In a Glass Darkly, v. 3/3

by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web.

Genres: Classics, Horror, Fiction, Short Stories

90 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2014

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

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contains the rest of the story - The room in the Dragon Volant. I find it easiest to summarize as I go with older stories.
***
When we left our dumbass hero Beckett, he had been drugged by the love of his life, robbed and was about to be placed in a coffin… silly, silly boy.

The Marquis is an accomplice and is really Doctor Planard. They undress him and put him in nightclothes. The earlier waking sleep in the carriage was a dosage test. But it seems that they do not want to kill him just bury him alive. (awesome)
At that very moment, the police arrive with a warrant to search everywhere, including the coffin. Smuggling is suspected.
He is rescued. His English dinner companion identifies him. And the Colonel is there, too. The Doctor switches sides (again) and gives advice on how to resuscitate him. When they exhume bodies in the chateau graveyard they find several, including a distinctive corpse with a glass eye. It is the elder brother of the Colonel and he was their last victim.
That mystery of his anger is explained. He forgives Beckett for assaulting him and the crazy, ugly man turns out to be speaking the truth. Don’t trust beauty, Beckett.
The Count is executed, the countess imprisoned and the Doctor pardoned for assisting the police. The countess is an actress, the diamonds are paste and Beckett is extremely lucky.

The rest of this volume is Carmilla, and I have read that before on its own. (and gave it 3 stars)

So, I guess it is 4 stars for part 2 as well.

[Steve Fenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius segway from volume two, to volume three - and the famous Carmilla story.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Glass Darkly is a collection of 5 short stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu and usually issued as a single volume, but the Gutenberg Project version for the Kindle has been split into 3 volumes. This isn’t a problem, especially when you consider all 3 are free. But the arrangement of the fourth story, The Room at the Dragon Volant within the volumes is bizarre. Volume 2 contained the first 23 chapters of that story, this, volume 3, contains the concluding 3 chapters.

The Room at the Dragon Volant is the only story not to have a supernatural element. It is the story of an impressionable young English man’s attempts, while travelling in France, to save a beautiful and mysterious woman from an unhappy marriage. it is a brilliant story with an ingenious Hitchcockian ending. It doesn’t really fit into the same gothic bracket that all the other stories in this collection belong. But what it lacks in atmospherics it makes up for in plot.

The other story in this volume is Carmilla. This story not just fits into the gothic bracket it probably defines the genre. Not only did it greatly influence Bram Stoker in writing Dracula but has also been the basis of several movies including Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1932 film Vampyr and Hammer Films’ Karnstein Trilogy. This is my favourite story in the whole collection with The Room at the Dragon Volant coming a close second.

Carmilla is at it’s core a love story, and the first example of the lesbian vampire. J Sheridan Le Fanu portrays this in a subtle way, and never acknowledges homosexuality in the novella at all.

“But to die as lovers may, to die together, so that they may live together.” is brilliant quote from this novella and epitomises Carmilla. For me it’s up there with the children of the night line uttered by Bela Lugosi in Universal’s Dracula.

[Katie Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spooky story of a beautiful young woman with a very dark secret.