Dover's 1975 Ghost stories and Mysteries [of J. Sheridan LeFanu, (more usually spelled 'Le Fanu')], is a companion volume to their 1964 Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu. According to the introduction by Mr. E. F. Bleiler, all of Le Fanu's ghost stories were in print in those two books.

This collection contains:

'The Room in the Dragon Volant' ****

The year is 1815, and our reasonably rich Mr. Beckett is making his first visit to France. He encounters the ugly old Nicholas de la Marque, Count de St. Alyre, and his beautiful countess, Eugenie, on his way to Paris. He also meets the Marquis d'Harmonville, who is on a mysterious mission, and therefore going by the alias of Monsieur Droqville. Still another meeting is with the boastful Colonel Gaillarde.

Richard can't get the beautiful countess out of his mind. The marquis not only directs him to the inn known as Le Dragon Volant, but gives him a card to attend a masked party at the palace of Versailles. There Richard learns more about the countess from her best friend, who sets up a meeting with the lovely lady.

Richard's servant, St. Clair, has already told him about two gentlemen who had been staying at the Dragon Volant and mysteriously vanished before the eyes of the other guests. Both of them had the very room that Richard has been given.

Richard winds up in dire peril, which the reader will figure out well before he does. If there's any fault to this mystery novella, it's that we are hearing it from Richard as an old man. The dire peril scene is very well written, but it would have been better if we were left to wonder IF he would survive, not how it would be managed.

'Laura Silver Bell'***½

This is a fairy story. Laura Lew is the pretty foster daughter of Farmer Lew, who has reared her as his own since her mother died. She wears her mother's little silver bell around her neck.

Farmer Lew has been a good father in all respects but one: he hasn't had Laura baptized yet. This means the fairies can have power over her.

Mall Carke was the midwife at Laura's birth and we see the story through her eyes. She warns Laura that her sweetheart isn't what she thinks he is. Can Mall Carke keep the 17-year-old safe until she can be baptized the next Sunday? Can she keep herself safe from the mysterious man in black?

Fair warning: some of the dialog is in dialect form.

'Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling' ****

Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling' was an English sinner who married for money and broke his poor Irish wife's heart. When she died, he came home drunk to find her faithful old servant and some other old women having a wake. He snatches the candle from his late wife's hand. It was a holy candle and the old servant curses him.

Walshawe dies, unrepentant, in 1822, His heir is the nameless narrator's uncle, Mr. Watson of Haddlestone. Mr. Watson comes to inspect his inheritance. To his vexation, some important papers are missing. The heir goes to bed and we get to see if the curse came true.

I certainly would have been terrified had I been in Mr. Watson's place.

'Ghost Stories of Chapelizod': ****

'The Village Bully': Bully Larkin as good as murdered Long Ned Moran in a fist fight. He lives to regret the deed.

''The Sexton's Adventure': Bob Martin stops boozing so much after a friend's suicide (which was partly his doing). Will he keep his promise to his wife when offered some whiskey?

Note: I believe, based on its use in another story in this book, that 'bliggard' is dialect for 'blaggard,' which is a variant of 'blackguard,' or scoundrel..

'The Spectre Lovers': Peter Brien is a lazy slob who has a vision and meets the ghosts of lovers. I felt sorry for the woman. Will no one return her treasure to her? By the way, I believe that when the author states that Peter's grandmother is at fault, he's using it in the old hunting term sense of being baffled.

'The Child That Went With the Fairies' ***

This story has its dialog written in Irish dialect. I've read enough old stories to know that 'aisy' is 'easy' and 'craythurs' is 'creatures,' but I can't figure out all of the words. That didn't keep me from getting the sense of the story, which has great atmosphere.

A very poor widow named Moll Mary Ryan lives in a very lonely area of Ireland, much too close to the fairy hill of Lisnavoura. ('Moll' appears to be used here as we would use 'Ms.' -- none of the female characters known as Moll [surname] in this book are depicted as criminals, prostitutes, or women of loose morals.)

Moll Ryan's house is amply protected against supernatural menaces (I hadn't known about the house leek's value in that regard). Unfortunately, she went to gather bog turf (peat), leaving her eldest, Nell, to cook the dinner and mind the three much younger children, Con, Peg, and Billy. Nell was not cautioned to sprinkle holy water on her little siblings before letting them out to play and she didn't think to do it.

Sure enough, only two of the littlest Ryans come home. How one of them was taken by a fairy princess makes for a good story. (I didn't care for the description of the black woman in the coach with the princess. If she were not almost certainly a supernatural creature, I'd consider it racist.)

'Stories of Lough Guir'***

Before retelling the five extremely short stories Miss Anne Baily told him when he was a boy, Mr. Le Fanu writes about her and a couple of relics in the Baily house.

'The Magician Earl': This is the story about how the Earl of Desmond and his castle sank to the bottom of the lake, and how he tried to trick a blacksmith.

'Moll Rial's Adventure': A young girl is washing clothes in the lake when she meets a grand-looking gentleman. The description of how clothes were washed back then (the 'beetle' sounds worse than a washboard), made me wonder just how clean they got.

'The Banshee': Miss Anne told about her only personal experience of the family banshee. ('Consumption' is an old name for tuberculosis.)

'The Governess's Dream': She dreamed about a man telling her where he had buried a treasure, but can she convince Mr. Baily to search for it?

'The Earl's Hall': The same governess has a terrifying experience.

The Vision of Tom Chuff ***½

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?

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.

'The Drunkard's Dream' ***

One November Father Purcell is roused from bed because a little girl is crying that her father is dead or dying. What's particularly sad is that the child is afraid he won't come to give the Last Rites if he knows her father is Pat Connell, the alcoholic carpenter.

Of course he goes with her anyway. The Connell family has fallen on hard times. They've moved to the poor and smelly part of town, but the girl is grateful that they have food and a place to live, even though neither is very good.

Tom Connell describes his nightmare and it's scary. He decides to reform and pay off all of his debts. He even repairs the unsafe steps that were part of his nightmare. Then he meets an old friend...

There's some good atmosphere in this story, but I feel that the editor erred in placing it directly after 'The Vision of Tom Chuff', which is too similar in plot. (The Tom Chuff story was published 32 years later. His vision is worse than Pat's dream.)

Dickon the Devil***

The story is being told by an unnamed narrator who is acting for two sisters, the Misses Dymock. Twenty years ago they inherited Barwyke Hall in Lancashire when old Squire Bowers died without making a will.

The Squire was a mild-mannered man when he was alive. Dead, his ghost doesn't take kindly to the fact that two relatives he couldn't stand inherited his estate.

The narrator meets a lunatic called 'Dickon the devil'. After that, and an unexpected night visitor to his room in Barwyke Hall, he gets the reluctant under-steward Tom Wyndsour to tell him what's going on.

The descriptions are good and the story of how Dickson came to be known as 'the devil' is sad, but I could have done with more of the ghost.

'The Ghost and the Bone-Setter' ***

After the story mentions an interesting superstition about what happens to the most recently buried corpse in a churchyard until another corpse is buried, we get the actual plot.

The story is told in Irish dialect. The person telling it is the teacher son of Terry Neil the bone-setter.

It seems that Sir Phelim's castle is haunted by the spirit of his grandfather, the old squire. Whenever the family is away, one of their tenants has to sit in the room where the old squire's portrait is hanging, or the ghost emerges from it and causes mischief.

This night it's Terry Neil's turn. He's managed to get Lawrence the steward to sit with him, but old Larry falls asleep. Terry has to deal with the ghost by himself. (The story is using 'quare' [queer] in its old meaning of being odd or strange. For the supposed use of the 'n' word as an adjective, add a 'd' between the 'r' and the 'ly' and you'll get an old word for stingy, which is the word meant.)

This story is meant to be humorous. Parts of it are. I do not find humor in persons of lower social class misusing big words and not realizing how they're contradicting themselves. Still, I was amused by the plot and something the ghost let slip..

'A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family' ****

According to Mr. Bleiler's introduction, this story has been cited as a source for a famous novel. Unlike Mr. Bleiler, I won't name that novel. I think anyone who knows the plot of that classic will too easily guess what's going on in this story.

Our unfortunate heroine, Fanny, was the younger of two daughters, the only children of a rich man of county Tyrone. Her father never forgave her for not being a son, and her mother was very worldly. This takes place back when travel took a long time. You could send letters, but there were no phone calls, e-mail, or Skype. That made it harder for a woman in danger to get help.

Mrs. Richardson starts looking for a husband for Fanny when the girl was only 16. Much to the mother's pleasure, a Lord Glenfallen wants to marry her daughter..

After the wedding, the couple go to one of the Glenfallen estates, Cahergillagh. I loved Lord Glenfallen's description of the place as they're arriving.

Fanny sees something mysterious when she's about to enter their rooms. Old Martha the housekeeper is frightened when she hears about it. Old Martha saw it herself when she was a child and something bad happened. Something bad always happens when a Glenfallen or one of their people sees the mysterious thing.

About a month later, Fanny finds a middle-aged blind woman in her bedroom. They have a most unpleasant conversation. Afterward, Fanny discovers her husband's personality changing for the worse.

A second conversation with the blind woman is scarier. It seems as if the mysterious vision might be a true omen.

After reading this story, I can believe it inspired that classic novel. I feel very sorry for young Fanny.

'The Murdered Cousin' ****

According to Mr. Bleiler's introduction, this is a slightly altered version of Le Fanu's 1938 story, 'Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess' that was later expanded into his famous locked room mystery, Uncle Silas.

Margaret Tyrrell's father's younger brother, Sir Arthur Tyrrell, was addicted to gambling. He'd lost most of his fortune that way when the rich Hugh Tisdall (a gentleman in name only) was murdered while visiting Sir Arthur. This happened shortly before the countess was born. Sir Arthur was tried only in public opinion, but the scandal has been hard on the family reputation.

The countess' father believed in his brother's innocence, so he left his daughter to Sir Arthur's guardianship after his death. She was 18 years old, but the story takes place when a person was not considered to be a full adult until the age of 21. The will leaves everything to Sir Arthur if the countess died childless. Her father expected her to still be alive after living with her uncle and his family for three years, thus showing how wrong people were to suspect Sir Arthur.

Margaret finds her uncle striking, her cousin Emily a dear companion, and her cousin Edward a jerk. Edward is so clueless as to imagine that his courtship of his rich cousin is being done properly. He can't even tell how much he disgusts her.

Sir Arthur wants Margaret to marry his son. When she refuses, she eventually gets locked in. Her Irish maid is dismissed and replaced with a rather sinister French maid. Margaret is no longer convinced of her uncle's innocence. How is she to be rescued?

'The Evil Guest'****

According to Mr. Bleiler, this is a adaptation, shorter & tighter, of 'Some Account of the Latter Days of the Hon. Richard Marston of Dunoran' The action has been switched from 18th century Ireland to 18th century England.

Our main character, the Honorable Richard Marston, is a monumental jerk. There are two big differences between him and his self-invited cousin, Sir Wynston E. Berkley, the baronet: Sir Wynston is a filthy rich bachelor. Richard is relatively poor, but has a loving wife, as well as two fine offspring.
This means one middle-aged man can't afford to indulge his taste for vice and the other can.

Sadly, Richard married Gertrude while he was madly infatuated. He stopped loving her years ago. She's a very good and noble woman who still has the traces of her former beauty. Her husband isn't worthy of her, but she still has faint hopes he'll one day love her again.

Luckily for the world, the kids take after their mother. Charles Marston is studying at Cambridge, but shows up for visits.

Rhoda is barely 15 when the story opens. She has a sexy young governess named Mademoiselle de Barras, whose aristocratic family is ruined. Mrs. Marston treats the governess as a friend rather than a servant.

There's plenty of interesting psychology shown among the characters, especially Richard Marston. We see by what steps they destroy or save themselves. The worst characters get their comeuppance, although the best comeuppance is only hinted at. I wanted the details.

'The Mysterious Lodger'****

According to the introduction, this was originally published anonymously in 'Dublin University Magazine' in 1850. The classic ghost-story writer M. R. James was the first to declare that it was Le Fanu's work. After reading the collection, I agree with Mr. Bleiler that Le Fanu didn't write it.

It's still a pretty good Victorian ghost story. The lodger and the cat he claims isn't there are definitely mysterious. I felt sorry for Richard, Gertrude, and their children, nine-year-old Fanny, and the son that they persist in calling 'the baby' though he is four years old.

The family needs a lodger because they have two years to pay back a loan that amounts to a bit more than half their annual income. The lodger offers half the amount of the loan for just six months. As the story unfolds, it's soon apparent that they would have been better off with their first applicant, even though the ailing clergyman offered a bit less than they wanted.

Gertrude would have gladly welcomed the clergyman because she's a devout Christian. Richard, on the other hand, is a self-proclaimed infidel. I admit that I hadn't known that one of the meanings of 'infidel' is 'atheist'. It's a cautionary tale that before she married him, Gertrude thought Richard's talk against religion was mere levity and that she could persuade him to be like herself.

While the bad things that happen to the little family could certainly have been written by Le Fanu, I'd have expected a different ending from him.

This wouldn't be a bad episode for one of those shows about hauntings.

By the way, this story uses 'sate' for 'sat,' 'shew' for 'show,' and 'gay' in in its original sense of being happy.

If you don't mind the Victorian writing style or Irish dialect, you should enjoy these stories. Please see their individual entries here at LibraryThing for
characters, places, last and first lines, etc. ( )

While this required me a tad of effort to read because of the formal language, I found most of the stories rather disturbing if not outright frightening. Certain themes are repeated in different stories, but the one most used is the virtue of faith triumphing over evil. What disturbed me the most are the visions of hell and the evil characters, but I am gladdened by the redeeming powers of faith in most of the stories. ( )