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''Well, a corpse is a natural thing; but this was the dreadfullest sight I ever sid...''Sheridan Le Fanu is one of the indispensable figures in the history of Gothic and horror fiction-the most important such writer in English, certainly, between Poe and M. R. James. While a number of his sensation and mystery novels were popular with mid-Victorian readers, it was in shorter forms that he truly excelled, and most showed himself an innovator in the field of uncanny fiction. Tales such as ''Carmilla'' and ''Green Tea'' prompted M. R. James to remark, ''he succeeds in inspiring a mysterious terror better than any other writer''. This landmark critical edition includes the original versions of all five stories later collected in the superb In a Glass Darkly, along with seven equally chilling tales spanning the length of Le Fanu''s career, from ''Schalken the Painter'', a pioneering story of the walking dead, to ''Laura Silver Bell'', a haunting exploration of the dark side of fairy lore. Aaron Worth''s introduction discusses the paranoid, claustrophobic world of Le Fanu''s fiction as a counterpoint-one in its own way equally modern-to the cosmic horror tale as practiced by such writers as H. P. Lovecraft.