Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories
Nov. 15th, 2006 03:31 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)
I’ve been a great fan of Joseph Sheridan le Fanu since reading his classic 1872 vampire story Carmilla years ago. M. R. James was also an admirer and in 1923 edited an important collection of le Fanu’s ghost stories, Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories. I’m not sure why I enjoy Sheridan le Fanu’s ghost stories many than M. R. James’s. Perhaps it’s the Irish settings, or perhaps I just find his style a bit livelier. Otherwise they’re not dissimilar to James’s. The stories in Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories aren’t really his best stories – none of them are quite in the same league as Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter, or some of the stories in the collection In a Glass Darkly, such as Green Tea. They’re still superb examples of the Victorian ghost story, and if you have any love for ghost stories then you absolutely must read Sheridan le Fanu.
dfordoom)I’ve been a great fan of Joseph Sheridan le Fanu since reading his classic 1872 vampire story Carmilla years ago. M. R. James was also an admirer and in 1923 edited an important collection of le Fanu’s ghost stories, Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories. I’m not sure why I enjoy Sheridan le Fanu’s ghost stories many than M. R. James’s. Perhaps it’s the Irish settings, or perhaps I just find his style a bit livelier. Otherwise they’re not dissimilar to James’s. The stories in Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories aren’t really his best stories – none of them are quite in the same league as Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter, or some of the stories in the collection In a Glass Darkly, such as Green Tea. They’re still superb examples of the Victorian ghost story, and if you have any love for ghost stories then you absolutely must read Sheridan le Fanu.
