Wylder's Hand
3.5/5
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Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic horror. Born in Dublin, Le Fanu was raised in a literary family. His mother, a biographer, and his father, a clergyman, encouraged his intellectual development from a young age. He began writing poetry at fifteen and went on to excel at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied law and served as Auditor of the College Historical Society. In 1838, shortly before he was called to the bar, he began contributing ghost stories to Dublin University Magazine, of which he later became editor and proprietor. He embarked on a career as a writer and journalist, using his role at the magazine as a means of publishing his own fictional work. Le Fanu made a name for himself as a pioneer of mystery and Gothic horror with such novels as The House by the Churchyard (1863) and Uncle Silas (1864). Carmilla (1872), a novella, is considered an early work of vampire fiction and an important influence for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).
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Reviews for Wylder's Hand
28 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The second of Le Fanu's novels that I've read, and this one's about on par with Uncle Silas. I liked it very much, although there is a bit of a structural difficulty when the narration begins in first-person and then shifts suddenly to omniscience and then back again without much warning. Other than that, though, some really excellent characters and a good Victorian-style thriller, with dark copses between fancy country houses, mistaken identities, and complicated financial machinations. Good stuff!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First published in London in 1864, this is the work of a genial writer, but certainly no genius. If you enjoy the discursive mid-Victorian style, you probably be able to overlook the clunky plot-mechanics and improbabilities of this story of disappearance and and confused identities. If he is remembered at-all, Lefanu is generally regarded as one of the founders of the modern tale of suspense, and by extension, the modern mystery-thriller. If WYLER'S HAND is any indication, those genres grew up as much despite him as because of him. Still, I enjoyed it, though if there had been just one more late-night walk between the rural houses, I probably would have pitched it --r myself -- into the sea.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dickensian intrigue with the merest hint of the supernatural. Atmospheric, with quite a good ending.Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish author, probably best known for the short story 'Carmilla' about a female vampire. Carmilla was a great influence on Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, and has been used as the basis of many horror films. Le Fanu was the author of many other excellent gothic horror short stories. His best known novels are Uncle Silas and The House by the Churchyard, both dripping with gothic chills.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When Mark Wylder, engaged by convenience to his cousin, Dorcas Brandon, disappears with only a few unaddressed letters giving hint to his movements, the marriage and estate falls into the hands of Stanley Lake, a schemer ruled by his temper and jealousies; but is the change merely seized upon by Lake, or influenced by him from the beginning? And why is his sister Rachel thrown into despair by his – and her own – actions? Le Fanu’s novel, though not perfect, sustains a tense air of mystery and subtle horror. The strengths of the novel are the charm of the narrative, the author’s crafty suspension of the mystery, and the liveliness of the characters, both vile and sympathetic… the self-interested attorney, Larkin and the naïve Vicar, William Wylder, are a splendid contrast, particularly when the one arrays himself against the other, and that part of the story is utterly satisfying. The narrator, however, begins well and is then proven a pointless addition to the cast, disappearing for hundreds of pages at a time while merrily recounting events he can have had no knowledge of, after his own part had dwindled into the distance… this was somewhat irritating, for had he been absent from the start, the reader would have needed no ‘on scene’ narrator, but once he’d been introduced, the question of his absentee storytelling, and the distraction of suddenly encountering the immediate ‘I’, seemingly for the sake of letting the reader know that the author hadn’t forgotten how he’d begun, detracted from the story quite a bit.There’s a pacing problem… it’s not too apparent but for a lag in the middle, until the end, when the mystery of Wylder’s disappearance is resolved with an almost negligent summarising, and part of it is resolved unsatisfactorily, to my mind.It was, however, worth the read; the air of mystery and menace were skilfully handled, and I enjoyed each and every character encountered. I read Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon only last year, and rate that much more highly, but Wylder’s Hand is still a reasonably engaging work of classic crime fiction.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A rather underwhelming and weak mystery novel, marred as well by inconsistencies in the narrative voice, as it switches unnanouced from a first person witness narrative to an omniscient one.