Le Fanu's Gothic
Also by Victor Sage Fiction DIV!DING LINES A MIRROR FOR LARKS BLACK SHAWL Criticism HORROR FICTION IN THE PROTESTANT TRADITION THE GOTHIC NOVEL: A Selection of Critical Essays MODERN GOTHIC: AReader ted. with Altan Lloyd Smiths MELMOTH THE WANDERER: CharIes Maturin (ed. with Introduction and Notes) UNCLE SILAS: ]. S. Le Fanu (ed. with lnttoduction and Notes) GOOD AS HER WORD: Lorin Sage, Selected journalism (ed. with Sharon Sage)
Le Fanu's Gothic The Rhetoric of Darkness Victor Sage
* Victor Sage 2004 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-0-333-67755-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms 01any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WH 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, NewYork, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint 01the Palgrave Macmillan division 01St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-39962-8 ISBN 978-0-230-28741-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230287419 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available frorn the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sage, Victor, 1942- Le Fanu's gothic: the rhetoric of darkness 1Victor Sage p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 1814-1873-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Horror tales, English-History and criticism. 3. Gothic revival (Literature) Ireland. 4. Ireland-In literature. I.Title PR4879.L7Z872003 823'.8-dc22 2003058075 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
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Contents List ofillustrations viii Introduction Part I Re-Framing the Gothic 1 Two Stories: Chiareseuro and the Politics of Superstition 11 2 Gothic and Romance: Retribution and Reconciliation 29 3 'Cyclopean History': The House by the Churchyatd 47 Part II Gothic Hybrids 4 Dreadful Witness: Narrative Perversity and Wylder's Hand 77 5 Magic Lanthern: Uncle Silas, Narrative Indirection, and the Layered Text 102 6 Doubleplot I: The Tenants ofmalory 131 7 Doubleplot II: Haunted Lives 157 8 'Carmilla': 'I'll let you be in my dream, if I can be in yours' 178 Postscript 202 Notes 206 Bibliography 225 Index 230 vii
List of Illustrations 1. (a) and (b). I it seemed to her... that his face was growing like that of Leonora's phantom trooper... '. From 'Retzsch's Outlines to Burger's Ballads ' (London, 1840), BLShelfmark S06.aa.16., Plates 5 & 6, Illustrations to Burger's 'Lenore'. By permission of the British Library. 82 2. (a) and (b): 'the phantom Dane' from 'Retzsch's Outlines to Shakespeare' (London, 1828), BLShelfrnark, 840.m.3. Illustrations to 'Hamlet', Act I, Sc. 3, and Act 1, Sc. 4. By permission of the British Library. 83 3. 'Remember-this key.' From Gustave Dore, 'Les Contes de Perrault' (Paris, 1862), BLShelfmark 1871 f. 11. By permission of the British Library. 108 4. 'Like the Eleusinian Priestess on the vase ', from 'The Portland Vase' by D.E.L. Haynes. (Courtesy of the British Museum.) 124 S. I the phantom of Beatrice'. Portrait of Beatrice Cenci, attributed to Guido Reni, Galleria Barberini, Rome. Photo by Alinari Bros. By permission of the Alinari Picture Library, Italy. 133 viii