Uncle Silas (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

J. Sheridan Le Fanu (Author), W. J. McCormack (Editor), Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2000 | Series: Oxford World's Classics

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the renowned gothic novelist, was born in Dublin on 28 August 1814. His vampire novella Carmella is known to have directly influenced Barm Stoker's Dracula, among others. Likewise, Le Fanu's A chapter in the History of the Tyrone Family is thought to have been a source of inspiration for Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. It is, however, his tales of the supernatural for which he is best-remembered. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192835645
• ISBN-13: 978-0192835642
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,650,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb spine-tingler, June 25, 2003

By 

Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncle Silas (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Joseph Sheridan (J. S.) LeFanu, despite fame in Victorian times, has mostly fallen off the radar of modern readers. His superlative "Uncle Silas" is clear evidence as to why anyone who loves a good yarn will be immediately drawn in by his considerable gifts. This novel has a well-modulated dark atmosphere, clearly drawn and fully human characters and a superb plot.

The titular Silas is the uncle of our heroine Maud Ruthyn, who becomes the ward of her mysterious uncle upon her father's death. Silas has an unsavory reputation, having once been accused of murdering a man to whom he owed a gambling debt, but he has, by the time Maud first meets him, apparently repented and found religion. She goes to his home willingly, quickly befriends his saucy daughter Milly and is, for the most part, happy in her new surroundings. The plot thickens from there, and without giving away important details, the reader should know that LeFanu lets loose with a ripping good story that ends most satisfactorily and with some wonderful twists.

LeFanu is a skilled writer at the apex of his powers and an astute observer of the human condition. Some of the more telling lines exhibiting his gifts include:

" . . . that lady has a certain spirit of opposition within her, and to disclose a small wish of any sort was generally, if it lay in her power, to prevent its accomplishment."

"Already I was sorry to lose him. So soon we begin to make a property of what pleases us."

"People grow to be friends by liking, Madame, and liking comes of itself, not by bargain."

"She had received a note from Papa. He had had the impudence to forgive HER for HIS impertinence."

"In very early youth, we do not appreciate the restraints which act upon malignity, or know how effectually fear protects us where conscience is wanting."

"One of the terrible dislocations of our habits of mind respecting the dead is that our earthly future is robbed of them, and we thrown exclusively upon retrospect."

" 'The world,' he resumed after a short pause, 'has no faith in any man's conversion; it never forgets what he was, it never believes him anything better, it is an inexorable and stupid judge.' "

" . . . I had felt, in the whirl and horror of my mind, on the very point of submitting, just as nervous people are said to throw themselves over precipices through sheer dread of falling."

Admirers of Wilkie Collins, Thomas Hardy and, to a lesser degree, of Charles Dickens will find much to please them in the classic "Uncle Silas."

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Uncle Silas (The World's Classics) (Paperback)

This is a real rip-snorter of a gothic novel. Eighteen-year-old Maude, whose mother is dead, has been raised by her wealthy father, an adherent to a peculiar Scandinavian science religion. There are dark rumors afoot about the character of Maude's father's brother, the mysterious Uncle Silas, into whose guardianship Maude is entrusted at her father's death. Maude is the only thing standing between the money she will inherit from her father (when she comes of age) and Silas' considerable debt. Laudanum addiction, poison, big old houses with uninhabited wings, a creepy cousin (Silas' son), and an evil French governess: if you like gothic novels, this one's got it all.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything a gothic novel should be, June 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Uncle Silas (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

"Uncle Silas" has all the ingredients of a great gothic novel: creepy atmosphere, slowly building tension, a sympathetic heroine, and villains you really hate. Don't trust the blurb on the back cover of the Penguin edition, however; it talks about spirits, perception vs. reality, and the like. This is NOT a ghost story. The evil depicted is all too human, which accounts for the story's disturbing effect. A great read.