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