The Watcher
()
About this ebook
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic horror. Born in Dublin, Le Fanu was raised in a literary family. His mother, a biographer, and his father, a clergyman, encouraged his intellectual development from a young age. He began writing poetry at fifteen and went on to excel at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied law and served as Auditor of the College Historical Society. In 1838, shortly before he was called to the bar, he began contributing ghost stories to Dublin University Magazine, of which he later became editor and proprietor. He embarked on a career as a writer and journalist, using his role at the magazine as a means of publishing his own fictional work. Le Fanu made a name for himself as a pioneer of mystery and Gothic horror with such novels as The House by the Churchyard (1863) and Uncle Silas (1864). Carmilla (1872), a novella, is considered an early work of vampire fiction and an important influence for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).
Read more from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
CARMILLA (Gothic Classic): Featuring First Female Vampire - Mysterious and Compelling Tale that Influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gothic Novel Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 1 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarmilla Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/530 Occult & Supernatural masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCheckmate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carmilla Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carmilla Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House by the Church-Yard Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In a Glass Darkly, v. 1/3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings30 Occult & Supernatural masterpieces you have to read before you die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Eternal Masterpieces of Detective Stories Vol: 2 (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarmilla: A Critical Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Familiar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarmilla Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpalatro: From the Notes of Fra Giacomo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Big Book of Christmas Mysteries: What the Shepherd Saw, The Mystery of Room Five, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle... Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuy Deverell - Volume I Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Darkness of a Christmas Eve: Ghost Stories, Supernatural Mysteries & Gothic Horrors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Purcell Papers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Watcher
Related ebooks
The Watcher, and other weird stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost Stories and Tales of Mystery by Sheridan Le Fanu - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPassage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghostly Tales - Volume IV of V Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard Burton Explorer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Evil Guest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFreddy Pilkington-Soames Adventures Books 1-3: A Freddy Pilkington-Soames Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorian Ghost Story - Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Head of the House of Coombe (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Case of Blackmail in Belgravia: A Freddy Pilkington-Soames Adventure, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bulpington of Blup Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Carolinian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghost Stories of Chapelizod Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stalking-Horse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Novelists - George Eliot: realism and psychological insight Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Car: The Sequel of a Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncle Silas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Incredulity of Father Brown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Rat's Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry James Short Stories Volume 7 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Runagates Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Car: The Sequel of a Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMiddlemarch: "Pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion…" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Top 10 Short Stories - Born in London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Familiar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hounds Of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSt Mawr: “I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Mary Robinson, Written by Herself, With the lives of the Duchesses of Gordon and Devonshire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Duke's Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Fantasy For You
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empire of the Vampire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tress of the Emerald Sea: Secret Projects, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Empire: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wizard's First Rule Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of the Dragon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Tollbooth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don Quixote: [Complete & Illustrated] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Desert: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mistborn: Secret History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Unkindness of Magicians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Watcher
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Watcher - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The Watcher
By
Sheridan Le Fanu
Copyright © 2012 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
Joseph Sheridan le Fanu
The Watcher
Joseph Sheridan le Fanu
Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin in 1814. His was a literary family of Huguenot origins; both his grandmother Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and his great-uncle Richard Brinsley Sheridan were playwrights, and his niece Rhoda Broughton would go on to become a successful novelist. Le Fanu’s family lived in a variety of locations around rural Ireland during his youth – the folk superstitions of which are said to have left a deep impression on him – and were financially hard-hit by the agitations of the Tithe Wars. In 1833, not long after the death of his father, Le Fanu entered Trinity College, Dublin to study law. While there, he was elected Auditor of the College Historical Society, and between 1838 and 1840 published his first series of short stories, which were later collected as The Purcell Papers.
Le Fanu was called to the bar in 1839, but he never practiced and soon abandoned law for journalism. During the 1840s, he married, and spent time mounting a protest against the indifference of the government to the Irish Famine. He also produced his first two novels - The C’ock and Anchor (1845) and The Fortunes of Colonel Torlogh O’Brien (1847); both works of historical fiction – and in 1851 he and his wife Susanna moved to their house on Merrion Square, Dublin, where le Fanu was to remain until his death. In 1858, Le Fanu’s wife Susanna died in unclear circumstances, and he became a recluse, setting to work in his most productive and successful years as a writer. Between 1864 and 1872, he produced ten novels, all in the ‘sensation fiction’ genre popular at the time.
At his peak, le Fanu was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century, and he is now seen as central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. His work is credited with turning the Gothic’s focus from the external sources of horror to the inward effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist literature that continues to this day. Arguably le Fanu’s most enduring works are Uncle Silas, published in 1864, and the vampire novella Carmilla (1872), which influenced Bram Stoker in the writing of Dracula and has inspired several films. Le Fanu died in his native Dublin in 1873, at the age of 58.
The Watcher
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.
Somewhere about the year 1794, the younger brother of a certain baronet, whom I shall call Sir James Barton, returned to Dublin. He had served in the navy with some distinction, having commanded one of his Majesty’s frigates during the greater part of the American war. Captain Barton was now apparently some two or three-and-forty years of age. He was an intelligent and agreeable companion, when he chose it, though generally reserved, and occasionally even moody. In society, however, he deported himself as a man of the world and a gentleman. He had not contracted any of the noisy brusqueness