Name: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - In a Glass Darkly - Volume II of III
Price: 20.31 EUR
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Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
ISBN: 9781541166189

portada Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - In a Glass Darkly - Volume II of III

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - In a Glass Darkly - Volume II of III

Type

Physical Book

Author

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 x 0.5 cm

Weight

0.13 kg.

ISBN13

9781541166189

Synopsis "Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - In a Glass Darkly - Volume II of III"

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots. The children were tutored but, according to his brother William, the tutor taught them little if anything. Le Fanu was eager to learn and used his father's library to educate himself about the world. He was a creative child and by fifteen had taken to writing poetry. Accepted into Trinity College, Dublin to study law he also benefited from the system used in Ireland that he did not have to live in Dublin to attend lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the university as and when necessary. This enabled him to also write and by 1838 Le Fanu's first story The Ghost and the Bonesetter was published in the Dublin University Magazine. Many of the short stories he wrote at the time were to form the basis for his future novels. Indeed, throughout his career Le Fanu would constantly revise, cannabilise, embellish and re-publish his earlier works to use in his later efforts. Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide. One of the themes running through them is a sad nostalgia for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand in mute salute and testament to this history. On 18 December 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. The union would produce four children. Le Fanu was now stretching his talents across the length of a novel and his first was The Cock and Anchor published in 1845. A succession of works followed and his reputation grew as well as his income. Unfortunately, a decade after his marriage it became an increasing source of difficultly. Susanna was prone to suffer from a range of neurotic symptoms including great anxiety after the deaths of several close relatives, including her father two years before. In April 1858 she suffered an "hysterical attack" and died in circumstances that are still unclear. The anguish, profound guilt as well as overwhelming loss were channeled into Le Fanu's work. Working only by the light of two candles he would write through the night and burnish his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism. His work challenged the focus on the external source of horror and instead he wrote about it from the perspective of the inward psychological potential to strike fear in the hearts of men. A series of books now came forth: Wylder's Hand (1864), Guy Deverell (1865), The Tenants of Malory (1867), The Green Tea (1869), The Haunted Baronet (1870), Mr. Justice Harbottle (1872), The Room in the Dragon Volant (1872) and In a Glass Darkly. (1872). But his life was drawing to a close. Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer born on August 28, 1814 in Dublin, and who died on February 7, 1873 in the same city. He is best known for his mystery and horror stories. Coming from a family of Huguenot origin, his father was a pastor in various Protestant localities. Joseph studied Law at Trinity College, where he was appointed auditor of the University's History Society. He never practiced law, dedicating himself to journalism. In 1838, he began publishing stories in the Dublin University Magazine; and from 1940 he took control of several newspapers. In 1844, he married Susanna Bennett, with whom he had four children. Gradually, he became involved in politics due to his campaign against the British government's indifference to the Irish famine, but his personal life was complicated due to his wife's illness, who suffered from anxiety attacks and an advanced neurosis that apparently cost her life in 1858. Le Fanu stopped writing, tormented by the death of his wife, and did not do so again until the death of his mother in 1861, supported by his cousin, Lady Gifford, with whom he maintained correspondence until her death. Upon becoming the owner of the Dublin University Magazine, he took the opportunity to publish his novels in serial form in this magazine. Although due to the demands of editors and his readers he wrote stories and novels following the British fashions of the time, in his last stories he returned to Irish folklore as a source of inspiration.

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