According to Sheridan Le Fanu, he had published a shorter form of his novel Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh under the title “A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess”; reports as to where the story appeared vary. He explained the story’s publication in the “Preliminary Word” that prefaced the novel, ostensibly to be relieved of charges of plagiarism of his own work. Such a charge would likely never have been leveled, as he adopted as basis for his plot a familiar sequence: an evil older relative schemes to obtain the rightful inheritance of a young and helpless woman placed into his or her care.
In this instance, the relative is Uncle Silas, whose brother, Austin Ruthyn of Knowl, at his death places his only daughter, Maud, in his care. He does this even though Silas had been years before accused of murdering his wife; Ruthyn believes in his brother’s innocence. Maud, quite literally, becomes a pawn and even has foreknowledge of the fact that her father plans to use her to regain the family’s honor. He calculates that his action may convince an unbelieving world of Silas’s unjust censure by society, a commentary on the importance of family reputation in Ireland.
The first half of the book takes place at Maud’s home, in order to reinforce that Silas and Austin are foils. Where the widower Austin is the respected, although seldom seen, head of an ancient and traditional family, the widower Silas has two children he cares little for, his wife having died and he having been accused of her murder. Whereas Austin practices a social religion, following the teachings of Swedenborg with the guidance of his director, Dr. Bryerly, Silas has no spiritual beliefs. Even their places of abode greatly contrast. At her home of Knowl, Maud suffers isolation, must practice formalities, and adhere to many rules, while at Silas’s home, Bartram-Haugh, she is allowed to run wild in the woods on the grounds with her cousin Milly.
Although the change of environment at first seems for Maud’s betterment, heavy foreshadowing signals it will not be so. As Maud approaches her new home at night, with only a “filmy disc of the moon” as light, she cannot clearly make out its appearance. With the moon a traditional symbol of the female, readers understand that Maud, as the female protagonist, will be unable to cast light on the mystery she will find there. As her party passes a group of Gypsies, she notes “a couple of dark, withered crones, veritable witches,” signaling that forces beyond her understanding may control her fate, an idea confirmed when she purchases from one wild-looking girl a special brass pin designed to save her from “a malevolent spirit.”
At first, Maud enjoys her stay, exulting in the company of a young woman of her own age. Even Uncle Silas is not the threat she had anticipated, and she is able to ignore Milly’s annoying brother, Dudley. But as the plot progresses, readers understand the threat to Maud through contrivances similar to those found in Gothic Fiction, although mysticism is simply suggested and no true magic is involved. Le Fanu builds terror by forcing readers, like Maud, to wait for an inevitable tragedy to occur.
Eventually, Milly is sent to France, and Dudley begins pressing Maud to marry him. Dr. Byerly reappears to reverse Maud’s original impression of him as a man to be feared. Instead, she needs to fear the new governess, a woman her own father had refused to hire. When Uncle Silas employs Madame de la Rougierre, ostensibly as a companion in Milly’s absence, Maud fears for her future. The plot advances as Maud discovers Dudley was already married when his wife seeks him out. Now Maud understands that Silas and Dudley intend to take her fortune in any way possible. They kidnap her, spreading the word that she has traveled to France to be with Milly, and she assumes that she will die, then witnesses in a chilling scene the murder of the governess by Dudley, who mistakes her for Maud. Le Fanu skillfully describes the murder, which is actually only heard by Maud.
Maud remains a typically passive romance heroine, attempting to escape her fate by running blindly, with no particular escape plan. She sees Tom Brice approach, a person she felt had betrayed her, and tells the reader, “So it was vain: I was trapped, and all was over.” As it turns out, she had, with the reader, once again misjudged a character’s motives, and Brice is actually her protector. He has been sent by a devoted servant who learned of the plot against Maud and proves her salvation. Safely swept from danger by Brice, she returns home to testify against her family. Uncle Silas commits suicide, and Dudley is later identified living in secret in debauched surroundings.
Maud closes her first-person narrative describing a scene with her daughter and husband, along with a reminder to readers of the brief nature of life, which should be celebrated daily.
Le Fanu has never received the attention that contemporaries such as Wilkie Collins and other writers of Sensation Fiction enjoyed. He actually wrote that he feared dismissal of his novel due to misclassification as sensation fiction, deemed a work that depended on jarring readers’ emotions rather than challenging their intellect. However, later critics agree that it should be so labeled, and that such labeling does not detract from his skillful tension building. He did so using psychological terror, an approach later readers appreciated, avoiding graphic violence, dismemberment, and the overt sex scenes often used to titillate readers. The novel remains readily available in both print and electronic forms and was adapted to film in 1947.
Bibliography
Peterson, Audrey. Victorian Masters of Mystery: From Wilkie Collins to Conan Doyle. New York: F. Ungar Publication, 1984.
Sage, Victor. Le Fanu’s Gothic: The Rhetoric of Darkness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Sullivan, Jack. Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1978.
Categories: Mystery Fiction, Psychological Novels
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