Publication of the week: Dr Paul E.H. Davis

23 June 2016

The Supernatural RevampedPaul E.H. Davis, “The Nightmare Tales of J.S. Le Fanu”, in Barbara Brodman & James E. Doan (eds), The Supernatural Vampire: From Timeworn Legends to Twenty-First Century Chic (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016), 35-49.

J.S. Le Fanu (1814-73) – ‘The Invisible Prince’ – wrote “the best ghost stories of the Victorian period” (E.F. Bleiler), and was greatly admired by, among others, Henry James and M.R. James. The various tales – originally published in periodicals like The Dublin University Magazine and All the Year Round – include not only ghosts but also demons, revenants, fairies, and ‘the little people’. In the chapter, Le Fanu’s portrayal of the supernatural and, especially, why evil always wins is explored – as is the fact that the supernatural occurrences are usually left unexplained. Readers do not really know if ghosts are real or the result of a psychological imbalance in those who see them. Le Fanu was preoccupied with death, redemption, and the afterlife and, like other members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy, was deeply affected by the Irish Land Question – and this, along with Swedenborgianism and the Gothick, is reflected in his tales. Despite suffering from Catholic violence in his youth, Le Fanu remained torn between a romantic nationalism and a natural conservatism: while he supported the Union, he also hankered after pre-Union days. His stories are usually set in Ireland – often within an Anglo-Irish Big House – but, like the Catholic tenantry, the supernatural inhabitants of Irish Folklore find their way into the previously safe world of the Ascendancy invariably with terrifying consequences.

Paul Davis is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of English and Digital Media at The University of Buckingham. His research centres on nineteenth-century Anglo-Irish literature and, in particular, on the portrayal of the supernatural in the works of Charles Maturin, J.S. Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker. He is the author of From Castle Rackrent to Castle Dracula (2011), and “The Undead in Anglo-Irish Literature” in The Universal Vampire (2013).