I read the story,'The Vision of Tom Chuff' (1838), in Ghost Stories and Mysteries [of J. Sheridan LeFanu, (more usually spelled 'Le Fanu')]..

Tom Chuff is a poacher, a boozer, and a wife-beater. He also terrorizes his three children and his sister-in-law.

One night the drunken brute seems to be dying and the doctor is fetched. Tom comes out of his torpor to recount a terrifying vision he had, which involves a ghost and a supernatural creature. He's so frightened that he reforms.

It doesn't last. Will Tom's precautions to avoid the fate in his vision save him anyway?

Mention: John Bunyan [and his Pilgrim's Progress]

Tom Chuff's dialog is in dialect, so it's just as well he doesn't speak much. His effect on his family rings true to life, unfortunately. I rather wish that Nell Chuff's brother had been able to legally take her and her children away from Tom instead of just coming over to beat him up. We also get a glimpse of how Tom learned his ways from his late father.

The collection follows this story with 'The Drunkard's Dream,' a very similar tale published 32 years earlier. This version is more cynical and the vision is longer and more horrific. ( )