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A review by nataliesboooks
Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
2.0
The plot in a nutshell: "Title character tries to get ahold of his niece's money. He fails."
If I've learned one thing from reading this, it's that Wilkie Collins is the master of the Sensation Fiction genre. LeFanu, not so much. Barely at all, really.
Wealthy heiress Maude is sent to live with her Uncle Silas after her father dies. She has inherited her father's estate, but if she dies before coming of age, her uncle gets everything. Maude's father made that change to his will because he trusted his brother (he alone also believed Silas innocent of murdering a man to whom Silas owed money).
And then ... not much happens until the end.
I personally couldn't stand Maude. She's weak and helpless, crying and blushing all the time. She's also completely naive. She doesn't realize that Silas is after her money until the very end and she's completely shocked by this revelation.
And let's talk about Silas's plan, shall we? I was expecting a wonderful villain like Count Fosco from The Woman in White. Silas just fails as a bad guy. He tries to marry Maude off to his son (not realizing the son is already married so that plan doesn't work) and then kills the wrong person when Maude's governess is sleeping in her bed. He also wasn't intimidating in the slightest. Maude describes him as sweet and kind so my mental image was of a Mr Magoo type rather than, I don't know, a Hannibal Lecter type. (Now THAT would have been scary!)
The ending was completely rushed. It felt like LeFanu was out of ideas and killed off Silas with an accidental drug overdose, leaving Maude free to marry and get on with her life.
Part 1 started off strong, Part 2 was dull and unnecessary, and Part 3 didn't get interesting until the last 50 pages. Overall, this book could easily have been cut in half.
I was excited to read this because I enjoyed LeFanu's lesbian vampire novel Carmilla, and I love sensation fiction in general, but this one was blah.
If I've learned one thing from reading this, it's that Wilkie Collins is the master of the Sensation Fiction genre. LeFanu, not so much. Barely at all, really.
Wealthy heiress Maude is sent to live with her Uncle Silas after her father dies. She has inherited her father's estate, but if she dies before coming of age, her uncle gets everything. Maude's father made that change to his will because he trusted his brother (he alone also believed Silas innocent of murdering a man to whom Silas owed money).
And then ... not much happens until the end.
I personally couldn't stand Maude. She's weak and helpless, crying and blushing all the time. She's also completely naive. She doesn't realize that Silas is after her money until the very end and she's completely shocked by this revelation.
And let's talk about Silas's plan, shall we? I was expecting a wonderful villain like Count Fosco from The Woman in White. Silas just fails as a bad guy. He tries to marry Maude off to his son (not realizing the son is already married so that plan doesn't work) and then kills the wrong person when Maude's governess is sleeping in her bed. He also wasn't intimidating in the slightest. Maude describes him as sweet and kind so my mental image was of a Mr Magoo type rather than, I don't know, a Hannibal Lecter type. (Now THAT would have been scary!)
The ending was completely rushed. It felt like LeFanu was out of ideas and killed off Silas with an accidental drug overdose, leaving Maude free to marry and get on with her life.
Part 1 started off strong, Part 2 was dull and unnecessary, and Part 3 didn't get interesting until the last 50 pages. Overall, this book could easily have been cut in half.
I was excited to read this because I enjoyed LeFanu's lesbian vampire novel Carmilla, and I love sensation fiction in general, but this one was blah.