WRITER

Sheridan Le Fanu

1814 - 1873

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Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (; 28 August 1814 – 7 February 1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of his time, central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Sheridan Le Fanu has received more than 741,228 page views. His biography is available in 31 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 28 in 2019). Sheridan Le Fanu is the 1,706th most popular writer (down from 1,588th in 2019), the 65th most popular biography from Ireland and the 15th most popular Irish Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 740k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 57.42

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 31

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.35

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.46

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales
2004
Uncle Silas
Uncles, Orphans, Fiction
One of the most significant and intriguing Gothic novels of the Victorian period and is enjoyed today as a modern psychological thriller. In UNCLE SILAS (1864) Le Fanu brought up to date Mrs Radcliffe's earlier tales of virtue imprisoned and menacedby unscrupulous schemers. The narrator, Maud Ruthyn, is a 17 year old orphan left in the care of her fearful uncle, Silas. Together with his boorish son and a sinister French governess, Silas plots to kill Maud and claim her fortune. The novel established Le Fanu as a master of horror fiction.
1864
The Purcell Papers
English Fantasy fiction, Ireland in fiction, Fiction
1880
In a glass darkly
English Fantasy fiction, English Ghost stories, English Occult fiction
In a Glass Darkly collects together five short stories from gothic horror and mystery writer Sheridan Le Fanu. The book, published in 1872 a year before Le Fanu's death, is named from a passage in Corinthians which speaks of humankind perceiving the world "through a glass darkly." The stories are told from the posthumous writings of an occult detective named Dr Martin Hesselius. In Green Tea a clergyman is being driven mad by an evil demon that takes the ephemeral form of a monkey, but is unseen by others as it burdens the victim's mind with psychological torment. In The Familiar, revised from Le Fanu's The Watcher of 1851, a sea captain is stalked by a dwarf, "The Watcher." Is this strange character from captain's past? In Mr Justice Harbottle a merciless court judge is attacked by vengeful spirits, dreaming he is sentenced to death by a horrific version of himself. The story was revised from 1853's An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street. In The Room in the Dragon Volant, a notable mystery which includes a premature burial theme, an innocent young Englishman in France tries to rescue a mysterious countess from her unbearable situation. Lastly, Carmilla tells the tale of a lesbian vampire. It was a huge influence on Bram Stoker's writing of Dracula and the basis for the films Vampyr in 1932 and The Vampire Lovers in 1970.
1872
The house by the church-yard
Ireland in fiction, Fiction
1863
Wylder's hand
Fiction, Missing persons, Inheritance and succession
Wylder's Hand is a novel from Gothic and mystery writer Sheridan Le Fanu. "There was a little fair-haired child playing on the ground before the steps as I whirled by. The old rector had long passed away; the shorts, gaiters, and smile -- a phantom; and nature, who had gathered in the past, was providing for the future. The pretty mill-road, running up through Redman's Dell, dank and dark with tall romantic trees, was left behind in another moment; and we were now traversing the homely and antique street of the little town, with its queer shops and solid steep-roofed residences. Up Church-street I contrived a peep at the old gray tower where the chimes hung; and as we turned the corner a glance at the "Brandon Arms." How very small and low that palatial hostelry of my earlier recollections had grown! There were new faces at the door. It was only two-and-twenty years ago, and I was then but eleven years old. A retrospect of a score of years or so, at three-and-thirty, is a much vaster affair than a much longer one at fifty. The whole thing seemed like yesterday; and as I write, I open my eyes and start and cry, "can it be twenty, five-and-twenty, aye, by Jove! five-and-thirty, years since then?" How my days have flown! And I think when another such yesterday shall have arrived, where shall I be?"
1864

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Sheridan Le Fanu ranks 1,706 out of 7,302. Before him are Aleksa Šantić, Maximus the Greek, Jean Bodel, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Shen Yue, and Táhirih. After him are Boris Akunin, Bernard Malamud, Kateb Yacine, Mao Dun, Hadewijch, and Lucinda Riley.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1814, Sheridan Le Fanu ranks 22. Before him are Juan Prim, 1st Count of Reus, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, Heinrich Geißler, and Alexander Cunningham. After him are Bhanubhakta Acharya, Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies, Eduard Zeller, Eugène Charles Catalan, Rasoherina, and Théodolinde de Beauharnais. Among people deceased in 1873, Sheridan Le Fanu ranks 21. Before him are Émile Gaboriau, Johns Hopkins, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Muhammad IV of Morocco, Pauline Therese of Württemberg, and Urbano Rattazzi. After him are Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Viktor Hartmann, José Antonio Páez, and Jean Chacornac.

Others Born in 1814

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Others Deceased in 1873

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In Ireland

Among people born in Ireland, Sheridan Le Fanu ranks 65 out of 549. Before him are Sinéad O'Connor (1966), Brian Cowen (1960), Mary Robinson (1944), George Francis FitzGerald (1851), Christy Brown (1932), and Kevin Farrell (1947). After him are Brian Boru (941), J. D. Bernal (1901), Edmund the Martyr (841), Malcolm II of Scotland (954), John Banville (1945), and Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie (1810).

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Among WRITERS In Ireland

Among writers born in Ireland, Sheridan Le Fanu ranks 15. Before him are Iris Murdoch (1919), Joseph Murphy (1898), Ethel Voynich (1864), Saint Gall (550), Thomas Moore (1779), and Christy Brown (1932). After him are John Banville (1945), Oliver Goldsmith (1728), Patrick Pearse (1879), Charles Maturin (1780), John Millington Synge (1871), and Cornelius Ryan (1920).

Irish born Writers

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