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A Royal Engineer in the Low Countries

A Cavalry Surgeon at Waterloo

With the Third Guards during the Peninsular War

The First and Last Campaigns of the Great War

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Vincent O'Sullivan

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Algernon Blackwood

Narratives of the Anglo-Zulu War

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The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of J. Sheridan le Fanu: 7

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The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of J. Sheridan le Fanu: 7
Leonaur Original
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Author(s): J. Sheridan le Fanu
Date Published: 2010/04
Page Count: 580
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-0-85706-158-4
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-0-85706-157-7

The penultimate 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 All in the Dark and The Room in the Dragon Volant, the novelettes The Mysterious Lodger and The Watcher, and the short stories The Drunkard’s Dream; The Ghost and the Bone-Setter, and The Legend of Dunblane.
All volumes are available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket for collectors.

The clergyman was wakened by some noise. He must have been asleep a long time, for the fire had subsided and he felt cold, and was so stiff from long sitting in the same posture that he could hardly get up—one of the candles had burned out in the socket, and the other was very low.<br>
On turning in the direction of the noise, the clergyman saw a gaunt figure in white gliding from the room. On seeing this form I am bound to confess the clergyman was so transported with horror, that he seized the sleeping doctor by the head, and shook it violently.<br>
Up started the doctor, and also saw in the shadow the spectre which had paused in the hall, looking awfully tall.<br>
The doctor’s hand was on the candlestick, and uttering a prayer, he flung it, in a paroxysm of horror; but it was a wild shot, and hit the sofa near the study door, and rebounded under the table. The study was now dark, but not so the hall. One tall window admitted a wide sheet of moonlight. The clatter of the doctor’s projectile seemed to affect the apparition, for it suddenly began to run round and round the hall, in wide circles, regularly crossing the broad strip of moonlight, and displaying its white draperies every time for half a second; the philosophers in the study could not tell whether each new revolution might not bring it into the room, to deal with them in some unknown way. One word they did not utter, but groped and pulled one another fiercely, and groaned, and panted, and snorted, like two men wrestling, and I am afraid that each would have liked to get his friend between himself and the object, which, after whirling some half dozen times round the hall, passed off as it seemed in the direction of the kitchen or the back-stair.<br>
The gentlemen in the study, still holding one another, though with a relaxed grasp, were now leaning with their backs to the chimneypiece.<br>
“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” panted Doctor Drake nervously, and the rector sighed two or three times in great exhaustion. The physician was first to speak.<br>
“Well! Hey! Where’s your scepticism now?” said he.<br>
“My friend—my good friend,” replied the parson, “don’t be alarmed. Where’s your faith?”<br>
“Was there a noise?” whispered the doctor; and they both listened.<br>
“No,” said the parson. “Pray shut the door. We must not be so—so unmanned, and we’ll light the candle, if you can find it.”<br>
“Come along then,” said the physician, who preferred the cleric’s company just then.<br>
“To the door,” said the clergyman, gently pushing him before him.<br>
When the candle was found and relighted, the gentlemen were much more cheerful. They looked about them. They stole into the hall and listened. They looked like Christian and Hopeful making their escape from Doubting Castle.<br>
They hastened toward the back-stair and the kitchen, and were satisfied without exploring. Then side by side they mounted the great stair, and reached William’s door. They had to knock loudly before he awaked.<br>
“Hollo!—I say!” shouted William from his bed.<br>
Let us in; Doctor Drake and I; we’ve a word to say,” said the clergyman mildly.<br>
“Will you open the door, Sir?” wildly shouted Doctor Drake, who hated the whole affair.<br>
And they heard the bound of William’s feet on the floor as he got out of bed, and in another moment the key turned, and William, candle in hand, stood at the open door.
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