General Studies

Altner, Patricia. Vampire Readings:  An Annotated Bibliography.  Lanham, Maryland:  Scarecrow Press, 1998.

An annotated bibliography of vampire fiction that contains an entry on Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

Andriano, Joseph. Our Ladies of Darkness:  Feminine Daemenology in Male Gothic Fiction.  University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.

The book contains a revised version of the essay in Contours of the Fantastic (see below).  Andriano argies  that the "gender reversals in the vampire tale . . . reflect the confusion caused by the tension between archetypal androgyny--the instinctive tendency to gust opposites--and stereotypical dualism, the sociocultural tendency to polarize them."  Concludes that Le Fanu was writing obliquely about his own death.

Ascati, Maurizio.  A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational.  Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Studies the stories of In a Glass Darkly.  Argues that they "reassert the existence of a superior justice that works autonomously, without requiring any assistance from human agents."

Ashley, Leonard R.N.  The Complete Book of Vampires.  Barricade Books, 1998.

A study of the vampire in history, folklore, literature, and film.  Briefly discusses Le Fanu's lesbian vampire "Carmilla" and the films based on it.

Auerbach, Nina.  Our Vampires, Ourselves. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Carmilla is the first vampire in English literature in which the vampire is a friend and lover.

Backus, Margot Gayle.  The Gothic Family Romance:  Heterosexuality, Child Sacrifice, and the Anglo-Irish Colonial Order. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.

The narrator of Le Fanu's "Carmilla" "closely resembles the enclosed and isolated childhood of an Anglo-Irish girl.  Her family resembles an Anglo-Irish family in its internal dynamics, its ambivalent relationship to the culture that surrounds it, and its economic raison d'etre."

Baugh, Albert C.  A Literary History of England.  New York:  Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1948.

Bigazzi, Carlo. Studi Irlandesi. Reviewed in Irish University Review (22 March 2006). Reviewed by Claudia Calavetta.

This review of this compendium of essays on Irish Literature especially mentions Maria Cristina Misrandino's essay on Le Fanu's "The Familiar."  Notes the anxiety that permeates the work.

Bloom, Clive, ed.  Gothic Horror: A Guide for Students and Readers. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

In four essays in this book, Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and "Green Tea,"  are related to the larger Gothic tradition.

Bondeson, Jan. Buried Alive:  The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 2002.

Notes the burial-alive in Le Fanu's "The Room in the Dragon Volant."

Bondeson, Jan.  The London Monster:  A Sanguinary Tale.  University of Pennsylavania Press, 2000.

Bondeson, Jan.  The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels.  Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.

Discusses a poem spoken by Madame de la Rougierre, the wicked governess of Uncle Silas.  The poem was probably written by Le Fanu himself. It metaphorically expresses the legend of "a pig-faced noblewoman" that was current at the time Le Fanu wrote his novel.  Notes this use of metaphor is one of the most important elements of Le Fanu's works.

Bozzetto, Roger and Jean Marigny, eds.  Vampires: Dracula et les Siens.  Paris:  Omnibus, 1997.

Castle, Terry.  The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 1993.

Mentions of Le Fanu and his lesbian vampire Carmilla figure in this study.

Castle, Terry. Masquerade and Civilization:  The Carnivalesque in Eighteenth Century English Culture and Fiction.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press, 1986.

Mentions the masquerade scene in Le Fanu's Carmilla in which the vampire selects her female victim.

Cavaliero, Glen.  The Supernatural in English Fiction.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1995.

Studies the supernatural tales and the mystery novels and stories to show that Le Fanu's work was much more symbolic, like the works of Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Notes the "surreal effects" of Le Fanu's rhetoric.

Coffman, Christine E.  Insane Passions:  Lesbianism and Psychosis in Literature and Film.  Middletown, CT:   Wesleyan University Press, 2006.

Studies the vampire in relation to lesbianism and notes Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and Coleridge's "Christabel" in this connection.  Mentions the "lesbian vampire film" at some length.

Cohen, Michael.  Murder Most Fair:  The Appeal of Mystery Fiction.  Teaneck, NJ:  Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000.

Mentions Le Fanu's Uncle Silas in connection with other sensation novels by Wilkie Collins and Braddon.

Colavito, Jason.  Knowing Fear: Science, Knowledge and the Development of the Horror Genre.  Jefferson, NC: MacFarland, 2008.

A fairly good book that suffers from rather poor writing.  Discusses "Carmilla," "Schalken the Painter," "A Strange Adventure in Aungier Street," and "Green Tea."  Compares "Carmilla" with Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Varney, the Vampire, and Dracula and argues that it is much better in execution than these others.  Discussed Spiritualism in connection with "Green Tea" and the other stories.  On the whole, reasonably perceptive but could have benefited from better copy editing.

Cornwell, Neil. The Literary Fantastic.  London:  Wheatsheaf, 1990.

Studies "Schalken the Painter," "Green Tea," "Borrhomeo the Astrologer" and Uncle Silas in terms of narrative point of view and implied reader positions, giving a rich rhetoric of implied supernaturalism in which the ambiguities of rational and supernatural explanations are central.

Davenport-Hines, Richard.  Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin. New York:  North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998

Studies "Carmilla" in political terms as a tale of the displaced Anglo-Irish who are loosing their importance in Ireland.  Thus, Ireland is transposed to a province of Austria, where Laura, of English descent, wastes away by a defunct aristocratic family, the Karnsteins.  Finally, the Karnstein family, like the Irish, are eradicated with the death of Carmilla Karnstein.

Day, William Patrick.  Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture: What Becomes a Legend Most.  University Press of Kentucky, 2002.

Briefly mentions Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

Deane, Seamus.  Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing Since 1790.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Briefly notes that Le Fanu does not internalize the Anglo-Irish experience into the Gothic as deeply does Bram Stoker or James Clarence Mangan.

Dyer, Richard. The Culture of Queers.  London: Routledge, 2002.

Notes that most lesbian vampire fiction is written by men.  Cites Le Fanu's "Carmilla."

Eagleton, Terry.  Heathcliff and the Great Hunger:  Studies in Irish Culture.  London:  Verso, 1995.

Discusses a number of Le Fanu's works from an Anglo-Irish perspective

Eagleton, Terry. Scholars and Rebels in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Oxford, England:  Blackwell, 1999.

In this study of nineteenth century Ireland and its intellectual and political elements, Le Fanu figures briefly concerning his editorship of The Dublin University Magazine.

Fierobe, Claude.  De Melmoth a Dracula, La Litterature fantastique irlandaise au XIXe siecle.  Terre de brume, 2000.

Foster, Roy.  Paddy and Mr Punch: Conections in Irish and English History. London: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 1993.

An excellent study of Irish and English history and writers.  A chapter on Elizabeth Bowen notes the influence of Le Fanu. In discussing Yeats and Le Fanu, notes that both read Swedenborg.  Good remarks on the connections between Le Fanu and these writers.

Frayling, Christopher.  Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula.  London: Faber, 1992.

An interesting book excepting fictional works and documents that led up to Stoker's Dracula.  Surprisingly, Le Fanu's "Carmilla" is mentioned in passing.

Gates, Barbara T.  Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1988.

Le Fanu's haunted suicides are tormented by phantoms who "seem to be aspects of the self displaced and imagined as things or people outside the self."

Gelder, Ken. Reading the Vampire.  London:  Routledge, 1994.

A gender-based reading of Le Fanu's "Carmilla" which shows the dichotomy between the patriarchal and matriarchal families.  Ultimately, the men in Le Fanu's protagonist's life destroy the mother figure of Carmilla and maintain their power.  Notes the theme of doubling and the ambivalent nature of sexuality as it is expressed in the tale.

Gibson, Matthew.  Dracula and the Eastern Question: British and French Vampire Narratives of the Nineteenth Century Near East.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Argues that "Carmilla is heavily influenced by the politics of Middle Europe, and that Le Fanu, rather than taking Styria simply as a fashionable location for a modern vampire story or as a mask for Ireland, is commenting upon recent politics in the region itself, and the dangers of the Ausgleich of 1867."

Glover, David.  Vampires, Mummies, and Liberals:  Bram Stoker and the Politics of Popular Fiction.  Durham:  Duke University Press, 1996.

Notes the influence of Le Fanu on Stoker's Dracula, especially on the deleted chapter from Stoker's novel that was later published separately as a short story, "Dracula's Guest."  Also notes the Anglo-Irish background of Le Fanu's and Stoker's work.

Golding, Sue.  The Eight Technologies of Otherness.  London: Routledge, 1997.

Gordon, Joan and Veronica Hollinger, eds.  Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

In this collection of essays on vampire fiction, Le Fanu is mentioned briefly throughout.

Haggerty, George E. Queer Gothic.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Laura's childhood visitation by Carmilla in Le Fanu's novella is the prototype for the homoerotic aspects of childhood fantasy later taken up by Henry James in "The Turn of the Screw."

Hall, Wayne E. Dialogues in the Margin:   A Study of the Dublin University Magaaine.  Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1999.

Le Fanu used the Dublin University Magazine to further his literary aspirations.  Using "the conventions and commonplaces [of the Gothic], Le Fanu's characters  expose the same ambivalence and paralyzing uncertainties that haunted Ireland's Protestant ascendancy. . . . Le Fanu managed to draw from them [the sensational novels] a psychological depth that makes his work seem in many respects more modern than any other writer for the DUM.

Hammack, Brenda Mann.  "Phantastica:  The Chemically Inspired Intellectual in Occult Fiction."  Mosaic 37.1 (2004): 834.

Discuses the character of thd Rev.Mr. Jennings in "Green Tea."

Harris, Jason Marc.  Folklore and the Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008.

Discussses the strategies of rhetoric for applying superstition in folklore and the literature of the supernatural.  A chapter on Le Fanu discusses the folkloric tensions between class and racial groups.  "By paralleling class, economic, gender, and racial tensions with supernatural concepts in folklore, Le Fanu not only expresses much of what was implicit in folk legends to begin with, but shows the continued relevance of anxieties and mysteries that at first glance might seem antiquated and picturesque superstitions."  Based on Harris's dissertation.

Harrison, Kimberly, and Richard Fantina, eds. Victorian Sensations: Essays on Extravagant and Unnatural Fiction.  Columbus:  Ohio State University Press, 2006.

Hendershot, Cyndy.  The Animal Within:  Masculinity and the Gothic. Ann Arbor, MI:  University of Michigan Press, 1998.

Studies Le Fanu's "Green Tea" as a tale in which the protagonist's "confrontation with Darwinism as an evil monkey is explored within the context of theological debates concerning Darwin's theory of descent/evolution."

Holte, James Craig.  Dracula in the Dark:  The Dracula Film Adaptations.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 1997.

Hurley, Kelly.  The Gothic Body:  Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siecle.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Le Fanu's "Carmilla" is mentioned briefly.

Hutchins, Patricia.  James Joyce's World.  London:  Methuen, 1957.

James, Louis.  The Victorian Novel.  Oxford:  Blackwell. 2006.

An overview of the Victorian novel that relates Le Fanu's Uncle Silas as an example of the popular sensation novel.  Also covers the Irish novel relating Le Fanu to Maturin as an Anglo-Irish Gothic writer.  Discusses the supernatural in such works as "Green Tea" and "Carmilla."

Jones, Darryl.  Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film.  London: Arnold, 2002.

A good, fluid study of predominate horror themes.  Moves easily through Le Fanu, the paranoia of Uncle Silas and thev lesbian vampire "Carmilla" in both the fiction and film adaptations.  Jones touches on only the Dreyer Vampyr and the Hammer Karnstein trilogy, but ignores other films such as the British versions of Uncle Silas, one made after World War II and one a television film with Peter O'Toole.

Joshi, S.T., ed. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural:  An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. 2 vols. Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2007.

A fascinating collection of essays about horror icons, such as ghosts, vampires, etc. and their appearance in literature and film.  Le Fanu is discussed or mentioned in several of the essays.

Kenney, Catherine.  The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers.  Kent, OH:  Kent State University Press, 1990.

Notes in a number of instances, how Sayers looked back to the sensation novelists such as Le Fanu and Collins and remarks how these early works transcend the plot of mystery and detection and deal with larger issues in society.  Sayers was trying to write more than a simple puzzle that must be solved.

Killeen, Jarlath.  Gothic Ireland: Horror and the Irish Anglican Imagination in the Long Eighteenth Century. Dublin:  Four Courts Press, 2005.

A study of Anglo-Irish history before the Irish Gothic of the nineteenth century.  Mentions Le Fanu's Uncle Silas and "Carmilla."  " . . . the concerns of the pre-Gothic eighteenth century set the basis for that which the nineteenth-century Gothic will examine . . . . an understanding of Temple, Molyneux, King, Swift, Burke, Roche, and Edgeworth is a necessary prerequisite for understanding Maturin, Le Fanu, Wilde and Stoker."

Knight, Stephen.  Crime Fiction: 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity.  London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Le Fanu's mystery novel Checkmate is discussed briefly.

Kreilkamp, Vera.  The Anglo-Irish Novel and the Big House.  Syracuse:  Syracuse University Press, 1998.

Studies Uncle Silas and argues that the ruined or abandoned house reflects "a growing confrontation with the insecure reality of postunion Protestant Ireland." Le Fanu's novel evokes an "atmosphere of guilt and desolation, that disquieting sense of loss and cultural isolation characteristic of nineteenth-century ascendancy fiction."

Latham, Rob.  Consuming Youth:  Vampires, Cyborgs, and the Culture of Consumption.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Briefly notes that the lesbianism of Le Fanu's lesbian vampire Carmilla is a motif carried over into later vampire tales.  Gay men and lesbians can identify with Le Fanu's famoua character.

Losey, Jay, and William D. Brewer.  Mapping Male Sexuality: Nineteenth-Century England.  Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000.

Maison, Margaret M.  The Victorian Vision:  Studies in the Religious Novel.  New York:  Sheed and Ward, 1962.

The sensation fiction of Le Fanu expresses an anti-Catholic view, as does the work of Wilkie Collins.

Malchow, H. L.  Gothic Images of Race in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Stanford, CA:  Stanford Universtiy Press, 1996.

Mentions Le Fanu's "Carmilla" in relation to Stoker's anxiety and fear of homosexuality.  Stoker was aware of Le Fanu's story, and its homosexual theme is implied in some of Stoker's fiction.

Marigny, Jean. The Vampire in the Literature of the Twentieth Century.  Paris: Honore Champion, 2003.

Marigny, Jean.  Vampires:  Restless Creatures of the Night.  Trans. Lory Frankel.  New York:  Abrams, 1994.

Notes that the Victorians considered homosexuality a crime, but in a fantastic work such as Le Fanu's "Carmilla," lesbianism is camouflaged as a female vampire's bloodlust for her female victim.  This the crime was distanced and filtered through a work of fantasy.

Maunder, Andrew.  Victorian Crime, Madness, and Sensation.  London: Ashgate, 2004.

McCormack, W.J.  Dissolute Characters: Irish Literary History through Balzac, Sheridan Le Fanu, Yeats and Bowen.  Manchester:  Manchester University Press, 1993.

The very finest discussion of the influence of Emanuel Swedenborg on Le Fanu.  Discussions of Uncle Silas and In a Glass Darkly show that "Le Fanu is concerned exclusively with the dark side of the vision, with the revelations which follow death, the reinactments of crime and the confrontation once again with one's victim."  There is in Le Fanu "the loss of faith in systems, even in a system which offered a virtual identity of language and reality."

McCormack, W.J. From Burke to Beckett:  Ascendancy, Tradition and Betrayal in Literary History.  Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 1994.

A revision of McCormack's 1985 study from Oxford Universty Press.  Studies Le Fanu's Uncle Silas and the ghost stories of In a Glass Darkly from the standpoint of Swedenborgian allegory.  Argues that in these works the dualities of the characters,  indeed, their psychic "splits" show the anxiety of the insular Anglo-Irish.  Thus, Silas parallels the character of his brother, Austin Ruthyn.  Silas is often described as "ghostly" and in terms of "whiteness."

Melani, Sandro.  L'eclissi del consueto: angeli, demoni e vampiri nell'imaginario vittoriano.  Rome: Liguori.

Moran, Maureen.  Victorian Literature and Culture. London and New York:  Continuum, 2006.

Discusses the Victorian Ghost Story and relates Le Fanu's psychological studies to Henry James in The Turn of the Screw.

Moynahan, Julian.   Anglo-Irish:  The Literary Imagination in a Hyphenated Culture.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Discusses Uncle Silas and the principal ghost stories to show that "there is significant interplay, sometimes a willed confusion, between the idea of possession, by apparent demons and ghosts, and the idea of dispossession, as in the loss of property, power, status."

O'Malley, Patrick R.  Catholicism, Sexual Deviance, and Victorian Gothic Culture.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2006.

An excellent discussion of the Protestant-Catholic, Irish-Anglo-Irish, and English-Austrian tropes that suffuse Le Fanu's famous vampire novella.  The perverse sexuality of the characters of the Styrian Carmilla and the English-Styrian Laura show a nineteenth century Victorian culture that is altered in its coming to terms with the dualities of its sexuality, its religion, and its politics--all of which it attempts to suppress, and this suppression sets the stage for Stoker's vampire. Based on his Harvard dissertation.

Oulton, Carolyn W. de la L.  Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature.  London:  Ashgate, 2007.

Overstreet, Deborah Wilson.  Not Your Mother's Vampire:  Vampires in Young Adult Fiction.  Lanham, MD:  Scarecrow Press, 2006.

Le Fanu's "Carmilla" is mentioned often.  Also provides a breakdown and comparison of the characteristics of major literary vampires from Polidori to Anne Rice.

Palmer, Paulina.  Lesbian Gothic:  Transgressive Fictions.  London:  Cassell, 1999.

A brief commentary, noting that Le Fanu presents his vampire Carmilla with unusual sensitivity. In her love for Laura, Carmilla is accepting of herself has a homosexual vampire.

Panek, LeRoy Lad.  An Introduction to the Detective Story.  Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press, 1987.

In a chapter on Wilkie Collins, Mrs. Henry Wood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and other sensation novelists, Le Fanu draws only one paragraph about Uncle Silas, and it comments on the locked-room murder mystery in Le Fanu's novel.  Remarks that Le Fanu is not as concerned about the mystery as he is about "the pity and fear" that he evokes in his central character, Maud Ruthyn.

Phillips-Summers, Diana.  Vampires: A Bloodthirsty History in Art and Literature. Hod Hasharon, Israel: Astrolog Publishing House, 2004.

A popular history of the vampire in folklore and literature that briefly discusses Le Fanu's "Carmilla" as an inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Pittock, Murray. Scottish and Irish Romanticism.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Sees characters like Le Fanu's Carmilla "as autochthonous manifestations of the female nation, reaching out from their portraits and ruined castles to fascinate and destroy the expatriate English in their midst, confined, as Laura is in the novella, by a sterile world of patriarchal rationality where no young men are permitted because no continuation is possible."

Ponnau, Gwenhael.  La Folie dans la Litterature Fantastique.  Paris: University Press of France, 1997.

Powell, Anna.  Psychoanalysis and Sovereignty in Popular Vampire Fictions. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003.

Studies sources for Le Fanu's vampire novella "Carmilla" in Coleridge's poem "Christabel."  Notes the implicit perversion in the Coleridge's fragment.  Notes the perverse sexuality of Le Fanu's novella and suggests that in a sense, the character Carmilla is both a mother and lover the character Laura.  Also discusses the three Hammer films based on Le Fanu's work;  these three films are often called "the Karnstein trilogy."

Powell, Anthony.  Under Review:  Further Writings on Writers, 1946-1990.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Powell Kersti Tarien.  Irish Fiction: An Introduction.  New York: Continuum, 2004.

Short but substantial commentary on The House by the Churchyard, Uncle Silas, and "Carmilla" that emphasizes how these works reflect Le Fanu's sense of guilt and anxiety that the larger society of the Anglo-Irish felt about their domination of the Irish.

Pykett, Lyn. The Sensational Novel: from "The Woman in White" to "The Moonstone."  Plymouth:  Northcote House, 1991.

Ramsland, Katherine.  The Science of Vampires. New York:  Berkley Boulevard Books, 2002.

A popular study of vampirism in lore, science, and literature, that notes that Le Fanu's vampire scholar, Baron Vordenberg, presages later vampire scientists such as Stoker's Van Helsing.

Rance, Nicholas.  Wilkie Collins and Other Sensation Novelists:  Walking the Moral Hospital.  Rutherford, NJ:  Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991.

Discusses Le Fanu's unwilling acceptance of his reputation as a sensation novelist, and remarks that he was very different from Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon.  His preface to Uncle Silas is shown as his defense for dealing with sensational subject matter. An excellent study of the sensation novel and Le Fanu's participation in the movement.

Rickels, Laurence A. The Vampire Lectures.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Studies Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and Carl Theodor Dreyer's film Vampyr as tales in which the young girl, Laura, is haunted and vampirized by her dead mother.   Carmilla and Dreyer's female vampire drink the blood of the grieving girl to prepare her for death.  Freud's comments on "taboo" are brought into play.

Rowe, Katherine.  Dead Hands: Fictions of Agency, Renaissance to Modern.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press, 1999.

Studies Le Fanu's "Ghost Stories of the Tiled House," which is imbedded in The House by the Churchyard as a tale of servant master relations. Relates the tale to other stories of ghostly severed hands, such as W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" and W.  F. Harvey's "The Beast with Five Fingers."

Sayer, Katherine, and Rosemary Mitchell, eds.  Victorian Gothic. Leeds, England: Leeds Center for Victorian Studies, University of Leeds, 2003.

Schnepf, Chester H.  The Protagonist's Dilemma in Poe and Le Fanu:  The Emergence of the Gothic Tradition.  Waldeboro, Maine: Goose River Press, 2003.

A somewhat dated study based on Schnepf's thesis, argues that Poe and Le Fanu invented the psychological Gothic tale later taken up by writers of twentieth-century horror tales.

Showers, Brian J.  Literary Walking Tours of Gothic Dublin.  Dublin: Nonsuch, 2006.

A well researched tour of the places in Dublin pertaining to Le Fanu. Maps, photographs, and public records explore the Dublin in which Le Fanu lived.  Contains useful biographical information.

Silver, Anna Krugovoy.  Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Le Fanu's character Carmilla brings about a condition in her victim Laura that is compared to anorexia. Points out that Le Fanu's Carmilla and her victim, Laura, are doubles.  "Carmilla and Laura clearly represent evil and innocent goodness, a doubling that makes even more appropriate an anorexic reading of the story."

Silver, Carole G. Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1999.

Discusses Le Fanu's stories "The Child That Went With the Fairies" and "Laura Silver Bell" and notes that both tales emphasize  the terror engendered by them.  Thus, they are linked to Le Fanu's horror tales.

Skal, David J.  The Monster Show:  A  Cultural History of Horror.  New York: Norton, 1993.

Notes that Le Fanu's "Carmilla" established the homoerotic aspects of the vampire psychology.

Skal, David J.  Screams of Reason:  Mad Science and Modern Culture.  New York:  Norton, 1998.

A brief mention of "Carmilla."

Smith, Andrew.  Gothic Literature.  Edinburgh:  Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

Studies the doubling of characters in Le Fanu's "Carmilla" and regards the tale in its political context as Laura is English, has an Austrian mother, and Carmilla, her double and predator, is regarded as foreign, both physically and emotionally.

Spooner, Catherine, and Emma McEvoy, eds.  The Routledge Companion to Gothic.  London: Routledge, 2007.

A large book of essays by Gothic specialists that mentions Le Fanu throughout.  Points out the Victorian vampire Carmilla as an example of the shape-shifting vampire.  Also approaches Le Fanu from an Anglo-Irish perspective, and discusses recent theory on Irish Gothic.

Stevenson, Jay.  The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vampires.  Indianapolis, IN: Alpha, 2001.

A very popular, humorous, and off-hand study of the vampire in  legend, literature, and film that discusses Le Fanu's "Carmilla" in a number of places

Summers, Montague.  Vampire:  His Kith and Kin.  Kessinger, publish on demand.

Symons, Julian.  Bloody Murder:  From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel.   3rd ed.  New York:  Mysterious Press, 1993.

Notes that Le Fanu brought Gothicism into his sensation fiction, and that he is unjustly neglected as a mystery writer.  Studies Uncle Silas, Wylder's Hand, The House by the Churchyard, and Checkmate as early examples of mystery and crime fiction.  Praises Wylder's Hand as a flawless mystery plot.

Thorne, Tony.  Children of the Night: Of Vampires and Vampirism.  London: Orion, 2000.

A study of the vampire in legend, lore, and literature that briefly discusses Le Fanu's "Carmilla." Notes the homosexuality in Le Fanu's novella and relates it to the homosexuality expressed in Polidori's "The Vampyre" and  Eric Stenbock's "A True Story of a Vampire."

Tracy, Robert.  The Unappeasable Host: Studies in Irish Identities.  University College Dublin Press, 1998.

In the chapter "Sheridan Le Fanu and the Unmentionable," Tracy sees Le Fanu's ghosts as reflections of "the old families, who either fled abroad, or hovered dispossessed in the vicinity of their old homes."  The tales are "also at once personal confessions and expressions of political and social anxieties."

Tucker, Herbert, ed.  A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1999.

Ursini, and Alain Silver.  More Things Than Are Dreamt Of:  Masterpieces of Supernatural Horror, from Mary Shelley to Stephen King, in Literature and Film.  New York: Limelight Editions, 1994.

Notes use of Le Fanu's multiple narratives and how this technique is found in much Gothic writing.

Valente, Joseph.  Dracula's Crypt:  Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2002.

"The Hibernian school of criticism has displayed some confidence that Dracula can be housed within the Anglo-Protestant Gothic tradition exemplified by Sheridan Le Fanu and given scholarly currency by Victor Sage."

Vicinus, Martha.  Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Walker, Hugh.  The Literature of the Victorian Era.  Cambridge:  at the University Press, 1910.

Waltje, Jorg.  Blood Obsession: Vampires, Serial Murder, and the Popular Imagination.  Peter Lang, 2005.

West, Katharine.  Chapter of Governesses:  A Study of the Governess in English Fiction, 1800-1949.  London:  Cohen and West, 1949.

A rather superficial survey of the governess in English that discusses Le Fanu's Madame de la Rougierre in Uncle Silas as the only governess in English fiction who is a real criminal.

Wisker, Gina. Horror Fiction:  An Introduction.  New York and London:  Continuum, 2005.

This good survey of horror fiction discusses Le Fanu in chapters on "Women and Horror" and "Vampirism."  Notes the transgressive quality of Le Fanu's vampire and vampire fiction in general.

Wolf, Leonard. Dracula:  The Connoisseur's Guide.  New York: Broadway Books, 1997.

Discusses Le Fanu's "Carmilla" as an influence on Stoker, who was also Anglo-Irish.  Refutes the often-stated comment that it is a novel of lesbianism.  Instead, Wolf sees it as a work that explores the paradoxical nature of love.

Wynne, Catherine.  The Colonial Conan Doyle:  British Imperialism, Irish Nationalism, and the Gothic.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2002.

Notes similarities, such as the change in identity, in Conan Doyle and Le Fanu; and the theme of fairies in Le Fanu's "The Child That Went with the Fairies."