A Strange Adventure in the Life of Sheridan Le Fanu

"Knowledge is power - and power of one sort or another is the secret lust of human souls; and here is, beside the sense of exploration, the undefinable interest of a story, and above all, something forbidden, to stimulate the contumacious appetite."

- Maud Ruthyn

Like Carmilla, Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu never ceases to sow fear.

The Irishman wasn't only a prolific writer, but also an author of many genres. But he was most remembered for his Gothic tales. J. Sheridan Le Fanu had a life not different from Edgar Allan Poe. He grew up in County Limerick, which was affected by the Tithe Wars of 1831-1836. The family was in constant financial difficulty. Susanna Bennett, his wife, suffered from anxiety and had a hysterical attack. This led to her death. The experience affected Thomas Le Fanu profoundly.

Problems would come and go. Many people managed to overcome it. For the likes of Poe, it went deeper. Although Le Fanu didn't show signs of insanity, some readers might be wondering. They haven't heard of Dark romanticism.

Wolf in sheep's clothing

"Uncle Silas" (1864) was considered Le Fanu's masterpiece. Readers wouldn't figure out right away that this was a mystery-thriller novel. (It became apparent about halfway.) The book began one rainy evening. Maud Ruthyn, a seventeen year old, described the spacious room she was in. Nothing fancy in it, and on one side where there was little light, was her father, Austyn Ruthyn. He was a recluse, and his only contact to the outside world was a fellow disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Swede was a scientist and inventor who undergone a spiritual awakening later in life. His theological works gained followers and the elder Ruthyn was one of them.

Only a perceptive reader would guess that there was foul play beneath the mystical words that the old man had told to his young daughter. Austyn also mentioned Silas, his younger brother, during their conversations. Maud sensed his uncle was the black sheep of the family. Father only advised his girl to be careful.

The story was an early example of Lock room mystery, a sub-genre of Detective fiction where a crime happened in almost impossible circumstances. The book made an impact on Wilkie Collins, Joseph Conrad, and Dick Donovan. But it was Arthur Conan Doyle who did better. If Sherlock Holmes were around to help Maud, then "Uncle Silas" might have lost its charm. He and Swedenborg would make strange bedfellows.

Not a Brothers Grimm tale

It was "Carmilla", published eight years after the release of "Uncle Silas", that sealed Le Fanu's reputation. It was about a teenage girl living in Styria, a region in Austria that seemed isolated from the rest of the world. It was the forest, impenetrable, which kept secrets. One was a noble family that have no surviving members. Or so they thought.

The novella was an early work of Vampire literature, which Bram Stoker popularized after the publication of "Dracula". Generations of readers were fascinated, even obsessed. It was an overlapping of Gothic novel, Horror fiction, and Invasion literature. It also touched themes on colonialism, sexual conventions, and in the case of "Dracula", the role of women in Victorian culture. Le Fanu started the trend. Two hundred years later, the book - and the genre - remain popular as ever.