The Purcell Papers — Volume 2

Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 1814-1873Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.7
Word count
207K words
Chapters
21

Tags

English Originals Horror and ThrillerForeign Literature Suspense ThrillerSocial ObservationLegendary LivesHuman NatureComplex HumanityPsychological InsightCriminal PsychologyDark AtmosphereGhost StoriesGothic Style

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Purcell Papers — Volume 2 by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuAuthor: Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 1814-1873,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: May 24, 2008

Editor's review

The Purcell Papers — Volume 2 is the second volume of a collection of short and medium-length stories assembled by the Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu under the framing device of "the Purcell Papers," and it is a fairly representative example of the Gothic and supernatural fiction tradition. Le Fanu excels at gradually building unease within plain rural narration, weaving together folklore, religious atmosphere, and supernatural suggestion; the pieces are short but carefully paced in atmosphere and often turn on an ending twist, and they have had a clear influence on later English-language ghost-story writing. This volume is distributed free by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook in the English literature category. It works well as an introduction to Victorian supernatural short fiction and equally well for readers studying the genealogy of the Gothic novel or wanting to read a story or two in odd moments. One caveat: this is the original English text, and the text is early, with a slower narrative pace that emphasizes atmosphere over strong plot; read it chiefly for the language and mood rather than expecting the fast-paced thrills of a modern horror novel.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read each piece independently and pause after each to look back at how atmosphere was built and how the ending twist was handled; there is no need to finish it in one sitting.
  2. When you meet archaic words and long sentences, read through once for the gist and then revisit key passages rather than looking up every word, which breaks the rhythm.
  3. For coursework or research, take notes as you read on narrative point of view, how supernatural elements are presented, and the folkloric sources.
  4. Reading it alongside Gothic short fiction from the same period makes it easier to see what is distinctive about Le Fanu's atmospheric craft.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? What reading level does it require? This is the original English public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg, with no Chinese parallel text or annotations. Readers with college-level English reading ability who can use a dictionary to handle archaic expressions and long sentences will find it fairly smooth; beginners are advised to read Chinese translations of Gothic short stories first and then come back to the original.
Can I start with Volume 2 without having read Volume 1? Yes. The stories in the Purcell Papers are relatively independent, and the volume numbers mainly reflect the framing arrangement and order of collection; the pieces do not depend on continuous plot. Starting directly with Volume 2 will not create comprehension problems, and you can go back to Volume 1 for the stories that interest you.
Are these stories scary? Are they suitable for bedtime reading? Le Fanu's approach leans on atmosphere and psychological suggestion and rarely relies on gore or sudden shocks; the horror comes from uncertainty and implication rather than blunt stimulation. Most pieces are short, and one story before bed is usually acceptable; if you are sensitive to supernatural atmosphere, read during the day and avoid reading several in a row alone in dim light.
How is the ebook formatted, and how do I get it? The book is offered free by Project Gutenberg, commonly in plain text and EPUB formats, and can be downloaded directly from its website. The plain-text version has no elaborate layout and is suitable for reading on a phone or e-reader with adjustable font size; different versions may vary slightly in paragraphing and punctuation, which is normal.

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About the author

Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 1814-1873 Author

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873) was a significant nineteenth-century writer of Gothic and supernatural fiction, with thirty works held in this collection. Public information about his life is limited, so his biography cannot be detailed here; his surviving works, however, show that his main focus was supernatural horror and psychological suspense. The representative work Carmilla broke new ground with its female vampire theme and influenced later writing in the genre; the stories in In a Glass Darkly present uncanny cases through a doctor's narration with ingenious structure; pieces such as Green Tea and Mr. Justice Harbottle weave everyday settings together with dark terror in a restrained yet gripping atmosphere. The novel Uncle Silas combines family secrets with Gothic suspense. His prose is notable for careful atmospheric build-up and for using rational narration to set off the inexplicable, and it has had a lasting influence on later horror literature.