Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter

by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

This story, part of Le Fanu's earliest earliest twelve short stories, written between 1838 and 1840, purport to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. They were published in the Dublin University Magazine and were later collected as The Purcell Papers (1880). They are mostly set in Ireland and include some classic stories of gothic horror, with gloomy castles, supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, madness and suicide. Also apparent are nostalgia and sadness for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand as mute witness to this history.

Genres: Horror

About the author

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was 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". Three of his best-known works are Uncle Silas, Carmilla and The House by the Churchyard.

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

(1839)

A multi-layered tale: our narrator tells us that he used to know a man who owned a strangely evocative painting with an illustrative air about it. Whne he finally asked his acquaintance to tell him more about the artwork, this tale was the one that was told.

An artist of no great means has long been in love with the daughter of his wealthy patron. However, since he has never declared his hopeful intentions, can he really say anything when the father decides to bestow his daughter's hand upon another? There's true love - and then there is the hope of wealth and position - and then there is the possibility of far, far worse than a simply loveless marriage; which is what befalls this hapless bride.

[Trauermaerchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun concept but the execution didn't quite catch me

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It´s short and entertaining. A strange story. Nothing special, though.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this after reading The Fisherman.