Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, an initiator of the psychological thriller

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, an important figure in the world of supernatural literature, was born in Ireland and as a writer could never escape his Irish origin. In his short stories the themes as well as the characters are Irish and in his novels the atmosphere is definitely Irish. The Irish people furnished Le Fanu with a never ending source for the psychological study of characters of his novels. His power of penetration into the human mind was enhanced by his own neurosis and his personal grief (when his wife died he became a recluse). His neurosis and his grief also caused his novels to become more indepth studies of death, murder and retribution. The strength of his stories lies in the fact that they are based on his own experience. The bases for his weirdly horrible tales, specifically the novels Uncle Silas, Checkmate, Wylder's Hand and Willing to Die are the following: one, the reader shares in the hallucinations and premonitions of the victim, two, he also shares in the identity of the agent of terror