Two Weird Mysteries by J. Sheridan LeFanu, Fiction, Literary, Horror, Fantasy

This volume contains two of Le Fanu's stories: A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE TYRONE FAMILY (a story which may have been an inspiration for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre) and THE MURDERED COUSIN (the earliest "sealed room" mystery known). Although not well known today, Le Fanu was a favorite of writers like Bram Stoker and M.R. James, who considered Le Fanu to be one of the best supernatural writers of the time. His prose is vivid and detailed and his horror relies on effect and mood, rather than on gore or shock value. Victorian hosts would often place a book of Le Fanu's stories by their guests' bedsides, for their reading pleasure late at night.