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The Complete Ghost Stories of Chapelizod

“One does well not to under-appreciate the ever-alive allure of reminiscences begotten in childhood . . . Chapelizod, like the Irish capital of which it was in effect a suburb, in the early 1800s glumly epitomised the glamour and the grandeur that was gone: ‘Dead walls; dead trees overhanging them; dead lights instead of windows in the houses; the men grave, the women lifeless, the little spirits squeaking and gibbering in the muddy streets!’ Thus must it have appeared to the sensitive mind of the child who grew up to be the author of Uncle Silas, Wylder’s Hand, and The House by the Church-yard—this last the writer’s towering salute to the village and its picturesque environs which had sparked his eager imagination before it could shape itself in prose. Although the Le Fanu family moved to the mid-west of Ireland in 1826, with Reverend Le Fanu’s appointment as Dean of Emly and Rector of Abington, and much of his elder son’s early macabre tales are set in this region and elsewhere in the Irish countryside, the memory of Chapelizod lay dormant in the writer’s mind for twenty-five years before being unleashed in the stories which feature in this book.” -from the Introduction by Albert Power

This edition commemorates the 160th anniversary of “Ghost Stories of Chapelizod” (1851) and the 150th anniversary of The House by the Church-yard (1861-1863), and is the first time “Some Gossip about Chapelizod” (1851) has been re-printed.

  • More on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu can be found in various issues of The Green Book

This limited edition booklet is sold out.
Please check with our Booksellers for remaining copies.

J. S. Le Fanu Series #3

Cover design by Brian J. Showers
Introduction by Albert Power

ISBN: N/A

The Ballads and Poems of J. Sheridan Le Fanu

“When in the year 1880 I wrote a memoir of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, as a Preface to his “Purcell Papers”, I was not aware that, besides being the author of the Irish poems contained in that collection of Irish stories and of the celebrated “Shamus O’Brien”, Le Fanu had anonymously contributed half-a-dozen other poems to the Dublin University Magazine between the years 1863 and 1866; two of which . . . exhibit Le Fanu’s genius in a new and unexpected light. They show him to have been capable of dramatic and lyrical creation on a distinctly higher plane than he had hitherto reached . . . The same magnetic attributes of superhuman mystery, grim or ghastly humour and diabolic horror which characterise the finest of his prose fictions meet us again.” – from the Introduction by A. P. Graves

This booklet reproduces much of the contents of The Poems of Le Fanu, which was first published in 1896. The original introduction by Alfred Perceval Graves is herein reproduced as are the appendices. New to this edition are extracts from Seventy Years of Irish Life in which the author’s brother, William Le Fanu, included extracts of juvenile poetry (“O’Donoghue” and “Valentine to Miss K”); and a selection of contemporary reviews.

  • More on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu can be found in various issues of The Green Book

Booklet edition limited to 200 copies.

J. S. Le Fanu Series #2

Cover design by Brian J. Showers
Introduction by Alfred Perceval Graves

ISBN: N/A

My Aunt Margaret’s Adventure

“My Aunt Margaret’s Adventure” is reminiscent of the great terror tales of mounting alarm such as Wilkie Collins’s “A Terribly Strange Bed”; the hotel scene, to a lesser extent, in Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”; James Whale’s The Old Dark House; and the more recent film The Last Great Wilderness (2002) directed by David Mackenzie. In fact, with their often arch and sardonic senses of humour, the latter two examples are most appropriate comparisons. Comfort and safety are fleeting in stories like these. Familiar and generally hospitable surroundings quickly take turns into strange worlds of indefinable menace. Terror mounts. A candle going out may be discomforting, but an accident befalling your only light source is downright sinister. Like Aunt Margaret, the reader is cursed with an active mind courtesy of the author’s vivid prose rich in regional flavour and Gothic detail. It’s only a matter of time—we can just feel it in our bones!—before the other shoe drops.

“My Aunt Margaret’s Adventure” first appeared in the March 1864 issue of the Dublin University Magazine, which was then under the editorship of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. The DUM was a regular venue for Le Fanu’s work. The February issue contained the final instalments of his novel Wylder’s Hand, while the April issue saw the publication of “Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling”—”My Aunt Margaret’s Adventure” appeared in the interceding issue. Believed by M. R. James and S. M. Ellis to be the work of Le Fanu, “My Aunt Margaret’s Adventure” shares many motifs, themes, and effects found in the Irish author’s work. This new edition will feature commentary on the story and its authorship by two leading Le Fanu scholars, Jim Rockhill (introduction and annotations) and Gary W. Crawford (afterword).

  • More on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu can be found in issues of The Green Book

This limited edition booklet is sold out.
Please check with our Booksellers for remaining copies.

J. S. Le Fanu Series #1

Cover art by Allison Elrod
Introduction by Jim Rockhill
Afterword: Gary William Crawford

ISBN: N/A

J. S. Le Fanu: A Concise Bibliography

“As my book J. Sheridan Le Fanu: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1995) has shown, cataloguing Le Fanu’s work is no easy task. There are many snares and chasms, omissions and errors to be found on the bibliographer’s journey. Most difficult is the fact that many of Le Fanu’s works were published anonymously in Victorian magazines. This has been further complicated by the fact that Le Fanu’s account books, notebooks and other papers were dispersed and lost after his death. There are undoubtedly many unsigned items produced by Le Fanu’s pen that will never be found.

“This concise edition of that bibliography was edited, re-organised and amended by Brian J. Showers, with assistance from Richard Dalby. A major difference is that the magazine appearances are listed chronologically to help give a sense of Le Fanu’s development as a writer. The listing of books is selective as to first editions and major appearances, as is the secondary material with annotations provided for landmark critical works.” – from the “Preliminary Word” by Gary W. Crawford

  • More on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu can be found in various issues of The Green Book

Booklet edition limited to 200 copies.

J. S. Le Fanu Series #0

Cover design by Brian J. Showers
Preliminary Word by Gary William Crawford

ISBN: N/A