SOURCE: "LeFanu the Novelist," in Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Bucknell University Press, 1971, pp. 46-83.

In the following excerpt, Begnal praises Le Fanu's contributions to Irish literature, particularly the four novels Le Fanu wrote between 1863 and 1865.

Emerging from the early years of LeFanu's seclusion were the four most powerful and consistent novels which he was to write: The House by the Churchyard (1863), Wylder's Hand and Uncle Silas (both published in book form in 1864), and Guy Deverell (1865). Though different in their intents, they display LeFanu the novelist at the high point of his career in the strengths of their characterizations and the masterful control of their plots. They are not merely thrillers or "sensation novels"; rather, these works are attempts at insights into both the individual psyche and the spirit at the heart of his contemporary society. They rely for their strengths on the exploration of personality, rather than on a...