In Uncle Silas, Sheridan Le Fanu's most celebrated novel, Maud Ruthyn, the young, naive heroine, is plagued by Madame de la Rougierre from the mome...
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Oct 24, 2011
Hannah
rated it: 
Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars
I'm happy to report that Uncle Silas has made the cut of classic gothic literature that I've read (and even more important- enjoyed). Although I'll never have the intellectual reading prowess to make a sustained diet of 19th century literature, I've tried over the years to add more of it into my reading sphere. There is a richness and a depth to it that isn't duplicated in modern literature, IMO. While I can't yet compare it to those giants of gothic More...
I'm happy to report that Uncle Silas has made the cut of classic gothic literature that I've read (and even more important- enjoyed). Although I'll never have the intellectual reading prowess to make a sustained diet of 19th century literature, I've tried over the years to add more of it into my reading sphere. There is a richness and a depth to it that isn't duplicated in modern literature, IMO. While I can't yet compare it to those giants of gothic More...
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Aug 31, 2009
Carol jinx
rated it: 
Sheridan Le Fanu was famous for beginning Gothic/Horror.
Uncle Silas was from this genre.
The plot of the novel seems quite simple, Maud Ruthyn is a rich heiress, daughter of an eccentric recluse. He dies and places her in the guardianship of her Uncle Silas. She’s never met Uncle Silas but knows he was disgraced by gossip of suicide or murder that took place in his house. The plot thickens,of course, and it ends up being a spine tingling Gothic story with hints everywhere of the supe More...
Uncle Silas was from this genre.
The plot of the novel seems quite simple, Maud Ruthyn is a rich heiress, daughter of an eccentric recluse. He dies and places her in the guardianship of her Uncle Silas. She’s never met Uncle Silas but knows he was disgraced by gossip of suicide or murder that took place in his house. The plot thickens,of course, and it ends up being a spine tingling Gothic story with hints everywhere of the supe More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Kay
rated it:
Terrific Gothic atmosphere and aura of menace. Maud Ruthyn, the heroine of the tale, is an orphan who comes to live with the titular uncle, and she enlists the reader's full empathy from the get-go. We and she both know that her uncle is a murderous villain, but of course to outside eyes he is an upright Victorian gentleman, or should I say reformed gentleman -- his unsavory past is not, it seems, in the past at all, even though he puts on religious trappings. (And thus one of the themes of t
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Jun 08, 2008
I am not a big fan of horror- I dont like slasher stuff and a lot seems just gratuitous. But Le Fanu- WOW! He's known as the guy that perfected the "gothic horror" tale. He's a master at conjuring up an atmosphere and was even when there are ghosts, they relate the the psychology going on in the tale. In Uncle Silas, the main character is a girl well socialized in the victorian ideal of refined womanhood. She always tried to think the best of people, chooses the most positive expl
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Dec 07, 2011
Leonie
rated it:
I don't think I've ever read a Victorian novel that read so much like a novel written later and set in the nineteenth century. By which I don't mean that it's modern and innovative and more explicit than would have been allowed at the time, but that it seems oddly self-conscious of its tropes and atmospherics. Like it's trying to be a Victorian gothic novel, in a way that, to my mind, seems to go more with someone who has the concentrated retrospective view and, in my view, succeeds beautifull
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May 10, 2011
Kurt
rated it: 
I took the 3-month plan to get through this, reading it on a kindle during dull moments during my workdays. I have to admit there were times in the beginning when I could have closed the novel without feeling the need to return to it, but I stuck with it and am glad I did.
Like pretty much all Victorian novels (the ones I've read anyway) Uncle Silas is fueled by coincidence and a stubborn faith in its characters to act against their better instincts.
The story is a prett More...
Like pretty much all Victorian novels (the ones I've read anyway) Uncle Silas is fueled by coincidence and a stubborn faith in its characters to act against their better instincts.
The story is a prett More...
Apr 02, 2011
Margaret
rated it:
When Miss Maud Ruthyn, heiress, is orphaned, she’s sent to live with her creepy old uncle until she reaches her majority. Said uncle is suspected of once murdering a man to whom he owed gambling debts. Oh, and if Maud were to die somehow before becoming an adult, Uncle Silas would get everything. Her father arranged it that way in his will to prove to the world that Silas isn’t a murderer. Maud gets the delightful experience of being the pork chop dangled in front of the starving wolf.
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Jan 28, 2012
Leslie
rated it:
The mechanics of the plot creak more alarmingly than the floorboards in the hallways of the crumbling mansion through which our heroine flees. Now, the gothic doesn't operate on the level of the actual physical world, so some of that creaking doesn't matter so much because the real narrative in Gothic is happening on the psychological level, but I was surprised at how poorly the plot was handled in some practical ways. There are elements thrown in that look like they're supposed to be important-
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Jun 26, 2009
Kali
rated it:
•Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu, 2000, Penguin Classics, originally published 1864
Young, naïve, and eager to please, Maud Ruthyn lives a very sheltered life--but she’s no stranger to horror, mystery, and suspense. She’s in awe of her aristocratic father, her manor home is secluded deep in the English countryside, and her lonely lifestyle has made her sensitive and superstitious. But it’s her new governess, Madame de la Rougierre, who really makes Maud nervous. Madame is a strange More...
Young, naïve, and eager to please, Maud Ruthyn lives a very sheltered life--but she’s no stranger to horror, mystery, and suspense. She’s in awe of her aristocratic father, her manor home is secluded deep in the English countryside, and her lonely lifestyle has made her sensitive and superstitious. But it’s her new governess, Madame de la Rougierre, who really makes Maud nervous. Madame is a strange More...
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Jan 05, 2011
Derek
rated it:
Given its time and place, this may deserve the full five stars, for it's excellently constructed, with superb characters. Like so many of its contemporary (mid 19th century) novels, it moves at a glacial pace, but that seems to be what was needed in the pre-radio and TV days. Here, La Fanu writes as a woman narrator and pulls if off in masterly fashion. The underlying mystery behind the strange, reclusive Uncle Silas and the lingering menace to the heroine, Maud, leave a shadow on everything and
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Nov 16, 2009
Scot
rated it:
This was one of those unexpected and rewarding chance encounters bibliophiles have from time to time. It was someone else’s abandoned book, but in pretty good shape. On the back cover I saw above the small print description, in a spikey font reminiscent of the finials on the metal rods on a cemetery gate, “Uncle Silas,” and below that, same font but slightly smaller lettering, an exotic unknown name to me: J.S. LeFanu. I flipped open the back cover, and scrawled on the blank back page a forme
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Sep 26, 2011
Marialyce
rated it:
I thought it was just the perfect read for those nights when it is dark and gloomy. I loved the easy flow and direction that this story took. The writing kept me engaged for the entire time and really did keep me guessing about Uncle Silas until the end. Was he a good guy or was he something sinister? was the inevitable question and depending on where you were in this book, your opinion could change. I like being "kept on one's toes" while reading a novel
Mr Le Fanu created a More...
Mr Le Fanu created a More...
Jan 14, 2012
Lori
rated it:
A friend recommended this gothic Victorian horror thriller. "Horror thriller" might seem a little slow for modern-day thriller readers, but this particular book was written in 1864.
The premise -- a young girl/teenager's father dies, leaving her a fortune. Her uncle, Uncle Silas, is the black sheep of the family, yet the girl's father sends Maud to live with Uncle Silas, in part to try to prove to high society that no, Uncle Silas was NOT involved in a murder later More...
The premise -- a young girl/teenager's father dies, leaving her a fortune. Her uncle, Uncle Silas, is the black sheep of the family, yet the girl's father sends Maud to live with Uncle Silas, in part to try to prove to high society that no, Uncle Silas was NOT involved in a murder later More...
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Dec 05, 2011
Sheri
rated it:
I generally like gothic novels and the picture on the cover of this one was appealing. Yet again, I found a reference to Ann Radcliffe's Udolpho, which I am going to read next. Overall this was as expected. Young girl in trouble, unable to identify the true villian and in the nick of time she gets her courage and saves herself.
The plot did not hold together as well as it might; we never understood how/why Madame knew Dudley (certainly her attempt for Dudley meet Maud in the Scars More...
The plot did not hold together as well as it might; we never understood how/why Madame knew Dudley (certainly her attempt for Dudley meet Maud in the Scars More...
Jan 27, 2012
Kaph
rated it:
I used to watch a certain TV show back in Boston, back when I had cable television and copious amounts of leisure time. It was called ‘Most Haunted and proported to tell the tales of real life spook stories through the magic of interviews with fat middle Americans and re-enactments by considerably svelter aspiring actors. With my low threshold for heebie jeebies I found the show hilarious and terrifying in equal measure; the perfect show when you were home alone mid day with a pipe full of, erm,
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Oct 08, 2011
Laura
rated it:
Buddy read with Hannah and Kim.
More detailed discussion at The Readers Review Literature from 1800 to 1910
After her father's death, Maud Ruthyn is sent to live with her Uncle Silas who is follower of the Swedenborggism. In this "religion", people could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk to angels, demons and other spirits (Wikipedia). According to her father's will, she will be forced to live there until her twenty first birthday.
The plot is a t More...
More detailed discussion at The Readers Review Literature from 1800 to 1910
After her father's death, Maud Ruthyn is sent to live with her Uncle Silas who is follower of the Swedenborggism. In this "religion", people could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk to angels, demons and other spirits (Wikipedia). According to her father's will, she will be forced to live there until her twenty first birthday.
The plot is a t More...
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Oct 14, 2011
Cecilia
rated it:
This book was recommended to me by goodreads itself and after tracking down Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's works I thought this would make a great reading. And I wasn't wrong!
'Uncle Silas' might be too long, but the haunting and suspenful atmosphere follows the reader everywhere. I even ended up being scared of governesses.
In this story, Maud Ruthyn, a 17-year old heiress who grew up isolated and overprotected and therefore, ignorant of numerous things, is left alone once her elderly fathe More...
'Uncle Silas' might be too long, but the haunting and suspenful atmosphere follows the reader everywhere. I even ended up being scared of governesses.
In this story, Maud Ruthyn, a 17-year old heiress who grew up isolated and overprotected and therefore, ignorant of numerous things, is left alone once her elderly fathe More...
Feb 04, 2012
Frank
rated it:
This is probably one of the prime examples of Victorian melodrama. To me, the novel kind of dragged but throughout the story there is a feeling of dread and foreboding. The heroine, Maud Ruthyn, has been placed in the care of the titular Uncle Silas, who has a dark past and may have committed a murder to resolve some of his debts. He is a former gambler and rogue not to mention an opium (laudanum) addict. Along with his son, Dudley, and the evil Madame De La Rougierre, it appears that Uncle Sila
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Aug 17, 2011
KC
rated it:
I'm torn how to rate Uncle Silas. I give it an A for atmosphere and writing but a B-/C+ for plot. Right from the beginning of Uncle Silas, the reader knows that the are reading a classic Gothic novel. The young protagonist, Maud, is naive and isolated from the world. She lives relatively alone, with only her distant father and a few servants. In order to remedy Maud's education, her father hires a governess, who turns out to be cruel and mad.
Shortly after convincing her father to More...
Shortly after convincing her father to More...
Nov 09, 2011
Terri Lynn
rated it:
This gothic classic is deliciously creepy. Maud Ruthyn is a young heiress who lives out in the country in solitude with her father, a brooding man of mystery, who is strangely religious. He doesn't speak to her a lot but he really does care about her.
I was frustrated when he brought in a French con woman who pretended to be a finishing governess because young Maud let the woman abuse her, even break her finger one time while demanding to know the contents of Maud's father's will and More...
I was frustrated when he brought in a French con woman who pretended to be a finishing governess because young Maud let the woman abuse her, even break her finger one time while demanding to know the contents of Maud's father's will and More...
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Mar 14, 2010
F.R.
rated it: 
For a melodramatic Sensation novel, with a plot containing all kinds of familial deception, this is actually quite dull. To be fair the opening is well crafted and tense, with the heroine menaced by a sinister French governess. However the middle (ironically, from when Uncle Silas himself is introduced) is far too long and uneventful and it’s only the last fifty or so pages when genuine drama resurfaces.
Furthermore, even by the standards of Victorian male writers, Le Fanu’s heroine More...
Furthermore, even by the standards of Victorian male writers, Le Fanu’s heroine More...
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Oct 06, 2009
Hollowspine
rated it:
A very typical Gothic romance/mystery novel. It stars Maud Ruthyn, a habitually nervous young girl who is kept in relative solitude in her father's lonely estate. Her father is a mystery to her, he keeps a key to a locked cabinet about his person even while he sleeps. Another mystery he tantalizes Maud with is an unexplained journey that he says he may soon be called to embark upon. Maud is constantly haunted by strange fears, of ghosts, or other visions and this isn't helped when her father
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Nov 13, 2011
Donna
rated it:
It took me awhile to get into the book but it eventually pulled me in quite thoroughly. Maud Ruthyn is an heiress with a suspicious uncle who becomes her guardian. It is very gothic and certainly had some scenes where I was yelling at the heroine to quit being stupid and tell somebody about the suspicious things going on, but it wasn't riddled with coincidence and contrived plot devices like so many books of this period. It had a great creepy atmosphere and the ending was actually pretty scar
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May 08, 2011
Luna
rated it:
I wish they'd give halves. This was a 2 1/2 star book.
This is not my favorite of Le Fanu's works.
I do wonder if it was meant to be a critique of the constitutions of women (I don't read literary analysis and the like, so I won't say it is), and though I cringe to say it, much in it pointed to that.
The main character, Maud, was a little too correct in her critique of herself as useless, as she really very was, and I found her a little intolerable and the story a little too drawn ou More...
This is not my favorite of Le Fanu's works.
I do wonder if it was meant to be a critique of the constitutions of women (I don't read literary analysis and the like, so I won't say it is), and though I cringe to say it, much in it pointed to that.
The main character, Maud, was a little too correct in her critique of herself as useless, as she really very was, and I found her a little intolerable and the story a little too drawn ou More...
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Jul 25, 2009
El
rated it:
Every family seems to have that one uncle, the black sheep of the family, the one that just isn't all quite there. The title character here is just such an uncle.
Young Maud Ruthyn lives with her antisocial father in their mansion at Knowl, but when he dies she is sent to live with Uncle Silas at Bartram-Haugh. Maud learns more about her uncle's unsavory past, much of which is perfectly Victorian in all aspects. The cover of this book says it is a "Victorian Gothic novel" More...
Young Maud Ruthyn lives with her antisocial father in their mansion at Knowl, but when he dies she is sent to live with Uncle Silas at Bartram-Haugh. Maud learns more about her uncle's unsavory past, much of which is perfectly Victorian in all aspects. The cover of this book says it is a "Victorian Gothic novel" More...
Mar 12, 2009
Brittany
rated it:
Victorian Gothic novel. It's awesome. This book definitely has its take on the supernatural (though not actually supernatural) and even dabbles a bit into the madness of the French Revolution. Packed with ominous sequences, we join Maud, a young girl who's father dies and now has to stay under the care of her Uncle Silas. Silas is a mysterious figure who we don't know too much about. But we do know that if Maud dies before she comes of age, the estate will go to Silas's name.
Madam More...
Madam More...
Nov 16, 2011
Lee Anne
rated it:
Exactly what the cover says: a Victorian Gothic novel of mystery.
Maud lives with her wealthy widowed father, and barely knows a thing about her father's brother Silas, who has spent his whole life as a decadent seeker of life's pleasures and who relies on his brother Austyn for the occasional handout. Silas Ruthyn disgraced the family name by marrying a slattern and from the death of a bookie who was staying in his house (it was ruled a suicide--from a slit throat!--and Silas was More...
Maud lives with her wealthy widowed father, and barely knows a thing about her father's brother Silas, who has spent his whole life as a decadent seeker of life's pleasures and who relies on his brother Austyn for the occasional handout. Silas Ruthyn disgraced the family name by marrying a slattern and from the death of a bookie who was staying in his house (it was ruled a suicide--from a slit throat!--and Silas was More...
Nov 14, 2011
Kim
rated it:
This quintessential gothic tale, first serialised in 1864, has its origins in Le Fanu's 1839 short story, "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess". A first person narrative (with some deviations from this technique) the story takes place in 1845, when the teenage narrator, Maud Ruthyn, is sent to live with her guardian - the mysterious Uncle Silas - upon the death of her father. The central mystery in the novel is whether Uncle Silas is the innocent man Maud's father More...
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Nov 19, 2011
Deana
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This book took me a long time to read. There were some parts that I had a lot of trouble getting interested in, although there were other parts where I just wanted to keep reading and keep reading. The main character, Maud, annoyed me -- at times she seemed very wise, but much of the time she seemed incredibly naive and young for her years. Even with the crazy hints people were dropping, she still missed what I considered obvious.
Being a Victorian novel, much of the book is sort of More...
Being a Victorian novel, much of the book is sort of More...
Oct 04, 2011
Denae
rated it:
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu does bone-chilling creepiness exceedingly well. This book made the hairs on my neck stand up at least twice; not the easiest thing to accomplish with fiction. The story contains several villains, with varying degrees of overt nastiness and subtlety. That being said, I found myself repeatedly grinding my teeth at or wanting to shake the heroine into using her brain at least once in a while. Admittedly, I am relatively unversed in the gothic horror sub-genre having only pre
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