The Watcher, and other weird stories

The Watcher, and other weird stories

Most of the tales in this volume were written prior to the publication of Uncle Silas, which is, perhaps, the novel by which my father is best known. All the stories, with the exception of The Watcher, were included in The Purcell Papers, edited by Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves after my fathers death, and published by Messrs. Bentley. It may be of interest to point out that the central idea in the story entitled Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess is embodied in Uncle Silas. When The Purcell Papers were appearing in The Dublin University Magazine my father supplied the following note, which was reproduced by Mr. Graves in his edition of the book: Brinsley Le Fanu. London, November, 1894. [vii] [1] It is now more than fifty years since the occurrences which I am about to relate caused a strange sensation in the gay society of Dublin. The fashionable world, however, is no recorder of traditions; the memory of selfishness seldom reaches far; and the events which occasionally disturb the polite monotony of its pleasant and heartless progress, however stamped with the characters of misery and horror, scarcely outlive the gossip of a season, and (except, perhaps, in the remembrance of a few more directly interested in the consequences of the catastrophe) are in a little time lost to the recollection of all. The appetite for scandal, or for horror, has been sated; the incident can yield no more of interest or novelty; curiosity, frustrated by impenetrable mystery, gives over the pursuit in despair; the tale has ceased to be new, grows stale and flat; and so, in a few years, inquiry subsides into indifference.[2] ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 40510
Author: Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
Release Date: Aug 15, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Le Fanu, Brinsley, 1854-1929