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J. Sheridan Le Fanu Quotes

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are Uncle Silas, Carmilla, and The House by the Churchyard. Wikipedia  

✵ 28. August 1814 – 7. February 1873   •   Other names شریدان ل فان
J. Sheridan Le Fanu photo

Works

Carmilla
Carmilla
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Uncle Silas
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
In a Glass Darkly
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
J. Sheridan Le Fanu: 13   quotes 6   likes

Famous J. Sheridan Le Fanu Quotes

“Nevertheless, life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Carmilla

Source: Carmilla

“But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Carmilla

Source: Carmilla

“I remember everything about it—with an effort. I see it all, as divers see what is going on above them, through a medium, dense, rippling, but transparent.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Carmilla

Source: Carmilla

“But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Carmilla

Variant: Thus fortified I might take my rest in peace. But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exists and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.
Source: Carmilla

“but curiosity is a restless and scrupulous passion, and no one girl can endure, with patience, that hers should be baffled by another.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Carmilla

Source: Carmilla

J. Sheridan Le Fanu Quotes

“Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae, don't you see - each with their peculiar propensities, necessities and structure.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Carmilla

Source: Carmilla

World , Girl , Summer

“What a fool I was! and yet, in the sight of angels, are we any wiser as we grow older? It seems to me, only, that our illusions change as we go on; but, still, we are madmen all the same.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book In a Glass Darkly

Source: In a Glass Darkly

Fools , Angels , Change

“He has attained supremacy in one particular line: he succeeds in inspiring a mysterious terror better than any other writer.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu

M. R. James "The Novels and Stories of J. Sheridan Le Fanu" (1923). http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveLeFanu.html
Criticism

“How marvellously lie our anxieties, in filmy layers, one over the other! Take away that which has lain on the upper surface for so long – the care of cares – the only one, as it seemed to you, between your soul and the radiance of Heaven – and straight you find a new stratum there.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Uncle Silas

Source: Uncle Silas (1864), Ch. 53

Lie , Soul

“There comes with old age a time when the heart is no longer fusible or malleable, and must retain the form in which it has cooled down.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Uncle Silas

Conclusion
Uncle Silas (1864)

Age , Time , Heart

“The world," he resumed after a short pause, "has no faith in any man's conversion; it never forgets what he was, it never believes him anything better, it is an inexorable and stupid judge.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Uncle Silas

Source: Uncle Silas (1864), Ch. 47

Stupidity , World , Faith , Forgetting

“There is no dealing with great sorrow as if it were under the control of our wills. It is a terrible phenomenon, whose laws we must study, and to whose conditions we must submit, if we would mitigate it.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Uncle Silas

Source: Uncle Silas (1864), Ch. 21

Law , Study

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