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alrauna's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
saraneyd's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
reading_for_pluto's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting and Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol, Stalking, and Physical abuse
frankensteinscreature's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
It is a terrible shame that this book is so long. Le Fanu is most definitely more talented when it comes to the short story, I struggled to read this book because of its slow pacing, almost nothing at all happens until the last 60 pages, but those last 60 pages are rather wonderful. It was a very predictable ending, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
koki_siringo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mary_juleyre's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Stalking
Minor: Death and Murder
grubstlodger's review against another edition
4.0
I had difficulty getting into Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas. One reason was that I succumbed to a lurgy about the same time I started and it was one of those feverish, achey ones, making it difficult to concentrate. Another was the fact that the source of danger in the book seemed so diffuse that it was hard to anticipate where the action in the book may come from. It would seem obvious that danger comes from the titular uncle but our heroine, Maud, doesn’t meet him until half-way through the book. Instead, everything in Maud’s world seemed a bit strange and threatening.
I suspect the intention in making the whole world of the book a little ‘off’ was to produce a feeling of paranoia in the reader but, for me, it lead me to being apathetic to the threats which seemed both omnipresent and a little too far away to harm our protagonist. Maud grows up in rural seclusion with her father, a man that she reassures the reader a number of times is a lovely, loving and perfectly harmless man, though a little eccentric. However, he seems subtly threatening. He’s immediately othered as a Swedenborgian, rather than orthodox Anglican. His confidant, Mr Bryerly, who proves himself a solid and trustworthy man throughout the book, is also a Swedenborgian, who explains death to the young Maud in ways that creep her out. There’s also something stiff about his address, sinister about his always ill-fitting black suit that actually don’t point to anything sinister about him.
Then there’s Madame Rougierre. She’s painted clearly as a villain and a threat. She’s sly and disingenuous, Maud knows her father is near when Madame Rougierre is nice to her. She’s also a bully to the servants, drinks a great deal of brandy, is poor at her stated job as governess and even breaks Maud’s finger to assert dominance. Madame Rougierre also seems to be under somebody’s employ to get Maud kidnapped. She takes her to an out of the way churchyard where a pushy man is, then she leads Maud across a threatening party of people who offer to give her a ride and become violent when she says no. Even stranger, Maud’s father refuses to listen to bad words against Madame Rougierre until proved beyond doubt that she’s a bad person - it’s almost as if he’s complicit with her in some way. It’s never explicitly stated, but I think Madame Rougierre was hired on the recommendation of Uncle Silas with the aim of kidnapping Maud and forcing her into marriage with his son, Dudley. Maud’s father then refuses to believe the worst of her because it would cast doubt on his brother, Silas.
Maud’s father has been mysteriously referring to a long journey and the importance of a sideboard when that journey is taken. It turns out this is his obtuse (and Swedenborgian?) reference to his death and the sideboard contains his will. The will includes a strange request, that Maud lives with Uncle Silas for three years until she comes of age. It further states that if Maud dies in this time, all his wealth will go to Silas. The reason for this is that Silas has lived a dissolute life and a man killed himself during a stay at his house. As Silas owed the man money, the gossips all said that Silas killed him, even though the man died in a locked room. The condition in the will is intended as a way of clearing Silas of suspicion, the temptation to kill Maud for the wealth would be true strong for a truly evil person, so if he manages not to kill her in three years, he must be good.
So Maud goes to Uncle Silas’s house. He’s a desiccated weirdo with an opium addiction that leads him to be comatose for days at a time. His daughter, Milly is Maud’s age but has been left to roam wild, possessing no education and the manners of a country bumpkin. It reminds me of what Heathcliff does to Hareton, denying them their position. From this point on, I was more engaged by the book, though seemingly powerless, the danger to Maud is clearer and the text feels less meandering. There are secret entrances, drugged wine, sinister plots and the wonderfully slippery character of Uncle Silas. While he can never totally hide his evilness, his mask his almost good enough to take him as powerless but never enough to relax completely.
One of the more peculiar elements was the return of Madame Rougierre. While she seemed the chief antagonist at the beginning of the book, she now is something of a fall-guy or patsy. Her ultimate fate in the novel is strange considering the power she initially had.
Once the book found its groove (or more accurately, once I found its groove), this was an enjoyable book. Perhaps it was not as gripping as The Woman in White, being a little stranger and more slippery but there were some wonderfully believably-unbelievable moments, which are some of the real pleasures in this kind of fiction. I did find Maud a weaker heroine than others in this genre though. The stereotype is that all women in gothic/sensation novels are weaklings who soon a lot but they are often stronger and more resourceful than are given credit. Maud, though not a complete weakling, is extremely innocent and childlike and the other characters treated her as a child throughout. The fact she was narrating this from middle-age also cut the tension a certain amount.
I suspect the intention in making the whole world of the book a little ‘off’ was to produce a feeling of paranoia in the reader but, for me, it lead me to being apathetic to the threats which seemed both omnipresent and a little too far away to harm our protagonist. Maud grows up in rural seclusion with her father, a man that she reassures the reader a number of times is a lovely, loving and perfectly harmless man, though a little eccentric. However, he seems subtly threatening. He’s immediately othered as a Swedenborgian, rather than orthodox Anglican. His confidant, Mr Bryerly, who proves himself a solid and trustworthy man throughout the book, is also a Swedenborgian, who explains death to the young Maud in ways that creep her out. There’s also something stiff about his address, sinister about his always ill-fitting black suit that actually don’t point to anything sinister about him.
Then there’s Madame Rougierre. She’s painted clearly as a villain and a threat. She’s sly and disingenuous, Maud knows her father is near when Madame Rougierre is nice to her. She’s also a bully to the servants, drinks a great deal of brandy, is poor at her stated job as governess and even breaks Maud’s finger to assert dominance. Madame Rougierre also seems to be under somebody’s employ to get Maud kidnapped. She takes her to an out of the way churchyard where a pushy man is, then she leads Maud across a threatening party of people who offer to give her a ride and become violent when she says no. Even stranger, Maud’s father refuses to listen to bad words against Madame Rougierre until proved beyond doubt that she’s a bad person - it’s almost as if he’s complicit with her in some way. It’s never explicitly stated, but I think Madame Rougierre was hired on the recommendation of Uncle Silas with the aim of kidnapping Maud and forcing her into marriage with his son, Dudley. Maud’s father then refuses to believe the worst of her because it would cast doubt on his brother, Silas.
Maud’s father has been mysteriously referring to a long journey and the importance of a sideboard when that journey is taken. It turns out this is his obtuse (and Swedenborgian?) reference to his death and the sideboard contains his will. The will includes a strange request, that Maud lives with Uncle Silas for three years until she comes of age. It further states that if Maud dies in this time, all his wealth will go to Silas. The reason for this is that Silas has lived a dissolute life and a man killed himself during a stay at his house. As Silas owed the man money, the gossips all said that Silas killed him, even though the man died in a locked room. The condition in the will is intended as a way of clearing Silas of suspicion, the temptation to kill Maud for the wealth would be true strong for a truly evil person, so if he manages not to kill her in three years, he must be good.
So Maud goes to Uncle Silas’s house. He’s a desiccated weirdo with an opium addiction that leads him to be comatose for days at a time. His daughter, Milly is Maud’s age but has been left to roam wild, possessing no education and the manners of a country bumpkin. It reminds me of what Heathcliff does to Hareton, denying them their position. From this point on, I was more engaged by the book, though seemingly powerless, the danger to Maud is clearer and the text feels less meandering. There are secret entrances, drugged wine, sinister plots and the wonderfully slippery character of Uncle Silas. While he can never totally hide his evilness, his mask his almost good enough to take him as powerless but never enough to relax completely.
One of the more peculiar elements was the return of Madame Rougierre. While she seemed the chief antagonist at the beginning of the book, she now is something of a fall-guy or patsy. Her ultimate fate in the novel is strange considering the power she initially had.
Once the book found its groove (or more accurately, once I found its groove), this was an enjoyable book. Perhaps it was not as gripping as The Woman in White, being a little stranger and more slippery but there were some wonderfully believably-unbelievable moments, which are some of the real pleasures in this kind of fiction. I did find Maud a weaker heroine than others in this genre though. The stereotype is that all women in gothic/sensation novels are weaklings who soon a lot but they are often stronger and more resourceful than are given credit. Maud, though not a complete weakling, is extremely innocent and childlike and the other characters treated her as a child throughout. The fact she was narrating this from middle-age also cut the tension a certain amount.
forever_fantasy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0