For he is not a man as I am that we should come together; neither is there any that might lay his hand upon us both. Let him, therefore, take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me." There exists, at this moment, in good preservation a remarkable work of Schalken's. The curious management of its lights constitutes, as usual in his pieces, the chief apparent merit of the picture. I say apparent, for in its subject, and not in its handling, however exquisite, consists its real value. The picture represents the interior of what might be a chamber in some antique religious building; and its foreground is occupied by a female figure, in a species of white robe, part of which is arranged so as to form a veil. The dress, however, is not that of any religious order. In her hand the figure bears a lamp, by which alone her figure and face are illuminated; and her features wear such an arch smile, as well becomes a pretty woman when practising some prankish roguery; in the background, and, excepting where the dim red light of an expiring fire serves to define the form, in total shadow, stands the figure of a man dressed in the old Flemish fashion, in an attitude of alarm, his hand being placed upon the hilt of his sword, which he appears to be in the act of drawing. There are some pictures, which impress one, I know not how, with a conviction that they represent not the mere ideal shapes and combinations which have floated through the imagination of the artist, but scenes, faces, and situations which have actually existed. There is in that strange picture, something that stamps it as the representation of a reality.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is widely considered as one of the greatest writers of ghost stories to ever have lived. While today he may be overshadowed by his American contemporary, Edgar Allan Poe, in his time he was generally spoken of in the same breath. His influence upon later authors of gothic literature cannot be understated. Most notably his story of a seductive female vampire, "Carmilla," was highly influential upon Bram Stoker's Dracula. That work is included in this volume of Best Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu along with the other following works: "Squire Toby's Will," "Schalken the Painter," "Madam Crowl's Ghost," "The Haunted Baronet," "The Familiar," "Mr. Justice Harbottle," "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh," "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street," "The Dead Sexton," "Ghost Stories of the Tiled House," "The White Cat of Drumgunniol," "An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House," "Sir Dominick's Bargain," and "Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen.
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The very best of Le Fanu's supernatural fiction, including such classics as: 'Schalken the Painter', 'Squire Toby's Will', 'Mr Justice Harbottle', 'The Familiar', 'Green Tea', 'Madam Crowl's Ghost' and 'The Murdered Cousin', introduced by genre expert Michael Cox. 'Sheridan Le Fanu, ' wrote S.M. Ellis in 1916, 'retains his own special place and fame as the Master of Horror and the Mysterious.' Today, Le Fanu's reputation is as high as ever amongst connoisseurs of supernatural and mystery fiction and well deserves the enthusiastic praise lavished on him by some of the most accomplished ghost fiction writers of the twentieth century - including E.F. Benson and M.R. James. Born in 1814, the son of an Anglo-Irish Protestant clergyman, Le Fanu single-handedly created a new kind of fictional ghost story. Gone are the sheeted spooks rattling rusty chains and the peripatetic headless ladies that infest Gothic fiction. In their place Le Fanu created formidably real supernatural presences that emerge from within, as well as invade from without. Le Fanu was the first writer to explore seriously the psychological dimensions of the ghost story; at the same time he was adept at invoking the physical presence of supernatural malevolence. The world in which his characters move is a hostile one, his stories surrounded by an infinity of outer darkness. Private anguish undoubtedly underlies these public fictions. And yet Le Fanu's stories - be they of ghosts or tales of mystery - are also of the good old-fashioned type, best enjoyed in the sort of setting he himself described - 'the old-fashioned parlour fire-side and its listening circle of excited faces, and, outside, the wintry blast and the moan of leafless boughs . . .
The very best of Le Fanu’s supernatural fiction, including such classics as: ‘Schalken the Painter’, ‘Squire Toby's Will’, ‘Mr Justice Harbottle’, ‘The Familiar’, ‘Green Tea’, ‘Madam Crowl’s Ghost’ and ‘The Murdered Cousin’, introduced by genre expert Michael Cox.
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