Sheridan Le Fanu. wrote fellow author, M.R. lames.'stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories: A best-selling author from 1860 to 880. Le Fanu is feted today as a master of his art.In a Glass Darl,'lv is a remarkable collection of tales of the supernatural, in which the patients of Dr Heselius are plagued by malignant apparitions and vampires, or are drugged into a state of living death. The good doctor can usually explain such phenomena in terms of psychopathology, but Le Fanu seems deliberately ambivalent about the doctor's theories, and many disturbing implications remain unsolved.Each story exerts the compelling appeal of a thoroughly good yarn, but In a Glass Darkly is a profoundly disorienting book that has become a classic of mystery and occult literature.

SHERIDAN LE FANU "stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories", wrote M. R. James, Le Fanu"s great admirer and fellow author. A classic of occult literature, the remarkable collection of stories entitled In a Glass Darkly was first published in 1872and was received with great acclaim. Le Fanu was a best selling ;author in his day, and this topical allusion in a story by Henry James published in i888, attests to Le Fanu"s popularity: "There was the customary novel of Mr. Le Fanu"s by the bedside; the ideal of reading in a country house after midnight." Interest in Le Fanu"s work resurged with the publication of Madam Crowl"s Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery in I923, and today he is celebrated as a ;unique master in the realms of the uncanny and the supernatural.In a Glass Darkly is a collection of five stories which are presented as case histories from the papers of a Dr. Martin Heselius, ascientific doctor who investigates psychic phenomena in terms of mental illness. The title of the collection is taken from St. Paul (ICorinthians XIII), and Le Fanu"s slight alteration of the words (St.Paul actually says "For now we see through a glass darkly") seems tosuggest, not only out cloudy and imperfect understanding of thesupernatural, but that the "glass" is both a fragile barrier and amirror which reflects the darker side of human nature. Each storybegins with an explanation of the particular aspects of Heselius"study that the case illustrates. This mode of narration gives cre-dence to the tales themselves, but Le Fanu is generally ambivalentabout the Doctor"s final elucidation of supernatural events, so thatdisturbing questions invariably remission.

Green Tea

PROLOGUE Martin Hesselius, the German Physician

Dr. Hesselius Relates how he met the Rev. Mr. Jennings

The Doctor Questions Lady Mary, and She Answers

Dr. Hesselius picks up Something in Latin Books

Four Eyes were Reading the Passage

Dr. Hesselius is Summoned to Richmond

How Mr. Jennings Met his Companion

The Journey: First Stage

The Second Stage

The Third Stage

Home

CONCLUSION - A Word for Those who Suffer

The Familiar

PROLOGUE

Footsteps

The Watcher

An Advertisement

He Talks with a Clergymall

Mr. Barton States His Case

Seen Again

Flight

Softened

Requiescat

Mr. Justice Harbottle

PROLOGUE

The Judge"s House

Mr. Peters

Lewis Pyneweck

Interruption in Court

Caleb Searcher

Arrested

Chief Justice Twofold

Somebody has got into the House

The Judge leaves his House

The Room in the Dragon Volant

PROLOGUE

On the Road

The Inn-yard of the Belle Etoile

Death and Love Together Mated

Monsieur Droqville

Supper at the Belle Eolle

The Naked Sword

The White Rose

A Three Minutes" Visit

Gossip and Counsel

The Black Veil

The Dragon Volant

The Magician

The Oracle Tells Me Wonders

Mademoiselle de la Valliere

Strange Story of the Dragon Volant

The Parc of the Chateau de la Carque

The Tenant of the Palanquin

The Churchyard

The Key

A High-Cauld-Cap

I See Three Men in a Mirror

Rapture

A Cup of Coffee

Hope

Despair

Catastrophe

Carmilla

PROLOGUE

An Early Fright

A Guest

We Compare Notes

Her Habits - A Saunter

A Wonderful Likeness

A Very Strange Agony

Descending

Search

The Doctor

Bereaved

The Story

A Petition

The Wood-Man

The Meeting

Ordeal and Execution

Conclusion