The Ghost and the Bonesetter

by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, David Dvorkin

Part of Le Fanu's earliest earliest twelve short stories, written between 1838 and 1840, they 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, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories

132 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 1838

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

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars...
It was very boring, at least, for me.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5⭐

The Ghost and the Bone-Setter is an excerpt from the manuscript from the collection of the late Rev. Francis Purcell, an Irish country priest whose interests extended to the gathering of old local legends. This extract from Purcell's manuscript tells the somewhat humorous tale in which Terrance Neil a local handyman and bonesetter, who was left the task of watching the estate encounters a rather bad-tempered spirit of a wicked Irish squire leaving his portrait painting on a stormy night and sets the bonesetter with a rather onerous and distasteful task of fixing his lame leg.

[Aracne Mileto · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, LeFanu. What can I say about LeFanu? I don't remember anymore how I became acquainted with him, but I am eternally grateful that I did.

This book is Volume 1 of the Purcell Papers, supposedly by an Irish priest who collected stories from the people of Southern Ireland. LeFanu supposedly found the collection and is publishing it.

The first story, the Ghost and the Bonesetter, is more of a comedy than anything else. Besides the humorous confrontation between the ghost and the bonesetter, it refers to an old Irish superstition that the most recent person buried in a graveyard is obliged to retrieve water for the rest to allay the "burning thirst of purgatory." I wouldn't have known this if it hadn't been for the introduction, but I noticed it in the story.

One of the stories does not deal with the supernatural, but it does explain why Francis Purcell decided to become a priest, thereby explaining how and why he can collect so easily the stories of Southern Ireland. The rest are the kind of "horror" LeFanu is famous for - no overt horror as in Don Giovanni when the Devil claims him. Just allusions to the fate which awaits or has claimed its victim. To me these are deliciously better than overt horror.

If you've ever read LeFanu, you'll appreciate this work. If you haven't, I don't recommend that you start here. Once you're acquainted with him, these stories will sit better since they are not entirely representative of his work.

However, I urge you to become acquainted with him for the sheer joy of reading and appreciating the Victorian horror story.

[David Meditationseed · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of terror from the first half of the 18th century, which in my opinion would be more frightening if the narrative were written in another way, perhaps the problem was the translation of the edition I read, but the way the narrator tells the story, seems to be like a very peculiar provincial dialect, which instantly changes the attention from the plot to the language that the characters use.

Anyway, it is an interesting tale that blends Irish folklore with irony giving light to ghosts and some surprises.

[Glenn Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always had a problem with books that are written to highlight a particular accent or dialect of a character. This story was written in this way. It just made it a struggle to follow, and I didn't enjoy that all all.

[Gaby · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good short story

[James Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe theres a good story in here, I don't know because he spells with an extremely heavy accent that I really struggled to read.

[jisung ☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

pff, medio bobo

[Jade Zoe. · Rating 3 out of 5]

entretenido para pasar el rato pero a su vez no es uno de los mejores cuentos que leí

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure this was the best place to start with Le Fanu. This short story was taken from a collection of tales edited by Italo Calvino. It is the tale of a man who essentially 'castlesits' and as a result encounters a deceased man who haunts a painting which he regularly decends from and consumes any spirits (the alcoholic variety) in sight. He's a fairly conspicuous ghost, stinking of brimstone and rambling about his injured leg. Grabbing a bottle of holy water he assumes is whiskey he downs it and seemingly vanishes never to be heard of again.

It wasn't terribly spooky, nor engaging - also a large part was written in dialect which was hard going and grating. It was framed in the typical gothic convention of a 'discovered' manuscript purportedly written by a local parish priest, the Late Rev. Francis Purcell, of Drumcoolagh.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic ghost story taking place in Ireland is also available
at online-literature.com