This new study seeks to explore the relations between reader and text across the span of Sheridan Le Fanu's career, placing his early work of the 1830s in context. Sage concentrates on the development in Le Fanu of hybrid forms, which mingle satire and comedy with Gothic horror, and also discusses the early work of Uncle Silas and Carmilla , giving space to the often neglected unpublished romances.

VICTOR SAGE is Professor of English at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. He is the author of Dividing Lines (short fiction); A Mirror For Larks and Black Shawl (novels). He has published widely on the Gothic tradition, and is the editor for Penguin Classic's of Maturin's Melmouth the Wanderer and Le Fanu's Uncle Silas.