Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73) was a highly original author of fantastic fiction – novels and short stories – and a key in Irish conservative poitics during the first half o the Victorian age. This outstanding biography, appearing in a new paperback edition with fresh appendix matter, explores the contradictions of his achievement. ‘It can be thoroughly recommended.’ – John Arden, New Statesman. ‘One of the qualitites of this excellent studies is the train of associations which is provokes. It is far from more than a revaluation of Le Fanu, though this is incidentally provided in a discriminating and scholarly way … The massive hint is, as with ‘Ulysses’, in the title ‘Victorian Ireland’ … it is the world which Dr Mc Cormack illuminates, along with the more private and tortured uiverse of Le Fanu himself.’ – Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement