To quote from the book Ingrid Pitt, Queen of Horror: The Complete Career..."Alas, Ingrid Pitt is only heard as the voice of the 'Galley Mistress' in Roger Moore's next-to-last cinematic fling as James Bond (exhorting, 'in, out, in out' to the all-female crew), which only makes her a Bond girl in the loosest sense of the term."
I'm afraid that Ingrid Pitt and her lesbian encounters with several young victims were the highlights of the film. My hopes of seeing some real connections to the Le Fanu plot were dashed. I was at times laughing out loud despite being dazed with pain at the number of times the director Roy Ward Baker managed to slip a loose breast(s) into the plot. Best watched stoned (on pain of course not any of that other stuff you youngsters are into).
It has been said that, besides Bram Stoker, Le Fanu also influenced Henry James, Charlotte Bronte, James Joyce, and Charles Dickens. His writing style reminded me of one of my favorite writers Robert Louis Stevenson. These tales are lit with a slow burning fuse. Le Fanu has an easy writing style that carries you along, and before you know it your pulse rate is creeping upward. At several points while reading these tales I suddenly had an uncontrollable urge to look over my shoulder. Reading these tales at night, in a quiet house, really helped create the right ambiance to appreciate them.
One night I heard a sharp rapping on glass that sounded like a bony fingernail. I went to the glass doors to the backyard half expecting to see some spectral demon. I then heard the noise again and discovered a thermometer had come loose in the fish tank and became trapped in the filter and the bubbles were knocking it against the glass.
Bony fingernail was my first thought?
It gives you an idea of how these old Gothic tales still have the juice to get the mind stirring.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
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https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten -
In a Glass Darkly is a reference to something the apostle Paul said in the Bible about not being able to see reality in the way it actually is because we are looking through an imperfect (dark) glass.
I just thought that was a cool piece of trivia that I'd always wondered about.
Anyway. This is a collection of stories by Le Fanu that are mostly paranormal. I hated 2 of them and liked 3 of them, so I'll call this one a win with Carmilla pushing it from 3 to 4 stars.
Green Tea
The gist is that this dude drinks Green Tea while studying ancient religions.
Too much Green Tea later will open your third eye.
Apparently.
Because the next thing you know, he's on a bus and suddenly this demon monkey appears to him.
He sees it all the time and it drives him crazy. He appeals to a non-practicing doctor who believes in the spiritual side of things in the hopes that this guy can help him.
This was bad. Just from start to finish.
Green tea and a demon monkey? Getthefuckoutofhere.
The Watcher aka The Familiar
Pee-yew! My second stinker in a row from Le Fanu.
I didn't think he could write anything could be more boring than
Green Tea but he managed it.
This time around, our main character is stalked by a small man.
Yes, you read that right.
Uuuuuugh. There was never a moment where I was interested in any part of this tale.
In case you're wondering, the moral of the story is that the guy learns to believe in God.
Mr. Justice Harbottle
OH-KAY. Yes. This was spooky.
This story comes from a friend of a friend of a friend who knows someone's third cousin who has heard alllll about the haunted house that used to be occupied by Justice Harbottle from their brother-in-law.
I know I'm not the only one who loves this type of wacky storytelling.
The Room in the Dragon Volant
A baby-faced idiot falls for a very bad woman that he thinks needs rescuing.
You can see it coming from a mile away, but that makes it even more fun to watch. I mean, who doesn't like a good train wreck? And watching some youthful Romeo make an ass out of himself over a married woman is the kind of thing that ignites itself into just the best kind of flaming wreckage, imho.
Carmilla
I'd already read Carmilla earlier, so I didn't listen to it again. But if you haven't given this classic vampire tale a whirl yet, I'd highly recommend you do.
A lesbian stalker with a striking resemblance to an old painting in the attic fangs a naive European girl in the tit until someone finally gets wise to her bloodsucking ways.
I didn't like them all, but if you're looking for classic tales to read by the fireside, you could do a lot worse.
Recommended. -
I recently found a new hobby of watching beauty vloggers apply make up on YouTube.
As a good a method to waste time as any, and they are all - oh my gosh, this is red lipstick, so red, then slap it on their lips, cheeks, noses or other appendages and then are all amazed, just how red that lipstick is, so darn good and you have to agree, yes, that is one red lipstick.
And my other all time favorite hobby is reading horror stories, especially classic. Not all horror stories are created equal, I don't like gratuitous gore and eviscerated entrails, zombies usually are a bore, vampires... It sucks to be vampires nowadays, ain't it, after all that twilight debacle. They should totally sue.
So! In a Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.
Classic and gothic and 1001 books to read (I always wonder, why people choose this exact amount of books to read. If you reach your mark, then you'll stop? Or maybe you'll get a cookie? what's going on, people?) and other top shelves on goodreads, so it's on, bitches (I really must stop watching those youtube tutorials)
As the book blurb says:
This remarkable collection of stories, first published in 1872, 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.
AND OH MY GOSH, IT'S SO DARN GOOD, YOU'LL BE AMAZED, I'M SHOOKETH.
Dr. Hesselius is Mulder and Scully combined. He writes down his case studies, with a cold, scientific mind and a calm attitude, so the storytelling is precise, sharp and even mordent. I LOVED IT.
Green Tea
An English clergyman drinks green tea, gets haunted by an invisible red-eyed demon monkey. Dr. Hesselius quickly diagnoses a severe case of spiritual bloating, so prevalent among religious fanatics (as seen on Fox News everyday). The monkey remains not impressed. I've never chuckled so much while reading a horror story.
The Familiar
A sea captain finds out the hard way that Lannisters always pay their debt and you do not mess with dwarfs.
Mr Justice Harbottle
This one was so great, I cannot even. A conceited judge finds out about karma the hard way. The actual horror of the story outlines the damage of unjust decisions and condemnations and as always, it's not the monsters that do horrific things. Monsters are puppies and rainbows in comparison to the dark capabilities of a single white dude in a power position.
The Room in the Dragon Volant
My favorite. It's hilarious. I've listened to it twice in a row and then after I've finished an audio book, hit the baby one more time (i do not hit or get hit by any literal babies, if anyone were to be concerned).
A young, freshly enriched Englishman gets totally depantsed by Ze Frènch.
Ridonculous. Author shows no pity and doesn't hold any punches, because a naivete and let's be frank, hormonal lusts of the young must be delt with early on, just like the doctor ordered.
Carmilla
Lesbian vampires. LESBIAN VAMPIRES. PERFECTION.
Also, this tale had very strong good mystery plot, vampire slaying and seduction, so, so very good.
Read classic books. More than 1001, heck, 1001 would do, just read classic books. They are famous and for all good reasons. -
*applause*
Once again those good old boys from the days of "classic" literature show everyone how it's done without the aid of special effects, bells and whistles and ludicrous vampire based sex scenes (any who has ever seen or had Tru blood described to them will know what i'm talking about). This is a great book of short stories (Green Tea, The Familiar, Mr Justice Harbottle, The Room in Le Dragon Volant and Carmilla) all linked by the fact that they are case studies brought to the attention of Dr Martin Hesselius who investigates medical cases with a hint of the paranormal. Hesselius is clearly ahead of his time when it comes to investigating X-Files and seems to be a one man Mulder/Scully hybrid with Mulder's nose for the supernatural and Scully's medical accumen. All of the stories are quite gripping and in some places a tiny bit scary although none of them sent me screaming into the night. The best one is Carmilla which is possibly better than Dracula and pips the Count to the publication post by 25 years. This book gets 5 stars for presenting "cheese-free" horror, although I might deduct half a star for The Room in Le Dragon Volant as the only supernatural thing in that story is how scarily gullible some men can be at the presentation of a well turned ankle and a pretty face. This gets into my top 20 from the 1001 books list. -
The star rating is based solely on the stories, and I'd recommend reading them.
But in a different edition. Most every book has a handful of typos, even with the number of eyes that go over them, but the typos in this edition had to be in the hundreds. New paragraphs would start mid-sentence, much of the time ! was changed to I, and occasionally the wrong word was put in, leaving you to guess what was meant. I've read several Wordsworth Editions and never seen this problem before. Hopefully this was a one-off. -
I seem to have read all these stories before in books with names like ‘Great Ghost Stories of the British Isles Vol. 48’, but thoroughly enjoyed reading them again.
‘The Room in the Dragon Volant’ is an object lesson in creating an atmosphere of ominous suspense with very little in the way of action.
Perfect for the cold autumn. -
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12
As hinted at by the title given to this collection of strange stories, Sheridan Le Fanu was interested in writing about the mystical and metaphyiscal; those inexplicable horrors of shade and shadow that may only be fuzzily glimpsed by mortal man as though
In a Glass Darkly. First published in 1872, my edition has an Introduction which compellingly explains that Le Fanu (a Dublin-born Protestant journalist with “an interest in Irish Nationalism”) often shaped his stories so that power-abusing upper class characters face some sort of comeuppance. And as a writer influenced by Swedenborg, Le Fanu was open to the idea that this retribution could come at the hands of actual spirits. As these stories unfold, it seems equally as scientifically possible for a middle-of-the-night pain in the chest to have been delivered by indigestion or vampire; the real delight is in following along to see how the cases unfold. I loved every bit of this.As food is taken in softly at the lips, and then brought under the teeth, as the tip of the little finger caught in a mill crank will draw in the hand, and the arm, and the whole body, so the miserable mortal who has once been caught firmly by the end of the finest fibre of his nerve, is drawn in and in, by the enormous machinery of hell, until he is as I am.~ Green Tea
Published in 1871, fifteen or so years before the first Sherlock Holmes story, Green Tea shares many of the detectiving characteristics later employed by Holmes: an assistant who compiles his genius mentor’s notes into readable stories for the laypeople; an eye for evaluating a person upon first meeting (here, after a brief conversation with The Rev. Mr. Jennings, Dr. Hesselius asserts that he is a bachelor, he has drunk a good deal of green tea but has since given it up, and that his father has seen a ghost!); and the belief that there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for every mysterious circumstance. Coming before Holmes as this did, I couldn’t help but put myself in the mind of a reader in 1871: would that reader have been gobsmacked by Hesselius’ feats of logic? Would that reader have been chilled by the gloomy Gothic setting and, even moreso, horrified by a vicar who is shadowed by a blaspheming demon (a monkey-shaped phantom with glowing red eyes and a penchant for perching on the Good Book in order to block the minister’s readings)? This was a truly surprising delight: I had no idea where this old story would go, nor could I have predicted Hesselius’ solution. Loved this!"Well, then, Doctor, here is the last of my questions. You will, probably, laugh at it; but it must out nevertheless. Is there any disease, in all the range of human maladies, which would have the effect of perceptibly contracting the stature and the whole frame — causing the man to shrink in all his proportions, and yet to preserve his exact resemblance to himself in every particular — with the one exception, his height and bulk; any disease, mark — no matter how rare — how little believed in, generally — which could possibly result in producing such an effect?" ~The Familiar
The Familiar begins with a prologue in which Hesselius writes to his aide that the ensuing case of a retired sea captain who suddenly finds himself pursued by a demon — recorded by a clergyman and forwarded to the doctor for analysis — is interesting, but beyond his abilities to diagnose as he had never met the captain himself. Breaking such cases into three categories — hallucinations, actual demonic possession, or a physical ailment that makes possible one of the other two possibilities — the reader is then primed to analyse Captain Barton’s case as it unfolds. And whether he is actually pursued by a demon, or if the figure is a manifestation stemming from his own guilty conscience, there is no denying that this is a man succumbing to harrowing terrors.This fellow took his pipe from his mouth on seeing the coach, stood up, and cut some solemn capers high on his beam, and shook a new rope in the air, crying with a voice high and distant as the caw of a raven hovering over a gibbet, "A rope for Judge Harbottle!" ~Mr. Justice Harbottle
In a prologue before presenting another third party manuscript collected by Dr. Hesselius, it is noted that Hasselius has written in the margins that this seemed to be a case of (what we would today call) mass hysteria; that a person suffering from certain cases of “lunacy, of epilepsy, of catalepsy, and of mania” might establish “spirit-action” in one person, which then spreads to others around them. In this case: a haughty and corrupt hanging judge finds himself hauled up before an otherworldly High Court of Appeal. And while Harbottle’s frightening visions might be attributed to gout or guilt, how to explain the visions experienced by others in his household?It seemed on a sudden, as it came, that the darkness deepened, and a chill stole into the air around me. Suppose I were to disappear finally, like those other men whose stories I had listened to! Had I not been at all the pains that mortal could to obliterate every trace of my real proceedings, and to mislead everyone to whom I spoke as to the direction in which I had gone? This icy, snake-like thought stole through my mind, and was gone. ~The Room in the Dragon Volant
At 120 pages, this novella-length story of a twisty and complicated con (with the inexplicable disappearances of they who stay in the corner room of the Dragon Volant inn outside Versailles) must have been mind-blowing in the day to readers who hadn’t seen this kind of storyline before; collected here by Dr. Hasselius in an essay on “Drugs of the Dark and the Middle Ages”, this is a story with a rational, rather than supernatural, explanation.If human testimony, taken with every care and solemnity, judicially, before commissions innumerable, each consisting of many members, all chosen for integrity and intelligence, and constituting reports more voluminous perhaps than exist upon any one other class of cases, is worth anything, it is difficult to deny, or even to doubt the existence of such a phenomenon as the Vampire. ~Carmilla
Written in 1872, fifteen or so years before the first publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this is a spooky tale of a charming young woman who is not as innocent as she would appear. This manuscript was written by a woman who had crossed paths with Carmilla in her youth and was collected by Dr. Hasselius, who noted in the margins that this tale, involves “not improbably, some of the profoundest arcana of our dual existence, and its intermediates”.
My final thoughts: This was such an interesting collection, and mostly, because I kept wondering how a reader 150 years ago must have reacted to the material: it’s pretty tame — almost cliché — by today’s standards, but I was never unaware that Le Fanu got there first. Also: the appearance in Green Tea of the Holmesian Dr. Hasselius made me think that I was in for a whole collection of his stories, so it was a bit disappointing that he never physically appears again. Still, overall, a cracking good read. -
Reviewing the stories as I go because I have a bad habit of forgetting what individual stories are about by the time I finish the whole.
Green Tea: Clergyman followed by a demonic monkey that only he can see as the result of all the green tea he consumes. Said "monkey" tries to convince the clergyman to hurt himself and others.
What I got out of this story: I drink a lot of green tea; I am fucked.
Familiar: A sea-captain is followed, not by a demonic monkey, but by a dwarf who reminds him of his past. Eventually he starts having auditory hallucinations. Not too unlike Green Tea, actually, but not as interesting to me.
What I got out of this story: The word countenance was used an awful lot in 19th-century literature. It was used multiple times a page in my previous read,
Wagner the Werewolf, and it popped up a couple times in this particular story. It makes me twitch now.
Mr. Justice Harbottle: A mean ol' judge is harassed by vindictive ghosts and he has a dream that one he passed judgment on in the past condemns him to death. Some nice chilling moments.
What I got out of this story: They have a habit of coming back.
The Room in Le Dragon Volant: A young Englishman in way over his head in France tries to save a beautiful Countess from her unfortunate situation andhilaritybad things ensue! This is a mystery story, unlike the first three stories in this collection, making me think of both Edgar Allan Poe and
The Mystery of the Yellow Room.
What I got out of this story: A long build up that is ultimately worth it but I found myself wanting it to end quite a few times. Secondary message I got out of this story: Just mind your own business because bad things happen when you worry about other people.
Carmilla: Vampires!
What I got out of this story: Vampires!
My favorites in this collection were the first and final stories, because demonic monkeys and lesbian vampires are much cooler than some stuffy judge, a dwarf, or being buried alive.
This is a fine collection, but I'm just not as big a fan of Le Fanu as I feel I should be. I have the same lackluster feeling now at the end of this as I did after reading
Uncle Silas - like, good stuff, but it could have been better. While totally unnecessary, I liked the way the stories were loosely held together by this whole Dr. Hesselius casebook thing. But, again, I wish more had been done with the good doctor as well.
I will say that Le Fanu could turn a phrase or two. This was a great addition to late-19th century supernatural literature. Carmilla predates
Dracula by almost 20 years but Dracula is, as far as I'm concerned a more solid story. I know, I know, but it's so boring. Whatever, I disagree with you, but I get your point.
If you want a gothic vampire story without wanting to plod through Dracula, you might as well read Carmilla. It's certainly shorter. -
'You have heard, no doubt, of the appalling superstition that prevails in Upper and Lower Styria, in Moravia, Silesia, in Turkish Serbia, in Poland, even in Russia; the superstition, so we must call it, of the Vampire.'
Review to follow. -
“…you believe in nothing but what consists with your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I have learned better.”
Who is this Sheridan Le Fanu? A trailblazer, certainly, in the development of the horror genre. Born of French descent in Dublin to a literary family, his experiences provided some excellent writing fodder: early poverty, a clergyman father, political involvement, guilt over his wife’s early death, plus his own neuroses. There’s even some obscure rumor that he literally died of fright. How intriguing is that?
This is my first time reading his work, and I found his writing exquisite. This collection is presented as a group of cases left by a Dr. Hesselius, someone with a scientific mind but open to the other-worldly. They are supposedly narratives from different patients, and Le Fanu writes each story in a remarkably unique style, something that can’t have been easy.
Green Tea introduces an unusual and truly frightening animal apparition, along with a pretty strange explanation for it. Not putting me off green tea though … yet.
The Familiar is a stalker story with another fun animal twist, but not as scary.
Then a moral tale, Mr. Justice Harbottle. The narrative style in this one includes an abundance of archaic terms, and I had fun discovering their meanings. Here’s just a few:
roquelaure= heavy cloak
jollifications = lively celebration
gibbet = a gallows
brutum fulmen = empty threat (literally stupid lightning)
The Room in the Dragon Volant is a departure from the ghostly, and essentially a straight-forward mystery story--two marks against it for me. Still, the writing was stellar, including the description of a masquerade party with such vivid details that the scene practically comes to life on the page.
The capstone to this collection is the last story, Carmilla. Le Fanu is responsible for launching the vampire story with this one, 25 years before
Bram Stoker wrote
Dracula. Dracula is good and all, but I liked this SO much better--it’s more eerie and emotive.
“In the rapture of my enormous humiliation, I live in your warm life, and you shall die--die, sweetly die--into mine.”
I will miss my time looking through Le Fanu’s dark glass. I come away completely impressed, and determined to read more of his writing. -
Sometimes oldies are, in fact, goodies.
Le Fannu is one of the fathers (parents, I should say, before Mary Shelley whacks me over the head with a lightning rod) of the Gothic horror and Gothic fantasy genres. And it's quite clear he deserves his place in the speculative hall of fame.
The short stories of ghosts and apparitions in the book are quite ordinary - for the modern reader. But if one takes into account that they were written before ghost stories became a staple and a cliche, they could be scary, unsettling, novel, and, actually scandalous. Prayer and faith do no impart grace? Belief and holy symbols do not offer rescue? Inconceivable!
The last story is even more blatantly risquee, in its portrayal of the beautiful, innocent-seeming, idol of womanhood... who then proceeds to turn into a... well, perhaps it is a spoiler, but let us just say that Stoker was not the first, and that the overtones of things completely unspoken of in 1870 were quite blatant.
The only thing truly detracting from this work is the writing, which is, while not at all poor, nevertheless very much a staple of its time, and as such can be occasionally tedious to an extreme. Nevertheless, my judgment is that the boring patches are worth the slog, in order to at least become acquainted with what is certainly one of the foundations of supernatural genres today.
Perhaps if we put a pretty apple on the cover we could convince fans of Twilight to try it out, instead? Who knows, it could pave the way to true world improvement. -
In a Glass Darkly, v. 1/3
2* Green Tea
3* The Familiar
3* Mr. Justice Harbottle
In a Glass Darkly, v. 2/3
5* The Room in the Dragon Volant
In a Glass Darkly, v. 3/3
The Room in the Dragon Volant - Part II
4* Carmilla
Excellent stories written by one of the masters of the gothic style.
In a Glass Darkly, v. 1/3: free download available at
Gutenberg Project
In a Glass Darkly, v. 2/3: free download available at
Gutenberg Project
In a Glass Darkly, v. 3/3: free download available at
Gutenberg Project -
Five supernatural (or are they?) tales from Le Fanu, the best of which, is the longest; The Room in the Dragon Volant, an amusing historical romance set in a politically unstable France, complete with mysterious beautiful woman in distress, gentleman hero, mysterious circumstances, oriental magic, conspiracy, secrets and jealousies. This story is eclipsed in fame by the last, Carmilla, despite it really being not as good; that's what feeding Victorians with such sensations as lesbian vampires will do! The story builds a tremendous mood of Goffick mystery and horror only to blow it with the denouement which has no tension at all. Such a waste.
The other stories are less memorable but not bad and I would suggest that any fan of the Goffick or supernatural really needs to read this collection. -
October 2011
The one about the distressed Reverend haunted by a demonic monkey? Yeah, that was ok.
The one about the retired Navy man haunted by a figure from his past? Eh, sure.
The one about the judge haunted by the ghost of an innocent man he condemned to death? Oh, yeah, whatever.
The one about the young and naïve Englishman travelling in France, haunted by nothing but an ever-growing sense of danger and unease as he befriends a mysterious Marquis, pines for the young and equally mysterious Countess de St Alyre, and falls victim to a terrible scheme? Hot damn!
The one about the lesbian vampire? If you say so.
Yeah, I think my tastes in horror might be a bit funny. -
The name Sheridan Le Fanu was not unfamiliar to me. I’d read of him as a gothic writer contemporary with Poe, but his books are not easily located in the local indie bookstore. I figured I’d eventually find him in a used context, which is what happened. (I suspect since his works are in the public domain they’re available for free online, but I still prefer to read in book form.) I happened upon In a Glass Darkly and began to read it. The problem with collections of stories, however, is they’re easy to set aside in favor of a novel and soon they’re buried under a pile of other books you’re meaning to read. When I finally came back to finish it I found the tales atmospheric and moody, as good gothic tales should be.
Le Fanu, like Poe, was a short story writer. Unlike Poe, however, many of his stories are lengthy and require being broken up in order to finish. They are, helpfully, divided into fairly brief chapters. The five tales in this collection include a couple of ghost stories, “The Familiar,” and “Mr. Justice Harbottle,” and a haunting by what seems to be a demon, “Green Tea.” “The Room in the Dragon Volant” is the longest tale in the collection and is a mystery story with no supernatural elements. The most famous of the narratives is “Camilla,” the story of a female vampire generally described as a “lesbian vampire” in more recent treatments, although, being Victorian literature there’s nothing explicitly sexual here.
My only real complaint about the book, a Wordsworth Classics edition, is that it looks like the text was scanned with OCR that wasn’t so good at recognizing characters. There were many places where random characters crept in or words were divided by periods. Even a cursory copyedit would’ve caught these. If there were one or two it’d hardly be worth mentioning, but there are many of them throughout the text. A careful writer like Le Fanu would’ve been scandalized. I wrote a few more impressions of the tales here:
Sects and Violence in the Ancient World. -
This book is full of unique tales that will keep one guessing.
The twists and turns in these stories are wonderfully crafted. -
This was the Goodreads Classic Horror Lovers Tales to Chill Your Blood group read in October 2017. I listened to it on Kindle. This volume contains five stories:
"Green Tea"
"The Familiar"
"Mr. Justice Harbottle"
"The Room in the Dragon Volant"
"Carmilla"
I will go through and discuss each story separately.
"Green Tea"--I have read this story before. It's interesting, although the way it's written is a bit on the dry side. It's told with detachment, which I suppose makes sense as it's told through letters written by Dr. Martin Hesselius, a paranormal investigator. The interesting component was the concept of green tea as a substance that can cause a person's third eye to open and to allow them to see into the spirit world. The unfortunate clergyman who is the focus of the story is able to see a monkey that continues to haunt him until it drives him crazy. It could have been more suspenseful, honestly. 3 stars
"The Familiar"--A psychological horror story about a man who is being haunted by a figure from his past as a sea captain. Another use of the trope of a person being driven mad by his perception of something no one else can see. I was not particularly impressed by this story. 2.5 stars
"Mr. Justice Harbottle"--a story about a judge who is haunted by the spirits of those he wrongly condemned to death. Nice build of suspense. I think the writing is much better in this story than "Green Tea" and "The Familiar". Ironically, I read the original version of this story, "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street" (1853) out of another ghost story volume I was reading in October. I like that it deals with the concept of spiritual consequences for the wrong that one does, even when the person seems to be powerful in this life. The judge was not just a corrupt official, but he was also a degenerate who treated those around him poorly. 4 stars
"The Room in the Dragon Volant"--This is more of a suspense story. It reminds me of something Robert Louis Stevenson might have wrote. It's one of the longer stories in the volume, with some involved storytelling. It's not a ghost or horror story, although there initially appears to be supernatural elements. Lots of nice twists in the story that did impress me. 4 stars
"Carmilla"--Another reread for me. A very famous novella about a female vampire with some very obvious homoerotic overtones. Carmilla chooses exclusively female victims and uses her allure to develop their attraction to her. Carmilla is a create of simultaneous seductiveness and repulsion to her newest victim, Laura. Readers can plot this story out and see over time that there is something very wrong about Carmilla. The story builds to an exciting climax as Laura's father and other concerned parties work to deal with the evil vampire. This is old school vampire horror. Carmilla is the bad guy. Readers who enjoy the romantic angle cannot escape the fact that Carmilla is a sexual predator who is endangering the life of Laura. This was written during the Victorian age, in which sexual values were highly pruritanical, so it couldn't have been written any other way without national outrage. However, it was a night springboard for plenty of later vampire stories that focused more of the erotic aspects and less on the evil monster component. First time I read this, I found the flowery descriptions tedious. I enjoyed this a lot more this time around, maybe because I listened to the narration. 4 stars.
Overall, I would give this 3.5 stars, which is an average of my individual ratings. Le Fanu is a good writer, but his style isn't my personal favorite. He's not the most active writer and I don't find his writing particularly scary (other than a couple of moments in Carmilla). However, he has some interesting ideas and concepts and his storytelling has been influential to the genre of classic horror. -
Some of the best ripping yarns of one Anglo-Irish mid-century Victorian weaver of ghost, adventure, and vampire tales. Perfect for the winter weather; perfect for those rainy, dark, and dimly-lit chilly days and nights beneath the eiderdown, warm drink in hand, in my late 19th century Continental European digs. Ah, you see, atmosphere is everything here, there, in both tale told and in the setting of one's reading. The mists swirl and the first-person narrators stand clueless before all-too-obvious mysteries: be fair, we know all about ghosts and vampires, while our narrators are only just now learning to face the supernatural and are prejudiced by reason and convention, I suppose. These were more innocent times, Gothic-wise, in which secret passages could still secretly link decaying chateau with a haunted and little-patronized country inn, and in which vampires still returned to unmarked sepulchers in Gothic chapels attached to a scenic Styrian schloss to live amphibiously in blood the whole morning through.
The linking device that Le Fanu cooked up in order to connect these five short-story to novelette-length tales is weak: the introductions explaining that these are part of the papers of a metaphysical researcher, Dr. Hasselius, could easily have been dispensed with--but it would have cut only five or so pages of the whole, but feel free to skip the intros as they add nothing to the tales. Of course, centering themselves primarily upon rollicking--if atmospheric--adventure tropes (especially in the penultimate tale, "A Room in the Dragon Volant," which I enjoyed immensely) means that Le Fanu's tales fall somewhat short of the sheer perverse frisson often achieved by his contemporary E. A. Poe or the later Victorian (and personal favorite) Arthur Machen, who so convincingly captures the dream world and hints at its being a passage into other, hidden--perhaps forbidden--eldrich regions of Gods and creatures best left unnamed--yes, and Lovecraft as well, hack that he was (don't take this wrong, I love his very bad writing and revel in the contradiction). Still, these are far superior texts, in my humble opinion, to the pedestrian mysteries of the more popular Victorian ghost-tale tellers like Dickens, Wilkie Collins, or Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Far superior.
One warning: the first tale, "Green Tea" is the weakest--is even a bit silly. However, be not afraid, read on! Each tale improves upon the previous, or so it seemed to me, and my enjoyment grew as I plunged on through, culminating in the most famous pre-Dracula vampire tale, "Carmilla," the novelette that links so many of the vampire conventions codified by Stoker's Dracula to Dr. John Polidori's (first-ever-vampire-in-the-English-language) short story "The Vampyre." "Carmilla," therefore, represents a sort of missing link in the vampire-tale/legend world, with its even more interesting (than most, than Dracula certainly) feminine themes of innocence, adolescent sensuality, propriety, and--dare I say it?--lesbianism. There, I said it! Pretty highly recommended--but only with the right setting and with the right atmosphere of course. (now, poof! This reviewers vanishes in a puff of smoke.) -
Most people reading In A Glass Darkly today are going to be doing so because they've heard about Carmilla. Not only did Le Fanu write one of the earliest vampire stories (although there are several that predate this by some distance, most notably Polidori's The Vampyr and Varney the Vampire) he's also written one of the earliest popular stories I can recall that introduce lesbian desire in any significant way. True enough, Carmilla is the high point of this excellent set of short stories. As a Victorian novella it's a short sharp shock, finely written, finely focussed and very unique in horror and sentiment. Le Fanu is at the top of his generally very good game. Carmilla is an attractive figure, probably every bit as enigmatic as Stoker's later (by almost 30 years, in fact) Dracula, as beautiful, charming and devastatingly attractive to the heroin one moment as she is mysterious and frightening the next. Despite the "erotic lesbianism" though this is perhaps less a story about lust - despite what later Hammer Horror would have us believe - and more one of comfort and companionship. There's a genuine spark between the two girls that one feels could have passed for love, despite the true predatory nature of Carmilla's character.
But, for me, this is a five star collection of stories and not just a five-star rating for Carmilla. The Room In the Dragon Volant, as far as I'm concerned, is every bit as excellent as a novella. Possibly less to modern readers tastes, it's a riff on the classic gothic novel of the late 18th century, featuring a hero who falls wildly and romantically for a woman in peril, a mysterious inn with a haunted past and much frolicing at masked balls. Le Fanu brilliantly takes this classic setup - that had, in the early 19th century been rewritten ad infinitum - and dissects it, placing his own eery twist on proceedings and delivering what is to my mind an end game that's truly quite disturbing.
The three shorter stories that round out the volume are all of high calibre and they're probably the most "modern" of the writings here, more influenced by the psychological horror of Poe than classic gothicism. In each, a central character is ultimately driven mad by a supernatural haunting that may or may not be brought about by an incident in his past or the overconsumption of a particular fluid. Green Tea is the most famous of these (and the other story that this volume is well known for) and it's definitely the best. It's a subtle and well written piece, proving that both demonic monkeys and the overconsumption of tea can be truly frightening things.
This is the second time I've read this book in a roughly ten year span. My concern was that I'd discovered it when I was younger and been excited by lesbian vampires, but that it wouldn't hold up as a "masterwork" anymore. Thankfully, it did. Le Fanu may not be the greatest author of the period but he certainly knew how to tell a great story and there's evidence of that five times over here. This is a cracking collection that everyone should become acquainted. For Carmilla, or not for Carmilla... -
I’ve been meaning to read this for ages, so hurrah that I finally got round to it. It’s a classic of gothic/horror stories, though to the jaded modern eye, it might not be that creepy at all. Of the stories, I liked ‘Carmilla’ and ‘The Room in the Dragon Volant’ the most — the mystery in the latter spun out satisfyingly, even if I did sort of guess how it would end. ‘Carmilla’ is mostly famous, I think, because it’s an early vampire story and because there’s a lot of homoerotic content. It’s not the most gripping reading, and the ending is pretty anti-climatic: there’s no real confrontation, but quite a tame denouement with a fairly toothless (ha) vampire.
Le Fanu was good at that sense of unease/uncanniness stuff, even if it seems like weak (or green? the jokes never stop in this review) tea now. The frame story about the Doctor seemed a little pointless to me, but I think it was probably written as a way to make it a little more creepy — as if these stories were real and collected by a real person because of their topics. I’ve always thought it a pretty good device, ever since Animorphs used to give me that moment of doubt as a kid.
Originally posted here. -
I decided to read Sheridan Le Fanu and I do not know what took so long! This Irishman paints some amazing scenes, macabre and tense, and given that these were written some two hundred years ago, they are still able to deliver chills.
"Green Tea" is a profound tale of the outer manifestation of a man's evil, and its theme of sight into a spirit world foreshadows H.P. Lovecraft's "From Beyond. " The story "The Familiar" echoes the first, but delivers a story of retribution. And what is so astonishing about that piece is the protagonist' s inability to pray, and his disbelief in God. A professed athiest!!! In the early 1800s in Ireland. I can't imagine how shocking that would have been for a reading public. And yes, we must take into some consideration the mores and values of when a book was written.
The best story remained "Carmilla." This is an early vampire story, with heavy sexual overtones, and a feeling of dread. It is amazing how well it reads, moving swiftly along to a bloody climax. Loved this book, and I am betting Bram Stoker did too, using many of the vampire conventions used by Fanu in Dracula. -
A brilliant veiling technique which adds to its gothic creepiness, including paranormal investigation by a 'physician'.
As has already been mentioned, In a Glass Darkly features one of the first vampire stories that predates even Bram Stoker's Dracula. What makes it all the more intriguing is its incorporation of lesbian vampire obsession. Gothic novels often feature the repressed parts of society coming to the surface as something twisted and evil, and in relation to vampires this could be sexuality (exchange of bodily fluids, women penetrating others and taking a masculine sexual role) coming to the surface in a time where sexuality was highly repressed. This is perhaps interesting in consideration of later vampire novels *cough Twilight*, written in a time were sexuality is not so repressed at all. Perhaps anxieties in this case relate to the opposite of Lefanu's, that of sexuality being too free and not being restricted enough in a modern society? (creepy)
In any case, this novel is well worth the read. And I'm very, very sorry for mentioning Twilight. -
3.4 star average over all the stories, but without a doubt needs to be rounded up to 4 stars.
Le Fanu is a master of psychological horror, supernatural, and legitimately suspenseful terrifying reads. Although he can be very overly-wordy for no real reason, it's worth the focus to read these stories.
Green Tea: 3 stars. Legitimately disturbing and extremely accurate in regards to how anxiety and paranoia was portrayed.
The Familiar: 3 stars. Fairly similar to Green Tea, but a little more forgettable.
Mr. Justice Harbottle: 2.5 stars. Boring as all get out (and again, awfully similar to the previous two stories), but I love me some surreal British courtroom hallucinations.
The Room in the Dragon Volant: 5 STARS. ALL THE STARS. I LOVE THIS STORY. JUST... ALL THE STARS.
Carmilla: 3.5 stars. Sort of slow in parts, but much better than Dracula in its portrayal of vampires and much more original. -
Impossible to pick a favorite story from this collection;however, the judge, Harbottle was by far my favorite character with his "gouty claw" and his "buxom housekeeper". I had read "Collected Ghost Stories" of M.R. James prior to "In a Glass Darkly". James was a self proclaimed "disciple" of Le Fanu and this became apparent as I read the stories from the master himself. Wonderfully creepy collection.
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Delightful collection of classic short stories. Absolutely loved it! Well worth checking out!
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Spectural monkeys, seductive vampires, this one has it all. JS
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In a Glass Darkly is atmospheric short story collection that unfortunately didn't succeed convincing me with Le Fanu's skill. I absolutely loved the last story, Carmilla, but found most of the other stories weak and quite boring. It's an interesting collection of Victorian horror stories but I wouldn't say that the collection is necessarily a worth while. I would more likely to recommend just reading Carmilla as it's one of the only vampire stories I have ever enjoyed - with a sapphic twist.
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I read Uncle Silas years ago, and absolutely loved it. Not sure why it took me so long to get back to reading Le Fanu. If you are into reading stories with a definite Gothic vibe, eerie and creepy, and have elements of the weird, odd or supernatural, then Le Fanu is your author, and In a Glass Darkly is your book. The collection is comprised of five of Le Fanu’s finest works, the first three more of the short story variety, the final two a bit longer novellas.
The five tales are cases taken from a certain Dr. Hessilius, a physician who studies cases have some basis in metaphysical or supernatural type occurrences.
The three shorter works all have a familiar set up in that each involves someone beings followed or stalked by something unearthly: “Green Tea”, the first in the collection, involves a clergyman who is followed by a “demonic” monkey that seems to know his every move and every thought. “The Familiar” deals with an individual being stalked by an evil dwarf. The third in the volume, “Dr. Justice Harbottle”, is about a cruel judge who begins to see visions in the form of spirits and an evil doppelganger. Perhaps these visions are the basis for revenge? Fascinating about all these stories is that the victims who are being hounded by something sinister all have some “inner” demons to work out as well.
The two longer works that finish the collection, “The Room in the Dragon Valant” and the more popular “Carmilla”, are superb examples of storytelling.
“The Room in the Dragon Valant” was my favorite. It involves a naïve young man stumbling upon a beautiful Countess and becoming instantly and foolishly enamored with her. As the young man is fascinated by this young beauty, he fails to see some pitfalls coming his way. This story is so multi-layered; there are so many subtle little hints that foreshadow events to follow. There are elements of the bizarre, rumors of a haunted room at an inn (which, of course, our main protagonist is rooming), and a bit of a Gothic feel (there is even a masquerade that adds to the atmosphere). The story has elements of romance, dark imagery, some twists, and great denouement. While the least “supernatural” of the works, I thought it was superb.
“Carmilla”, Le Fanu’s classic vampire tale, was also a brilliant example of creating a sense of tension of foreboding. The narrator, Laura, relates an extraordinary tale. She becomes friends with a girl named Carmilla, a young lady who stays when Laura’s father agrees to look after Carmilla for three months. During Carmella’s stay, Laura begins to have frightful events happen to her in the form of being visited by unearthly beings during the night. Meanwhile, there are several cases of young ladies becoming deathly “ill” in the village, under odd conditions. It is clear to see how “Carmilla” has had influence on so many modern filmmakers and writers who have redone the vampire story.
What Le Fanu manages to do in this collection, perhaps a lost art form, is give an opening of ambiguity to aspects of events, conversations, details, etc. This gives an added layer of dimension to the reads, builds the mounting tensions, and makes the reader active in following the rather bizarre cases and findings. Rather than tell, Le Fanu shows; and he does this quite effectively. The stories all have a build that rises and rises with subtle revelations that shock and awe the reader. Clearly, Le Fanu was a master at this craft of creating an ominous, uncomfortable, atmospheric, and unnatural feeling in his tales, and In a Glass Darkly is a brilliant illustration of such.
These five works are all excellent, in my humble opinion, but I definitely thought the longer works, the final two in the collection, to be far superior to the three short stories that open because we can see this work unfold in a slow crawl that build and builds. -
The delight of hell is to do evil to man, and to hasten his eternal ruin.
In a Glass Darkly is one of those defining classics of Gothic supernatural horror and weird fiction which had been lurking just below the surface of my 'to read' list for far too long.
We have here three ghost stories from the man M.R. James regarded as the master of the form, then two lengthy novellas. The former, The Room in Le Dragon Volant, is a mystery thriller which toys with the possibility of a supernatural element. The latter, Carmilla, is among the cornerstones of vampire fiction to this day and preceded Dracula by more than a quarter of a century.
The place of this book within Le Fanu's career stands in contrast with otherwise comparable works. The King in Yellow, for example, was the first major work of Robert W. Chambers, whereas Le Fanu's was the final work from an accomplished author nearing death. Machen and Blackwood's acknowledged masterpieces were also early in their careers.
I think that point significant insofar as one is reading the work of an experienced and polished master of the form (and I say this even allowing that some stories were re-workings of earlier ones). There's a refinement here in his dry wit and pithy turn of phrase which possesses its own character distinct from comparable writers. For example, a favourite sentence of mine was 'Than these vulgar sounds no doom spoken in thunder could have been more tremendous.'
There is also in the voice of the narrators the impression of someone with the wisdom of middle age looking knowingly at the folly of young and passionate characters from a position of experience - even when those characters are themselves the narrators sometime after the fact . This is particularly so in The Room in Le Dragon Volant.
I scarcely feel qualified to outline the merits of that story, though there are many. I suspected the gist of the outcome early on, though was enthralled with the twists and turns of discovering the details nonetheless. There's a kind of deliciously subtle black humour to it, also. And as elsewhere in the collection, it also effectively showcases Le Fanu's penchant for settings in the distinct but relatively recent past. This is one of the aspects M.R. James enthusiastically embraced in his own work.
I have nothing to add concerning the ghost stories Green Tea, The Familiar and Mr. Justice Harbottle which has not been covered by his many admirers. I will say that I agree entirely with their place among the pantheon of the great examples of their kind. They were hugely gripping, intense, masterfully executed exercises in tension, dread and the piercing of the veil of our accepted reality.
Similarly, Carmilla succeeds admirably at establishing or reinforcing vampiric archetypes in fiction whilst being a rollicking good ride in itself. The strong lesbian undertones were daring for their time and in keeping with the tradition of vampire characters as a means of exploring sexuality for the repressed Victorians.
In a Glass Darkly is no mere prototype on which other authors improved. It is a worthy work in its own right which stands up to this day. -
It's kinda creepy, like..
You're walking down a road with your yellow haired dog. He's happy just looking around, tongue hanging out, ears up. But You're sure thirsty and wish you had yourself a drink of water or something wet like. When before you know it, this old boy comes along with his pretty daughter, who seems kinda shy, but in an odd kinda way.
There both real friendly and they both go on, telling you how much they admire that cute old yellowed hair dog of yours and how funny it is, you and your dog having the same color of hair and all. You thank them and then you explain about how thirsty you and old thumper are (old thumper, that's your dog ..ya know, the yellow haired one.)
Well, they suggest that you and old thumper stop by for supper and spend the night. Now you think, that's real friendly like, only you wonder why his mouth twitches on one side when he smiles, and why she keeps looking down at the ground; her being so pretty and all.
Well, you have yourself a great dinner, and that pretty daughter of his, whose young, but not that young, keeps smiling at you and keeps offering you more ta drink, something thats got a little kick, which you like, so you take have more and old thumper, he don't seem to mind either.
Well fore you know it, you fall off inna deep slumber and what seems like a long time later you wake up. Well, that old boy and his daughter they offer to fix you and old thumper breakfast but old thumper he can't be found, anywhere.
So, you all go searching through the woods all day, looking for old thumper but he ain't no where to be found. And that pretty girl, she's just heart broken, but nights comin' on, so you decide you'll have yourself some supper and try again tomorrow.
Well you have yourself a big old supper of something that's tasting really good and she's still free with that corn liquor that you like so much. You're starting to feel tired and whoozy when that old boy smiles at you and you start thinking ..was that a bit of yellow fur, I just seen between his molars.
Just then, that pretty girl smiles at ya and you're thinkin' her teeth are lookin' kinda yellow as well and then with that odd smile of hers she says, "You sure got yourself some pretty yellow hair." And her Papa, he says "He sure do, don't he." Then all of a sudden, you're feelin' kinda tired and real nervous like. And then you start speculating, bout exactly what time you'll be wakin' up in the morning, or not?
Yep, it's kinda like that, five stories that'll fill ya with all kinds of nervous speculations.
