J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Victorian master of shadowy terrors, is the undisputed prince of ghost story writers. While M. R. James may be their king, even Monty paid homage to his Irish inspiration, reviving Le Fanu’s reputation (by reprinting his stories in a 1923 anthology), and modelling many (if not most) of his more famous tales off of Le Fanu’s pattern. His ghost stories were chilling, and his ghosts were terrifyingly original — invasive, intrusive, aggressive: they left their spaces and turned the mortal world into a shadowy, liminal territory. These are not ghosts who appear before your eyes like images from a projector, reenact an evil deed, then fade to black: they stand by your bed and take hold of your foot while gazing lustfully into your eyes. They are carnal, carnivorous, and conspicuous. They reach out of the past and thrust your head under the current of time.
