- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is best known today as one of the Victorian period s leading exponents of supernatural fiction, and was described by M.R. James as standing absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories. The House by the Churchyard is perhaps his best novel in this genre. Set in the village of Chapelizod, near Dublin, in the 1760s the story opens with the accidental disinterment of an old skull in the churchyard, and an eerie late-night funeral. This discovery relates to murders, both recent and historical whose repercussions disrupt the complacent pace of village affairs and change the lives of many of its notable characters forever. Charm and chilling darkness abound in equal measure in one of the greatest novels of a Victorian master of mystery.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The House by the Churchyard" (1863) represented a pivotal point in Le Fanu's career and one of his best novels. Being one of the first results of a newly found urge to writing fiction, it combines aspects typical of his previous historical novels, i.e. description of social activity and interaction in an Irish village in the XVIII century, with gothic and mystery themes, which would be prominent in subsequent novels.
The main plot is based on the mysterious stories of two murders, one committed in the past and one in the present, connecting with one another. Interweaving with these, are numerous subsidiary stories and characters which give life to the village as a whole and introduce several humorous, romantic or sad elements.
Although there are several typical gothic motives, supernatural activity is limited to 2 out of 99 chapters, despite what the title of the novel, the book's cover or the authour's fame might make you think. I've personally enjoyed greatly reading this novel and, although the beginning may be troublesome, due to the over-abundance of little known characters and the absence of a clearly defined plot, this is compensated by far with the drive that the reading gets once the main mysterious stories are set into motion.
Overall, I would not recommend this novel to somebody not acquainted with Le Fanu. But if you have read other classics of this great Irish writer, enjoyed them, and think he deserves further exploration, this is for you!
The main plot is based on the mysterious stories of two murders, one committed in the past and one in the present, connecting with one another. Interweaving with these, are numerous subsidiary stories and characters which give life to the village as a whole and introduce several humorous, romantic or sad elements.
Although there are several typical gothic motives, supernatural activity is limited to 2 out of 99 chapters, despite what the title of the novel, the book's cover or the authour's fame might make you think. I've personally enjoyed greatly reading this novel and, although the beginning may be troublesome, due to the over-abundance of little known characters and the absence of a clearly defined plot, this is compensated by far with the drive that the reading gets once the main mysterious stories are set into motion.
Overall, I would not recommend this novel to somebody not acquainted with Le Fanu. But if you have read other classics of this great Irish writer, enjoyed them, and think he deserves further exploration, this is for you!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Make no mistake Le Fanu is a Victorian writer of the highest order. This is a wonderful book, the pace is slow but like his other work Uncle Silas it comes to a thrilling end. I would say that this is one of his best and if you're a fan or Vicorian fiction you will probably enjoy this.
At times it is funny and reads like a farce. The comings and goings of the citizens of Chapelizod are often highly amusing. It also has the elements of gothic horror. In the horror stakes it's tame by modern standards but If you like Victorian fiction you'll not be disapointed.
At times it is funny and reads like a farce. The comings and goings of the citizens of Chapelizod are often highly amusing. It also has the elements of gothic horror. In the horror stakes it's tame by modern standards but If you like Victorian fiction you'll not be disapointed.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Farce meets gothic trappings in small Irish town
26 July 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book expecting it to be full of gothic and mystery elements, having read other LeFanu.
I have read LeFanu's ghost stories, and the novels "Uncle Silas," and "Wylder's Hand." "Uncle Silas" is a suspense classic. "Wylder's Hand" is less of a page-turner, but has interesting characters in the mystery. Think of Dicken's "Mystery of Edwin Drood" with Wilkie Collins's dominant female characters.
"House by the Churchyard" starts with graves, re-opened crypts, and mystery. LeFanu promptly drops it to pile farce upon farce.
Much of the book relates how the residents of this small town wage "war" on each other, similar to "Lucia and Mapp." Set in the 1700s, in a small town near Dublin, featuring officers in the local regiment, the book brings high and low characters together.
There is a wealthy spinster whose charities are ill-considered. There is a mysterious stranger who has moved to town, who is surrounded by further shadows. Chapter 11 is frequently taken and printed as a ghost story--in the context of the book, the story is an extended example of how servants chatter.
We have lovers, competing small-town doctors, fortune-hunters, nubile and not-so-nubile heiresses, a professional blackmailer, debtors, rapscallions, timid lovers, a priest, an unworldly pastor, an amateur blackmailer, and some nice rabbitty little wives who are under the thumbs of their "lord and master" husbands. There is a hilarious duel-gone-wrong and drowning that never really happens.
The introduction suggests that LeFanu wrote "House by the Churchyard" out of nostalgia for the town he lived in as a youth. I think that this book is better characterized as English humor, a la "Three Men in a Boat," than as English horror. It is very readable.
I'm about half-way through, and I have found that the humor/horror ratio is about 80/20. I suppose there are still plenty of chapters in which to pack his murder mysteries towards the end.
"House by the Churchyard"--It's a wild read, for fans of Dickens, Collins, even "Lucia" novels.
I have read LeFanu's ghost stories, and the novels "Uncle Silas," and "Wylder's Hand." "Uncle Silas" is a suspense classic. "Wylder's Hand" is less of a page-turner, but has interesting characters in the mystery. Think of Dicken's "Mystery of Edwin Drood" with Wilkie Collins's dominant female characters.
"House by the Churchyard" starts with graves, re-opened crypts, and mystery. LeFanu promptly drops it to pile farce upon farce.
Much of the book relates how the residents of this small town wage "war" on each other, similar to "Lucia and Mapp." Set in the 1700s, in a small town near Dublin, featuring officers in the local regiment, the book brings high and low characters together.
There is a wealthy spinster whose charities are ill-considered. There is a mysterious stranger who has moved to town, who is surrounded by further shadows. Chapter 11 is frequently taken and printed as a ghost story--in the context of the book, the story is an extended example of how servants chatter.
We have lovers, competing small-town doctors, fortune-hunters, nubile and not-so-nubile heiresses, a professional blackmailer, debtors, rapscallions, timid lovers, a priest, an unworldly pastor, an amateur blackmailer, and some nice rabbitty little wives who are under the thumbs of their "lord and master" husbands. There is a hilarious duel-gone-wrong and drowning that never really happens.
The introduction suggests that LeFanu wrote "House by the Churchyard" out of nostalgia for the town he lived in as a youth. I think that this book is better characterized as English humor, a la "Three Men in a Boat," than as English horror. It is very readable.
I'm about half-way through, and I have found that the humor/horror ratio is about 80/20. I suppose there are still plenty of chapters in which to pack his murder mysteries towards the end.
"House by the Churchyard"--It's a wild read, for fans of Dickens, Collins, even "Lucia" novels.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
House by the Churchyard
1 Jun 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Another classic from the foremost Irish author of horror, Sheridan Le Fanu. Good turnaround.
8 of 20 people found the following review helpful
one of the gretest horor story writers ever
17 Mar 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
hello,
as one other great writer M. R. James wrote of
joseph sheridan le fanu he stands absolutely in first rank as a writer of ghost storys I share that same verdict after reading many of his storys
this book had some very god storys in it I recommend it to those that like ghost storys and like to be scared where when you are home all alone it is late at night and as you read the ghost storys you get cold chills that run through your body as you begin to think what was that bump, or creak that came from don the hall as you shiver continuing to ead the story and wonder if something is comming toward u :)
enjoy the book and get more from this author and wilkie collins and edgar allen poe
as one other great writer M. R. James wrote of
joseph sheridan le fanu he stands absolutely in first rank as a writer of ghost storys I share that same verdict after reading many of his storys
this book had some very god storys in it I recommend it to those that like ghost storys and like to be scared where when you are home all alone it is late at night and as you read the ghost storys you get cold chills that run through your body as you begin to think what was that bump, or creak that came from don the hall as you shiver continuing to ead the story and wonder if something is comming toward u :)
enjoy the book and get more from this author and wilkie collins and edgar allen poe
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
