This is an early collection of short tales by this Irish author, though published anonymously in Dublin in 1851. Several of these stories later formed the basis of other, sometimes more famous stories and novels, though not always for the better in my view. I highly rated three of the four tales, but was equivocal about the fourth, which was effectively a full length novel and longer than the other three put together.

The Watcher - I have read a later version of this story under a different name "The Familiar" in the author's more famous collection In A Glass Darkly. It's an atmospheric tale of a man haunted to death by mysterious footsteps and an aggressive and angry figure that approaches him in various places. His psyche disintegrates and he eventually dies horribly after one final encounter.

The Murdered Cousin; or, Footsteps in the Lobby - this short story was an early version of the author's most famous full length novel Uncle Silas. A young lady who is ward to her reclusive uncle is trapped by him and his son into agreeing to a forced marriage with the latter, but bravely holds out even when the pressure turns to murder for her inheritance. I think this works better as a short story than as a novel actually.

Schalken the Painter - I read this story 15 years ago in a collection of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories. It's a chilling story of a forced marriage contract between the title character's sweetheart and an unearthly figure who appears suddenly and offers the painter's master, who is the girl's uncle, gold for her hand in marriage. Chilling and effective.

The Evil Guest - this is a much longer story, a full length effectively, about a murder mystery and growing tensions between a set of characters, and an atmosphere of horror, bitterness and betrayal. I thought this was overlong and a bit confusing and nowhere near as good as the shorter tales in this collection. Sometimes less is more. This was also expanded even further in a novel A Lost Name, which I am far from sure I will ever read. ( )