You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Le fanu wrote a great novel for it's day. by todays standards the story is slow and the plot rather obvious. But, the first 100 pages go quick the middle 200 are slow and the last 100 it's a page turner. By the last 100 pages one knows who is going to do it the question is how are he she going to commit the murder and how is our victim going to get away. Carmmilla has a better ending, but Uncle Silas is pretty good also.
More realistic than Walpole, Lewis, and Radcliffe, and with a snappier pace than Maturin and Brown, Le Fanu's Uncle Silas has easily become my favorite Gothic novel. This one has everything: dark, lichen-draped castles; sketchy peasants lurking in misty forest nooks; a plucky young heroine; an old, creepy French governess; a hint of the supernatural in the form of Swedenborgianism; a fairy tale-inspired plot; and a mysterious, ambiguous title character who swirls around the periphery, appearing only in a few chapters, but dominating the narrative. I was hooked immediately, burning through the pages like a teenager just discovering the pleasure of reading for the first time. Uncle Silas has made me want to stop all my reading and devour Gothic fiction this summer, starting with Le Fanu's The House by the Churchyard.
dark
tense
I was going to give this 2 stars because it was dreadfully boring BUT then the last 100-150 pages were so thrilling they literally made my heart race.
"The stream of life is black and angry; how so many of us get across without drowning, I often wonder."
The Victorians really knew how to rock psychological unease.
The Victorians really knew how to rock psychological unease.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fine gothic horror. Le Fanu promoted his novels as romances, in the tradition of Sir Walter Scott, but with 'Uncle Silas' he created a sly and suspenseful gothic horror. The novel was originally published in three volumes, but it is tightly written - with every scene and every observation of the characters vital to the atmosphere of the story and to the needs of the plot. That is something his contemporaries can rarely boast.
The novel is also a mixture, full of social commentary on county life in the 1840s, the widely different comedic stylings of Cousin Millie and Madame, and the fierce debates between Anglicanism and the increasing number of Protestant sects. The novel has layers that make it work on the highest levels.
Maud Ruthvyn has a lonely childhood with her father and a succession of governesses on their remote estate. Visitors are few and when she becomes curious about her father's estranged brother, Silas, she receives few answers. Her situation begins to change when her father hires a 'finishing' governess, but this woman is different than those who came before. Madame de la Rougierre is sinister and abusive, full of prying questions and after a series of unsavory incidents is finally dismissed.
On her father's death, Maud learns she is to spend the next few years as the ward of her mysterious Uncle Silas. Those she trusts have objections to the situation, but she again receives no information. As a young heiress going to live with strange relations, the reader can guess what is coming Maud's way, but Le Fanu skillfully spreads doubt and conjures suspense. 'Uncle Silas' is not merely a succession of dark nights and terror, Maud and her cousin Millie have many pleasant afternoons, but is a sharply written description of a place and situation that was and is terrifying because of its reality.
The novel is also a mixture, full of social commentary on county life in the 1840s, the widely different comedic stylings of Cousin Millie and Madame, and the fierce debates between Anglicanism and the increasing number of Protestant sects. The novel has layers that make it work on the highest levels.
Maud Ruthvyn has a lonely childhood with her father and a succession of governesses on their remote estate. Visitors are few and when she becomes curious about her father's estranged brother, Silas, she receives few answers. Her situation begins to change when her father hires a 'finishing' governess, but this woman is different than those who came before. Madame de la Rougierre is sinister and abusive, full of prying questions and after a series of unsavory incidents is finally dismissed.
On her father's death, Maud learns she is to spend the next few years as the ward of her mysterious Uncle Silas. Those she trusts have objections to the situation, but she again receives no information. As a young heiress going to live with strange relations, the reader can guess what is coming Maud's way, but Le Fanu skillfully spreads doubt and conjures suspense. 'Uncle Silas' is not merely a succession of dark nights and terror, Maud and her cousin Millie have many pleasant afternoons, but is a sharply written description of a place and situation that was and is terrifying because of its reality.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced