This new study seeks to explore the relations between reader and text across the span of Sheridan Le Fanu's career, placing his early work of the 1830s in context. Sage concentrates on the development in Le Fanu of hybrid forms, which mingle satire and comedy with Gothic horror, and also discusses the early work of Uncle Silas and Carmilla , giving space to the often neglected unpublished romances.
List of Illustrations Introduction PART ONE: RE-FRAMING THE GOTHIC Two Stories: Chiaroscuro and the Politics of Superstition Gothic and Romance: Retribution and Reconciliation 'Cyclopean History'; The House By the Churchyard PART TWO: GOTHIC HYBRIDS Dreadful Witness: Narrative Perversity and Wylder's Hand Magic Lanthern: Uncle Silas , Indirection and the Layered Text Doubleplot I: The Tenants of Malory Doubleplot II: Haunted Lives 'Carmilla': 'I'll Let You Be In My Dream If I Can Be In Yours' Bibliography Index