Customer Reviews

The Wyvern Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

LeFanu's "Wyvern Mystery" is a classic example of a Gothic mystery. During the 1860's, Gothic mysteries and horror novels were popular. Although LeFanu is not as "up there " as such notable Gothic novelists as Bram Stroker or Mary Shelley, LeFanu creates a chilling and suspenseful thriller. The tale has the typical features one finds in Gothic novels- a beautiful heroine who is in danger, a mysterious family secret, a haunted mansion, prophetic dreams, appropriate dark atmosphere and as added bonus LeFanu created a "sub-human " character who has been damaged in her past and has now become a monster out for revenge. At time reminiscent of Jane Eyre, Wyvern mystery is a must have for mystery fans of the genre. PBS broadcasted a screen adaptation on their Mystery Series. Also I recommend all other LeFanu novels and also the Gothic mystery "Lady Audley's Secret ". Enjoy.

J. Sheridan LeFanu is not as difficult to get into as other Gothic fiction authors are. I would definitely recommend the 'Wyvern Mystery' to anyone looking at beginning to read Gothic fiction. I would recommend to anyone, however, as a very well-rounded book. The storyline takes many exciting twists and turns, though LeFanu's slow and detailed style may find little friendliness from modern readers. Those who appreciate detail will find his intricate portraits both refreshing and beautiful. Many times I found myself smiling at the believable and realistic depictions of emotion or character traits. LeFanu definitely shows that he is not an amatuer and demands attention from modern readers. He is widely unread, but his great talents at storytelling deserve attention. The 'mystery' of the Wyvern Mystery centers around a young couple's troubles due to elopement, financial problems, and the hero's dark past that comes back to haunt them both. All this and a happy ending. I implore you to resurrect this wonderful old mystery.

Unfortunately, I read Le Fanu's Uncle Silas before picking up The Wyvern Mystery. Although I enjoyed The Wyvern Mystery, I felt it was not as well written and plotted as Uncle Silas. At one point, you seem to reach the climax as 'the old soldier' becomes very nasty indeed; but then she all but disappears from the book. The ending was predictable - you could see it coming from a mile off. Overall, the book was entertaining, but I would recommend Uncle Silas over this story any day.

In college, I took a course about Victorian Gothic writers, and I remember reading some of Le Fanu's stories, but he never struck me as being very important. I decided to read this because the book simply fell into my hands. It is not very Gothic. True, we have the old house, midnight happenings, a crazed woman with a knife walking around, but it's not that spine-tingling. As I was reading, I assumed that Le Fanu wrote this as a serial and was being paid by the word. (a half-penny a word?) I would say, however, that he deserved two pounds for using the word "febrifuge." The story seems to be heavily padded with atmospherics. Even as we near the end of the story, we get new characters, who are then given their long thick descriptive paragraphs, as well as their detailed life histories...and since each one might be in a room, we have to get 200 words describing everything in the room. The term "Victorian Clutter" applies to prose as well as to interior design.

I felt like this was watered-down Dickens: you take poor but deserving kids and put them in uncomfortable situations and trust God to punish the villains and reward the saints. There is an overloading of the story with too many attempts at quirky colorful characters who seem to exist merely to spew out as many country proverbs as possible ("There be not many roads without stones and holes" type of pronouncements. Something like "It's only the dead rat that eats no cheese" was declared more than once.) At times the novel seems more like a catalogue of these wise-country saws than an actual story. I really can't recommend it, not even to someone who wants a long complex Masterpiece Theatre type of story.

Poor Alice! Why is her new husband so secretive? Why is the housekeeper so cool toward her? What does her brother-in-law know that he isn't telling? And what is that strange scratching noise in her bedroom at midnight?

All good questions, but don't expect answers for a few hundred pages. Le Fanu is the master of dragged-out suspense, but he really drags it out in this one, then skips 12 years, then begins what appears to be a new plot needing another few hundred pages, until he recollects that he needs to finish the book and ends everything at breakneck speed in the last few pages. You wouldn't mind so much if you cared about Alice's problems, but she's the typical innocent and passive young heroine who needs squads of people on hand to help her while she's bedridden with grief. What makes this book enjoyable is not her but the other characters: there's old Squire Fairfield; he didn't like Alice's father, but when Alice was orphaned as a child, he raised her himself. His feelings toward her seem gruff but paternal.... or are they? Mildred the housekeeper has an endless supply of proverbs and sayings; she isn't loyal or even nice... or is she? Harry the brother-in-law seems to be a simple horse trader who's happy to let his elder brother inherit Wyvern, the family estate, but he may not be as simple as he seems. And what about the mysterious, tall, opium-smoking "Dutchwoman" ....? Le Fanu excels at ambiguous motivations, only in this book, the motives are especially nebulous. I would have appreciated an afterword explaining the laws of inheritance and primogeniture in a way that would make the baby plot a little clearer.

Ah, these books one receives as Christmas presents, no doubt the benefactors mean well....How dearly I would have loved to have settled down to a mystery about that many-storied beast, the wyvern. And, since there is a very well-depicted wyvern on the cover, and the title rather leads one to expect it, surely I was not amiss in expecting such a lark. But, alas, no wyvern - just an old family who possess the surname. And alack, no mystery - the plot and characters are as stale as ergoted rye, but without even the supernatural or hallucinogenic to excite one. Wading through this mostly banal novel was rather like touching upon several poorly copied parts of Dickens' novels with a touch of the Brontes thrown in for good measure.

The only thing that surprised me, from time to time, was the discovery that Le Fanu could be a dashed good writer when he put his mind and heart into it. He is particularly good at detailed landscapes, human psychology and lines of poetic insight. Unfortunately, these passages are too few, too far between, too often over-the-top to redeem the novel. But, as an example, one occasionally comes across a passage like the following:

"Future-present-past. The future - mist, a tint, a shadow. The cloud on which fear and hope project their airy phantoms, living in imagination, and peopled by romance - a dream of dreams. The present only we possess, man's momentary dominion, plastic under his hand as the clay under the potter's - always a moment of the present in our absolute power - always that fleeting, plastic moment speeding into the past - immutable, eternal. The metal flows molten by, and then chills and fixes for ever."p.222

But such passages are rare indeed. They pop out - if I may be permitted the trope - like audacious wyverns amidst tired, overworked prosaic basset-hounds. Altogether, more than a letdown. ---Good title though.
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Despite some beautifully written passages and a creepy setup, this book completely failed to deliver the scares it promised. We have an isolated mansion, a young, pretty new wife, and a ghostly legend about said-mansion, told reluctantly by the faintly sinister housekeeper. Throw in a mad blind woman and it starts to sound interesting, right? WRONG! There were exactly two -- that's right, TWO! -- chapters that actually managed to frighten me in any capacity, and while those chapters were excellent, they do not make up for the suffering I endured while I waited for this book to get interesting. Not only are there insufferable amounts of kissy-face between the two newlyweds ("And Rhy loves his little woman, doesn't he?"), but the author pretty much points a flashing neon arrow at his villain early in the story, leaving absolutely no mystery to "The Wyvern Mystery." Additionally, as in the manner of much Victorian literature, the heroine was weeping with some strong emotion or other every five minutes. (** Strangley, much like "Practical Magic," the so-so movie -- starring a not-yet-famous Naomi Watts -- was better.)