The Evolution of Irish Folklore in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Tales of Terror

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), may be used as a prime example of the result of the decaying Anglo-Irish culture. He is regarded by many critics as the greatest master of the Victorian Gothic, his works encompassing the dreads of his time, and surpassing many of the efforts of his contemporaries. Le Fanu's short stories which involve Irish myth can be measured via the characters propinquity with the setting of Ireland. The tales that are Irish based which involving a heavy use of lore, such as 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol', 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter', and 'The Child that went with the Fairies', prove to degenerate into a farce, mocking the superstitious peasantry and avoiding the standard gothic tradition. Those tales that are specifically set in Ireland where the idea of Irish folklore is more extended by Le Fanu, such as 'The Familiar', prove to find a happy medium between satire towards the superstitious, and idea of the gothic, preserving a balance of both levity and suspense. Lastly, those stories set in a mere 'Ireland-like' setting, such as 'Carmilla', seem to go beyond all tradition and extend fantasy to brilliant ends. While Le Fanu does not necessarily follow this progression chronologically, it is important to keep front of mind that the author was a great revisionist, and no idea, character, theme or name avoided constant change. Therefore, chronology is in most cases irrelevant while examining the artist's developing motifs, unless in relation to new influences and acquaintances that would rekindle and old theme. Throughout the evolution of Le Fanu's manipulation of Irish folklore, the idea of the main protagonists relation to the harbinger of death continues to change, ranging from the traditional to the newly invented, all once again in relation of the emphasis of the Irish setting. It is Le Fanu's manipulation of the Irish folklore towards new fantastic means that create his own kind of spectacular gothic.

Le Fanu's use of Irish folklore in 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol' proves to diffuse the sense of terror in the tale, rendering the short story completely ineffective as a tale of terror. The setting in 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol' is certainly Ireland. In the second paragraph alone there are at least six recognizable Irish locations mentioned, these being; 'Limerick', 'Dublin', 'hills of Killaloe', 'Keeper Mountain', 'Munster', and 'Dublin road' (Best Ghost Stories, 408). The tale is a narration within a narration, the first person recounting a story told to him by a Mr. Donovan, who is traveling from Limerick to Dublin and is a teacher of the Irish language. These images seem to imply that Mr. Donovan is from a more mystical Ireland, a place of the literary revival where lore and myth were the foundations of the Irish identity. This is an example of Le Fanu's ability to look two ways at once, for although he proves to be a Victorian in his dates, he can at the same time be very unlike the era of his writing. The supernatural tradition of Radcliff was prevalent, was well as his ability to look forward to the coming age of Yeats and the literary revival. Furthermore, his return to Limerick in 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol' is a return to the county of Le Fanu's youth-and of traditional Irish material which he had previously abandoned. This was undoubtedly do to some influence by Patrick Kennedy, a collector of Irish folklore, who also wrote for The Dublin University Magazine, (which Le Fanu edited) and to whom Le Fanu would share a close friendship until death.

Four stories recreate the landscape of…county Limerick. In those first stories which Le Fanu had published in The Dublin University Magazine thirty years earlier elements of folklore intruded only to provide a comic or pseudo-Gothic effect; fears of Purgatory and graveside battles were transformed into the cozy humour of 'The Ghost and the Bonesetter'. But in the later stories, 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol', 'Sir Dominic's Bargain', 'The Child that Went to the Fairies', and the 'Stories of Lough Guir', legend now becomes the material of conscious fiction, at once relaxed in style and intense with implication
Sheridan Le Fanu, McCormack, 239

McCormack is correct in analysis of the beginnings of Le Fanu's use of Irish folklore in that it produces a comic effect; however, his ideas regarding its evolution seem to be unfounded. While none of the later stories are as forced in their language as 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter', their foundations in Ireland and its lore appear to be their downfall. Le Fanu cannot resist the urge to continue to satirize the superstitious peasantry even after years of writing development, and in most cases, the tales of terror degenerate into farce.

Le Fanu's use of humor appears most prevalent when describing the prayer murmuring, cross-clutching peasants that are common in the images of stereotypical Ireland. Their superstitions seem ridiculous, which diffuses the terror which Le Fanu was originally trying to achieve in the tale. In 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol', when struck with the fear of a cat sitting on the chest of a new corpse, the peasants call for "old Sal Doolan, that was straight and lean, and a woman a woman that could pray like a priest almost" (Best Ghost Stories, 415). Here, even the narrator is swept into the minds of the peasants with the use of improper grammar. It's as if even the proximity to the group alters the proper status of the mind. They appear to be a foolish mob, completely run by religious superstition, "whatever they might say, there wasn't one among them that did not look pale and stern enough as they followed Mrs. Doolan, who was praying as fast as her lips could patter" (Best Ghost Stories, 415). When the peasants enter the room in search of the white cat which proves to be a terrible harbinger of death, they arrive, "praying, crossing themselves, and not forgetting a sprinkling of holy water, they peeped, and finally search, poking spades, 'wattles,' pitchforks and such implements under the bed" (Best Ghost Stories, 416). This over-emphasis on the people's clutching to their creed causes the reader to chuckle mildly, rather than recoil in horror.

There are two leanings on old Irish folklore in 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol', those being the tale of the transformation of a princess into a white cat, and the image of the banshee. Opening with the lines, "There is a famous story of a white cat, with which we all become acquainted in the nursery. I am going to tell a story of a white cat very different from the amiable and enchanted princess who took that disguise for a season. The cat of which I speak was a more sinister animal" (Best Ghost Stories, 408). Here, Le Fanu is cluing the reader into the fact that he is going to take a spin with past fantasy and make something horrific. However, with the later use of humor, his technique is rendered ineffectual. Later in the tale the twist becomes more evident, when the author compares the white cat to the banshee, one of the most famous creatures in Irish myth.

No banshee ever yet was more inalienably attached to a family than this ominous apparition is to mine. But there is this difference. The banshee seems to be animated with an affectionate sympathy with the bereaved family to whom it is hereditarily attached, whereas this thing has about it a suspicion of malice. It is the messenger simply of death. And its taking the shape of a cat-the coldest, and they say, the most vindictive of brutes-is indicative of the spirit of its visit
Best Ghost Stories, 417

The idea of the ever approaching patter of Mr. Whisker's white feet, only to stare at you with googlie green kitty eyes whilst growling versus the howling screech of a banshee just doesn't measure up, despite the malignant or pure intentions of the unworldly beasts. The twisted connection is weak, and the terror has been breached with humor. The overall effect is that 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol' proves to be a weak satire in relation to the superstitions of Irish peasants at best. As a tale of terror, the result is failure.

In the same mocking fashion, Le Fanu's first significant short story entitled, 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter', proves to be far more humorous then frighteningly gothic. It is hard to believe that the author was using this much humor unless it was to mock the genre entirely, however, being that there were only a handful of substantial texts at hand that could be deemed gothic, this proves unlikely. If the tale was meant to both entertain and frighten, it fails at least at the latter. There is still interesting literary accomplishments worthy of note, in 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter', one being Le Fanu's use of a mode that appears to be a presentation of evidence. The narration opens, "In looking over the papers of my late valued and respected friend, Francis Purcell, who for nearly fifty years discharged the arduous duties of a parish priest in the south of Ireland, I met with the following document. It is one of many such; for he was a curious and industrious collector of old local traditions - a commodity in which the quarter where he resided mightily abounded." (Purcell Papers, 1). Here, the sense of the priesthood and of documentation of folklore in the Purcell Papers proves to lend credibility to the tale. Furthermore, the author of the document is safely dead or missing information himself; therefore further interrogation cannot be available. However, once again, the suspension is diffused with the ensuing narration, where the reader is subjected to a story with as much terror as any home-spun yarn from a beloved superstitious grandmother. The story begins with a piece of Irish folklore, "It is perhaps necessary to add that the superstition illustrated by the following story, namely, that the corpse last buried is obliged, during his juniority of interment, to supply his brother tenants of the churchyard in which he lies, with fresh water to allay the burning thirst of purgatory, is prevalent throughout the south of Ireland" (Purcell Papers, 5).
McCormack states the issue of which the narrator outlines eloquently,

Violence…stemmed from the popular imagination and manifested itself in every aspect of life and death. The battles of the derrins, as they were called, took place whenever two funerals were due at the same graveyard on the same day. Intimidation and outright attack were employed to ensure initial occupation of the consecrated ground, in the popular belief that the last soul to reach Purgatory…had to carry water for all those who preceded him…Battles of this kind, in which blood was spilled, occurred at Abington graveyard while Joseph and William were boys, cries of victory or dismay drifting over the field which divided the glebe-house from the churchyard as rivals from Murroe and Barrington's Bridge fought on the banks of the river. The real burial with the entry of the soul into Purgatory, a survival into folk myths which translate metaphysical concepts into physical incidents, it appeals to the literary imagination
Sheridan Le Fanu, McCormack, 32

Therefore, the biographical implications in regards to Le Fanu are clear. Naturally, by the time the author had reached maturation and written 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter', he was capable of recognizing the humor in the superstition. No protagonist dies in 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter', therefore there is no definite death omen. This adds to the complacency of the reader to Terry Neil's safety. However, there can be some connection made to the howling wind and the issue of ensuing trouble, such as the banshee's wind-like howls. "'Well, your honour, he thried to keep himself quite an' asy, an' he thought two or three times he might have wint asleep, but for the way the storm was groanin' and creakin' through the great heavy branches outside, an' whistlin' through the ould chimleys iv the castle. Well, afther one great roarin' blast iv the wind, you'd think the walls iv the castle was just goin' to fall, quite an' clane, with the shakin' iv it. All av a suddint the storm stopt, as silent an' as quite as if it was a July evenin'" (Purcell Papers, 16-17). Pursuant to this the old squire in the painting emerges from his portrait. The terror and trouble should ensue; however, there is only comedy in the cards. Neil must reset the ghost's leg which has been troubling him in the afterlife. Instead of terrible socket-popping mayhem, the humorous version arises. The squire accidentally sips some holy water, mistaking it for whiskey, and is promptly blasted back into hell, minus one ghostly appendage. The use of the Irish setting, folklore, and humor, prove to make this tale not the stuff that nightmares are made of. However, in much later works, such as Uncle Silas, the mode of comedy can be successfully mingled with the terrible. Comedy is used in a more constructive means for interpretation, as well as to lure the audience into a false sense of calmness before sudden violence. "To be sure, Le Fanu is a special case. He clearly 'recognizes' his fellow-Irishmen and they form a personal tradition for him…the series of allusions to…comedy shows how concerned Le Fanu is to draw his reader's attention to the (theatrical) level of representation, of staged illusion, within his own narrative texts, and the sharp turn into the macabre, the grotesque, the sinister, and the violent, which he characteristically initiates is never far from the comic structure, despite appearances" (Robbins, 29). However, at this stage, the arena is still a patchwork of folklore presented by a narrator whose credibility does not fit with the documentation scheme devised.

The use of Irish folklore continues to prove to diffuse the terror in the tales of Le Fanu. In 'The Child that went with the Fairies', the setting is once again clearly Ireland, with concrete landmarks being stated. The tradition is simple, parents should mind their children, and youngsters should not wander, otherwise they might be kidnapped by fairies. (It is an idea that has also been admired and written on by W. B. Yeats) This superstition was certainly prevalent in Le Fanu's childhood. "Back in the 1820s and 1830s, Abington (County Limerick) had been the Le Fanu family's home (a few miles from Cappercullen), and in 'The Child that went to the Fairies' (1870) the parish churchyard is named as the victim's burial place" (Dissolute Characters, McCormack, 161). The need to satirize the peasants of this area still remains, however, the mocking of their religious superstitions is done more gently then in 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol' and 'The Ghost and the Bone-setter'.

With undefined boding she looked toward the healthy boss of Lisnavoura now darkening into the deepest purple…How many stories had she listened to by the winter hearth, of children stolen by the fairies, at nightfall, in lonely places! With this fear she knew her mother was haunted. No one in the country round gathered her little flock about her early as this frightened widow, and no door "in the seven parishes" was barred so early…She was looking towards Lisnavoura in a trance of fear, and crossed herself again and again, and whispered prayer after prayer.
Madam Crowl's Ghost, 52

Clearly, the scene is more touching then terrified peasants tossing holy water oven themselves and poking about with garden tools, as in 'The White Cat of Drumgunniol', but still displays the rule of superstition in the area to the end that it truly was a way of life. Interestingly enough, in regards to "folklore, [Le Fanu] lacked any scholarly appreciation of Gaelic myth or bardic tradition; to Kennedy he denounced 'the Ossianic fables' as insupportable curiosities...against his blindness to the heroic dimension in folklore and mythology, a dimension soon to be so very influential, one might weigh Le Fanu's delicate treatment of 'the stolen child' theme in which style and pattern take command of crude materials, with a touching effect" (Sheridan Le Fanu, McCormack, 242-3). Indeed, the boy Billy is stolen, in 'The Child that went with the Fairies', however, the cause and effect system of McCormack's does not seem to resound as soundly as one would think. "Fairy tales are, of course, obsessed with Oedipal structures and this is one of the many characteristics they share with gothic narratives. In both the emphasis falls upon the nuclear family as a wounded or displaced unit: children are kidnapped, parents die to be replaced by bad substitutes, siblings are separated" (Armit, 23-4). The displacement of Billy should be very disrupting in both the worlds of folklore and the gothic, however, his reappearance has a thin sullen creature proves to be anti-climactic and melancholy, rather than terrifying. Billy's death is calmly accepted, and there is no surprise in his abduction, being that it was foretold in the beginning of the tale. Therefore, it is as if the harbinger of death is the narrator's automatic acceptance of it.
Le Fanu discovered a middle ground for the short story in which there could be a definite Irish setting, as well as variation of Irish folklore that would yield frightening results. "As we see time and time again, many of Le Fanu's English stories have Irish antecedents. Even so exotic a collection as In a Glass Darkly, with its German-writing-exegete-behind-the-narrator and its continental location, includes a sharp delineation of Georgian Dublin in 'The Familiar', first published in November 1847 in The Dublin University Magazine as 'The Watcher'" (Dissolute Characters, McCormack, 143). The setting is certainly the concrete Dublin, and the superstitions are Irish as well. "'The Familiar' casts the follower as an implacable specter or sprite, a figure not necessarily material but fully effective in its impact on the followed who ultimately dies as a consequence" (Dissolute Characters, McCormack, 100). This statement by McCormack does not prove to be true however, being that the watcher in 'The Familiar' does touch and manipulate matter-including people, thus making him material. Furthermore, to refer to the watcher solely as a 'specter or sprite' eliminates the possibilities available due to the very title of the short story, 'The Familiar' and the demon references of Barton. These avenues can take the reader to a place richer in folklore. There is more then a basic Irish setting in 'The Familiar', there is also a new twist on the superstition of Witchcraft.

Le Fanu must have been interested in the belief in familiars which comes from the Old World. It was common belief throughout the period of European Witch trials that the devil (whom all Witches were supposed to serve) was happy to give his followers imps to do their bidding. These creatures, minor demons every one, would typically help the Witches with their spells, particularly when they were working malignant magic. Familiars were shape shifters. They took on forms that would not, hopefully, arouse suspicions about their mistresses and masters. The most infamous case of a Witch and a familiar in Irish history that is common knowledge to anyone who has studied the occult would be that of the Irish noblewoman, Dame Alice Kytler. She was accused of witchcraft in the fourteenth century, and was believed to have a familiar that appeared as a cat, a dog, and even a dark-haired man called Robert Artisson. Le Fanu has extended the theory of the familiar however. While Barton in moments of absolute horror will exclaim that the creature that stalks him is a 'demon', there is no reason to believe that there is a Witch at all involved. In this sense, the term familiar may be used dually; lightly in the sense that the face which strikes fear into Barton is a familiar one, the watcher, or the shortened demonic form of a vengeful brother. Therefore, there is a twist on the Irish superstition, which leaves room for suspense.

Irish folklore is again made reference to, as it has been previously, with another tongue-in-cheek reference to the howling banshee foretelling impending death in 'The Familiar'. Captain Barton, who begins the tale as a certain Whig and skeptic, states that he hears the calls of the watcher wherever he goes. "I hear those dreadful sounds called after me as I turn the corners of the streets; they come in the night-time, while I sit in my chamber alone; they haunt me everywhere, charging me with hideous crimes, and-great God!-threatening me with coming vengeance and eternal misery. Hush! Do you hear that?"…The clergyman felt a chill of horror steal over him, while during a wail of a sudden gust of wind, he heard, or fancied he heard, the half-articulate sounds of rage and derision mingling in the sough" (Best Ghost Stories, 226). Here, the unsympathetic warning of death is eminent. The notice has also arrived via the letters the watcher sends Barton. This is a deviation of the Irish banshee myth, and the further Le Fanu strays from it, the more thrilling and original the tale. Even Dr. Macklin, a priest, refuses to acknowledge the folkloric evidence. After his own first hand account, he merely replies, "I heard the wind…what should I think of it-what is remarkable about it?...you must not give way to those wild fancies; you must resist these impulses of the imagination" (Best Ghost Stories, 227). Furthermore, while detaching himself from the superstitious, the priest is referred to by the narrator as, "the student" thus showing the overwhelming power of a new intellect over lore and myth, even in theological circles. This is an interesting example of how Le Fanu superceded the idea of a dueling doctor and priest in the literary revival. Here is another instance of how Le Fanu managed to look two ways at once, even within the same character without rendering him hopelessly inconsistent. "The literary revival, combining a refined appreciation of folk material with a sense of apocalypse deriving both from Irish political crisis and English 'decadence', will overshadow Le Fanu just as surely as it will draw on his pioneer work. The man himself, if such there was, remains inscrutable" (Dissolute Characters, McCormack, 161). This does seem to be an unfortunate consequence with Le Fanu, however, it is undeniable that it is as if the author knew the pattern that the literary revival would follow and conclude with.

Le Fanu has one of his most Victorian Gothic moments in 'The Familiar', which proves that his tale may incorporate more then one direction at once in his writing when he discovers a middle ground thematically. Before his final confrontation with the watcher, Barton dreams of a girl singing to him of forgiveness. (This is more then likely his jilted lover, whose undead brother now stalks him)

[She] acts as his intercessor, a Beatrice who makes Barton's confession by telling the true story of his life that he had sought to obscure by running away from the phantom steps of his guilty past. It is here that Le Fanu presents the intersection of the Gothic of damnation and the Gothic of rescue. Although the woman is an example of the female saviour that was so potent a part of Victorian sexual ideology, her action here is not to ignore his sin but to present a true narrative, and by the demolition of his false persona to win his forgiveness
Milbank, 164

Therefore, there is a calmness to the conclusion of 'The Familiar', firstly, as in 'The Child that went with the Fairies', due to the fact that there is a powerlessness of mankind to resist the supernatural forces that exist in folklore. Secondly, the serenity arises at the tale's end due to the fact that the universe can be viewed in a purgatorial sense rather than certain damnation from the demon. However, the purgatory is much different from that of "The Child that went with the Fairies", where it was bound with superstition rather then the idea of atonement for sins. The result is a gothic that plays with the convention of its own genre without losing perspective.

The presence of a harbinger of death appears to be a reoccurring and evolving theme in Le Fanu's writings. It is as if he rewrites the myth of the banshee in different forms, playing with the idea of the evolution of Irish lore in his tales of terror as he drifts in and out of the screeching calls heard by the insane or the terrorized. In 'The Familiar', the signal, besides the obvious warnings by the watcher and the dream sequence, would be that of the owl. It makes what is called, "the well-known sound, more like a long-drawn gasp than a hiss, with which these birds from their secret haunts affright the quiet of the night" (Best Ghost Stories, 239). In some primitive legends, it is the owl, rather than the crow, which is the main bird used as a death omen. It is in fact this creature that causes Smith, Barton's servant, to leave the room and allows watcher's revenge come to fruition. Therefore, Le Fanu uses three different forms of death omens in 'The Familiar', that being the demon himself, the narrator, and the owl. This correlates to death announcing death, life foreseeing death, and rebirth in an afterlife initiating death. In this manner, the purgatorial circle may commence.

There are two stories of Le Fanu's which may be used to illustrate the potential of 'devils' bargain' tales as decidedly both gothic and full of Irish folklore. These tales being, 'Sir Dominick's Bargain', and 'Schalken the Painter'. Similarly to 'The Familiar', there is a stasis between the two realms that does not diffuse either theme. "One of the least rigorously explored aspects of the fairy-tale narrative… [is] just how frequently the fairy tale's apparent consolations are really 'false friends'. Behind them lurk a series of uncanny confrontations with what can only be referred to as a gothic dis-ease" (Armit, 46). This may also apply to the deals that morals make with devils in gothic tales. In 'Sir Dominick's Bargain', the setting is clearly a picturesque Ireland, (complete with crumbling Big House) and once again, there is a narrative within a narrative. In 'Schalken the Painter', however, the setting can be seen as a more metaphoric Ireland, with the issue of the peasants who murmur prayers still strongly present in both stories. Both protagonists make deals with the devil for the sake of money. In 'Sir Dominick's Bargain', the sinful Sir Dominick ends up having to pay his dues. There is not much fear for the reader of this story, for it appears that the protagonist is receiving his just desserts. In 'Schalken the Painter', however, the deal with the devil is made between men, and an innocent girl, Rose, must suffer the consequences. Once again, the further the twist on the idea of the 'false friends' fairy tale, the more horrific, ironic, and interesting the tale of terror may become. The omen of death is always present, the victims need but recall what they have already seen and heard from their own senses, as well as invent some new fantastic horrors from their imaginations. It is the dread of the evil and the fear of death that causes the thrill, and Le Fanu realized this from previous generations of writers-although he causes things to become more fantastic when doom actually arrives.

In 'Carmilla', the setting is not defined exclusively as Ireland, in fact, it is a place called Styria-and the protagonists are decidedly English, however, there are similarities to Ireland that would indicate some more allegorical readings. "In Ireland, one can…point to a Gothic tradition that deals with Irish issues in a variety of guises. J. S. Le Fanu's work, for example, includes Protestant religious and political polemics, novels about eighteenth-century Ireland, and such well-known Gothic works as Uncle Silas (1864) and the collection In a Glass Darkly (1872; site of the vampiric 'Carmilla'), but common themes about the unreliability of history and the perverseness of power run though all his writings" (Hogle, 107). The cross-clutching peasants still abound, and the picturesque atmosphere remains. However, there are major twists to the ideas of Irish folklore that leave even more room for suspense and speculation than even in 'The Familiar'. Like the 'devil's bargain' tales, and fairy tales, there is the idea of a false friend. However, this is approached much more subtlety then before. Furthermore, there is an entirely new sexual context to examine in regards to Carmilla.

The idea of a mysterious carriage keeps appearing in fairy tales as well as Le Fanu's prose. Like a twisted Cinderella coach, rather then arriving to save the day the wheels spin mayhem into town. The carriage in 'The Child that went with the Fairies' proved to have two main travelers inside. These being a beautiful woman, presumably a fairy, whose "voice sounded sweet as a silver bell in the children's ears, and her smile beguiled them like the light of an enchanted lamp" (Madam Crowl's Ghost, 55) and a strange "black woman…and on her head was a sort of turban of silk striped with all the colours of the rainbow…this black woman had a face as thin almost as a death's-head, with high cheekbones, and great goggle eyes, the whites of which, as well as her wide range of teeth, showed in brilliant contrast with her skin" (Madam Crowl's Ghost, 55)

In 'Carmilla' there is someone described as "a hideous black woman, with a sort of coloured turban on her head, who was gazing all the time from the carriage window, nodding and grinning derisively towards the ladies, with gleaming eyes and large white eye-balls, and her teeth set as if in fury" (Best Ghost Stories, 286). Furthermore, Carmilla herself is described as being "absolutely beautiful" and having "such a sweet voice" (Best Ghost Stories, 286). Here, it would appear that Le Fanu is taking the same idea in a different direction. Whereas 'The Child that went with the Fairies' rolled along in a painfully calm manner, there is excitement in 'Carmilla', because the classic Irish folklore traditions have been twisted to be far more gothic.

It would appear that among the short stories, one of the most popular of Le Fanu's works, 'Carmilla,' would be one of the most twisted in regards to original Irish folkloric traditions. "'Carmilla' is a self-reflective work in which Le Fanu questions, through the vampire's fascination for the living girl, the dangerous tendencies of his own Swedenborgian privileging of the supernatural real" (Hogle, 163). The reader could consider Swedenborgian theory towards Le Fanu's literary characters, and to think that nothing flows into the characters from the source of good but good, and nothing but evil will flow from the evil, and the goal is to maintain a stasis in between to remain human. However, this would not prove consistent for hardly any of the characters in the tales, just as the traditional folklore of Ireland never stays consistent for long. "Both Swedenborgianism and folklore attempt to place the events, particularly the disturbing events of life, in the context of a higher rationality. Their 'rage for order' appealed to Le Fanu who was, almost by cultivated instinct, incapable of accepting any final view of the world. In their gods and heavens he may have temporarily believed, but his consuming passion was for their comprehensive methodology. Swedenborg's metaphysics and the Irish folk world's infinite power of absorption and transformation offered symbols and not creeds" (Sheridan Le Fanu, McCormack, 242). The best tales were spurred from Le Fanu's inspiration of these basic ideas of Irish folklore and the gothic. From these the author managed to look in more then one direction in several, but not all, of his tales. The presences of the differing death omens are a key way to discover how far Le Fanu was turning the conventions.

To conclude, the reasons for Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's preeminence are many. The author was certainly a forerunner in the short story medium in all forms of fiction, particularly the Gothic. However, Le Fanu's work has not been as well known as it should be. His contemporaries were more interested in his detective novels, such as (what is sometimes considered his magnum opus), Uncle Silas. His supernatural work, which involves more Irish folklore, is often forgotten. While it has been argued here that there is a correlation to the direct use of lore in Le Fanu's short stories and their failure as decidedly gothic, this does not mean that they are not without merit. Unfortunately, the result of the unpopularity of some stories is that much of Le Fanu's work remains out of print-and in America, sometimes never printed at all. This is sometimes the tragedy that arises from being before ones time.

Bibliography

Works Cited

Armitt, Lucie. Theorising the Fantastic. London: Arnold, 1996.

Hogle, Jerrold, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. United Kingdom:
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McCormack, W.J. Dissolute Characters: Irish literary history through Balzac, Sheridan
Le Fanu, Yeats and Bowen. Manchester and New York: Manchester University
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McCormack, W.J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Pheonix Mill: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997.

Milbank, Alison. Daughters of the House: Modes of the Gothic in Victorian Fiction.
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Robbins, Ruth and Julian Wolfreys, ed. Victorian Gothic: Literary and Cultural
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Prose

Bleiler, E. F., ed, Best Ghost Stories of J.S. Le Fanu. New York: Dover Publications,
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Le Fanu, J. Sheridan. Wolf, Robert Lee, ed. The Purcell Papers Vol 1. New York and
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Le Fanu, J. Sheridan. James, M. R., ed. Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of
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