Le Fanu was facinated by the occult, and his writings draw on the gothic tradition, Irish folklore and the social and political anxieites of his Anglo-Irish contemporaries. In exploring sometimes inexplicable terrors, his tales focus on the unease of those who encounter the supernatural rather than on the origin or purpose of the visitant. The five stories presented here were collected by Dr Hesselius, a "metaphysical" doctor, the forerunner of the modern psychiatrist, who is willing to consider the ghosts both as real and as hallucinatory obsessions. The reader's doubtful anxiety mimics that of the protagonist, and each story thus creates the atmosphere of mystery which is the supernatural experience. The stories are "Green Tea", "The Familiar", "Mr Justice Harbottle", "The Room in the Dragon Volant", and "Carmilla".
- ISBN10 150613386X
- ISBN13 9781506133867
- Publish Date 16 July 2015 (first published 1 October 1977)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 27 October 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Createspace
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 116
- Language English