Uncle Silas
(J. Sheridan Le Fanu)
AbstractJ. Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle SilasPerhaps one of the most terrifying Gothic novels of all time is J. S. Le Fanu's Uncle Silas. Like many Gothic novels, Le Fanu uses the themes of the evil house, and the violation of family ties in order to shock the reader.Once she is orphaned, the waif-like Maud Ruthyn is sent, at the instructions of her deceased father, to live with his brother, Silas, whom Maud's father hasn't seen for many years, and whom Maud never met. Her Uncle Silas' estate at Bartraum-Haugh, is an isolated crumbling mansion filled with long, lonely corridors. It is surrounded by woods and wild, unkempt vegetation. Uncle Silas, a man with a shady past, clothes his latently evil character in religious fanaticism. He is a cadaverous-looking man, and as cold as a marble headstone. Silas is the father of an imbecile son and a mentally challenged, but harmless daughter. Maud perceives her Uncle Silas as something not quite of the world she knows. His deadly pale skin, dark eyes, and skeletal frame make him something akin to the vampire world. The severe, remote Silas is, it turns out, is more terrifying than the house, which seems to have taken on Silas' negative energy. Already fearful of her uncle, Maud is relentlessly stalked by the lying, stealthy, sinister Madame de la Rogierre, who is appointed her governess. As a member of the impoverished landed gentry, Silas schemes to get his hands on Maud's inheritance. When she refuses to marry his idot son, Dudley, Silas and Madame de la Rogierre, partners in crime, get more desperate.This dark novel is characterized from the outset, by its lingering atmosphere of impending doom.
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