On Tuesday, November 19th, Shawna M. roused spine-tingling energy in the room with her presentation on nineteenth-century Gothic writer, Sheriden Le Fanu. With the use of dark photographs and eerie readings, Shawna unveiled the dread and fear portrayed in Victorian Gothic literature.
Le Fanu was born in 1814 in Dublin. He began to write at the age of six and took great interest in Irish lore. Although educated as a lawyer, Le Fanu turned to journalism and became the owner and editor of several newspapers. He began writing ghost, mystery, and horror stories—later to be known as the “Master of Gothic Dread.”
Gothic literature consists of dark imagery, women in distress, anti-heroes, the supernatural, and an ancient and decrepit castle or mansion (and butler). Atmosphere is important: stories take place at night, during the winter, or in gloomy, foreboding weather. Le Fanu commonly used a haunted rental property as a setting. For Le Fanu and other Gothic writers, this genre was a means to explore the underbelly of society and expose “hidden guilt, shame, and fear.”
In the late-eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, Gothic literature was at its peak with the writings of Anne Radcliffe, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron. Another Dublin-born writer, Bram Stoker, wrote the Gothic novel Dracula in 1897.
Le Fanu was a prolific writer: he published fourteen novels, five short-story collections, numerous novellas, and poetry. Shawna provided an in-depth exploration of several of Le Fanu’s key writings: The Ballad of Seamus O’Brien (1837), The Purcell Papers (1938), The Last Heir of Castle Connor (1838), Spalatro (1843), An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aunger Street (1851), Uncle Silas (1864), In a Glass Darkly (1872), and the seminal novella, Carmilla (1872).
Le Fanu’s characters, themes, and narrative found their way into the works of other Gothic writers, as well as in current adaptations. The Ballad of Seamus O’Brien, for example, has been turned into a song, play, and opera. Uncle Silas was made into a film starring Peter O’Toole. Carmilla—a vampire fiction predating Dracula by twenty-five years—and its lesbian vampire character is a prototype for many books, comics, films, and music. While the name “Sheridan Le Fanu” may not be well known today, he has left a literary legacy that continues to tingle spines and have audiences question if “scary comes from within.”
Shawna’s presentation brings the fall session of Irish Writers to a close. How quickly the past two months have gone! Meetings resume on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 with the continuation of Irish Writers. Guests are always welcome.
Posted by Mooréa G.