Guy Deverell, Volume I and II

by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Book Overview

The pretty little posting station, known as the Plough Inn, on the Old London Road, where the Sterndale Road crosses it, was in a state of fuss and awe, at about five o'clock on a fine sharp October evening, for Sir Jekyl Marlowe, a man of many thousand acres, and M.P. for the county, was standing with his back to the fire, in the parlour, whose bow-window looks out on the ancient thoroughfare I have mentioned, over the row of scarlet geraniums which beautify the window-stone.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1515310167
• ISBN13: 9781515310167
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Old Dark Houses and Gothic Castles

I am writing this review on Labor Day, 2023. On one of the television stations, there is a barrage of Old Dark House movies from the late 1930s and early 1940s: _The Cat and the Canary_ (with Bob Hope and Paulette Godard), _The Ghost Breakers_ (also with Hope and Goddard), _Murder, He Says_ (with Fred MacMurray and Helen Walker), and _Horror Island_ (with Peggy Moran). I have also been reading J.S. Le Fanu's novel, _Guy Deverell_ (1865), which features an Old Dark House-- though not exactly the same kind of O.D.H. as in the movies listed above. It is a touch less sensational and comic, a bit more realistic and psychological. Late in life, Le Fanu was plagued by a recurring nightmare in which an old house was threatening to collapse on him. This novel was the result. One of the central characters is Sir Jeckyl Marlowe, M.P., a landowner who is outwardly jovial (especially to women), but who seems to be a rather deceptive chap with a shady past. He has little knowledge of other ruins of Gothic houses on his estate but is more than ready to assign guests in his own house to rooms that he knows are dangerous and deadly. He is threatened by Monsieur Varbarriere (an old enemy of his) and his nephew, who calls himself Guy Strangeways. He is also sharply criticised by his mother-in-law, who has no love for him at all. There is a lot of table talk, arguments in bedrooms, and croquet games. But there is also a growing feeling of impending doom.