The Purcell papers Volume I

by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, G.P. Ballin (Editor)

A noble Huguenot family, owning considerable property in Normandy, the Le Fanus of Caen, were, upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, deprived of their ancestral estates of Mandeville, Sequeville, and Cresseron; but, owing to their possessing influential relatives at the court of Louis the Fourteenth, were allowed to quit their country for England, unmolested, with their personal property. We meet with John Le Fanu de Sequeville and Charles Le Fanu de Cresseron, as cavalry officers in William the Third's army; Charles being so distinguished a member of the King's staff that he was presented with William's portrait from his master's own hand. He afterwards served as a major of dragoons under Marlborough. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, William Le Fanu was the sole survivor of his family. He married Henrietta Raboteau de Puggibaut, the last of another great and noble Huguenot family, whose escape from France, as a child, by the aid of a Roman Catholic uncle in high position at the French court, was effected after adventures of the most romantic danger. Joseph Le Fanu, the eldest of the sons of this marriage who left issue, held the office of Clerk of the Coast in Ireland. He married for the second time Alicia, daughter of Thomas Sheridan and sister of Richard Brinsley Sheridan; his brother, Captain Henry Le Fanu, of Leamington, being united to the only other sister of the great wit and orator. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, ne le 28 aout 1814 a Dublin, ou il est mort le 10 fevrier 1873, est un ecrivain irlandais. C'est l'un des auteurs majeurs du recit fantastique. Les premiers succes L'annee 1851 marque une etape charniere dans la carriere du prolifique ecrivain avec la publication de son premier recueil de nouvelles fantastiques Ghost Stories and Tales of Mysteries. A la suite du deces du pere de Susanna, Joseph et son epouse s'installent dans la maison paternelle dont Susanna a herite au 18 Merrion Square. Le Fanu y passera le reste de sa vie. C'est dans ce chic quartier residentiel de Dublin que Le Fanu fait la connaissance du chevalier Sir William Robert Wills Wilde, chirurgien irlandais, et de Jane Francesca Elgee dite Speranza, poetesse et nationaliste irlandaise. Ce fait, bien qu'anecdotique, nous semble neanmoins interessant a noter, puisque ce couple d'amis aura comme enfant un autre ecrivain, appele a devenir l'enfant terrible des lettres irlandaises tant par son oeuvre que par sa vie privee, Oscar Wilde. L'epouse de Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Susanna, presente les premiers signes de la maladie qui l'emportera sept ans plus tard. Le 1er aout 1854 nait George Brinslay, qui illustrera plus tard les romans de son pere et realisera les quelques rares portraits de lui qui nous soient parvenus.

Genres: Fiction, Weird Fiction

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

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

[Char]

This was a pretty good collection of classic short stories. Some horrific, some not so much. It seemed that all of them had a little bit of humor, which I liked. I also like Le Fanu's writing style, which flows easily, despite its age. A Drunkard's Dream was my favorite story in this collection.
Recommended for fans of classic horror short stories.

[Tom]

3.3⭐

Memoir of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu • (1880) • Alfred Perceval Graves 3.5⭐
The Drunkard's Dream • [The Purcell Papers • 3] • (1838) 3⭐
The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh • [The Purcell Papers • 2] • (1838) 4.25⭐
The Ghost and the Bone-Setter • [The Purcell Papers • 1] • (1838) 2.5⭐
The Last Heir of Castle Connor • (1838) 3.25⭐

[Sudipta Nandi]

Le Fanu is one of my top authors. I can devour, I repeat, devour any of his masterpieces.

"Purcell papers" was one of his initial pieces and his brother used to share the same with pride in his friend circle. Apart from that nostalgic and cute backstory, volume 1 offers every Fanu elements. That Irish atmospheric elements are so pungent that the narratives sound other worldly. For instance, the Ardagh castle description, it's mysterious French valet and stillborns are highly gothic while duellist Fitzgerald makes you desperately angry with his nasty conspiracy.

I hated that duell part but loved that Irish cry description.
Dreamer's odd incidents are somewhat cosmic with a sense of terror.

Overall, that same Fanu flavored stories, I am hopelessly in love with.

[Ken B]

This is a collection of four early Le Fanu short stories and the first of the manuscripts by Rev. Francis Purcell. The stories cross several genres, all with a dark theme though not necessarily supernatural.

The four included short stories are:

The Ghost and the Bone-Setter (first published January 1838)
The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh (March 1838)
The Last Heir of Castle Connor (June 1838)
The Drunkard's Dream (August 1838)

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite as each of them is so different in style.

4 STARS

[Laura]

Available at Gutenberg project.