Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
By (Author) Aoife Mary Dempsey
University of Wales Press
University of Wales Press
26th April 2022
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
823.8
Hardback
224
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
An exploration of the work of Victorian Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.
This book considers the fiction of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (18141873) in material and cultural contexts of the early to mid-Victorian period in Ireland. Aoife Mary Dempsey shows how Le Fanus longstanding relationship with the Dublin University Magazine, a popular literary and political journal, must be seen as a crucial context for the examination of his work. She considers Le Fanus fiction as part of a wider surge of supernatural, historical, and antiquarian activity by Irish Protestants in the period following the 1801 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. In light of Le Fanus habit of writing and rewriting stories, a practice that has engendered much confusion and consternation, Dempsey compares posthumous collections of Le Fanus work with original publications, demonstrating the importance of these material and cultural contexts. This book reveals new critical readings of some of Le Fanus best-known fiction, while also casting light on some of his regrettably overlooked work through recontextualization.
Aoife Mary Dempsey is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. She received her doctorate from TCD in 2018 for the submission of her thesis on J. S. Le Fanu.