Le Fanu's The Room in the Dragon Volant
Mar. 16th, 2006 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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darkling_talesLJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dfordoom)
Sheridan le Fanu is just about my favourite 19th century writer of supernatural and gothic tales. The Room in the Dragon Volant is somewhat unusual for le Fanu, since it’s not really a supernatural tale. It does however have plenty of gothic elements and some genuine horror, and it’s an ingenious and entertaining tale. It’s set in France just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and involves a young rich Englishman who falls in love with a beautiful but mysterious, and unhappily married, countess. It also involves a room at the inn, The Dragon Volant, which has been the scene of mysterious disappearances. To tell any more would be to give too much away. It’s not le Fanu’s best tale by any means (both Carmilla and Green Tea are better stories) but even a le Fanu story of the second rank is very much worth reading. A great writer, who deserves to be better known.
cross-posted togothic_lit and my personal journal
dfordoom)Sheridan le Fanu is just about my favourite 19th century writer of supernatural and gothic tales. The Room in the Dragon Volant is somewhat unusual for le Fanu, since it’s not really a supernatural tale. It does however have plenty of gothic elements and some genuine horror, and it’s an ingenious and entertaining tale. It’s set in France just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and involves a young rich Englishman who falls in love with a beautiful but mysterious, and unhappily married, countess. It also involves a room at the inn, The Dragon Volant, which has been the scene of mysterious disappearances. To tell any more would be to give too much away. It’s not le Fanu’s best tale by any means (both Carmilla and Green Tea are better stories) but even a le Fanu story of the second rank is very much worth reading. A great writer, who deserves to be better known.
cross-posted to
gothic_lit and my personal journal
