Sheridan Le Fanu, wrote fellow author, M.R. James, 'stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories'. A best-selling author from 1860 to 1880, Le Fanu is feted today as a master of his art. In a Glass Darkly 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 disorientating book that has become a classic of mystery and occult literature.
