Name: Chekmate
SKU: 61273462
Price: 37.00 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Type

Physical Book

Author

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

416

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x2.2 cm

Weight

0.55 kg.

ISBN13

9781540486516

Synopsis "Chekmate"

Extract: CHAPTER I. MORTLAKE HALL. There stands about a mile and a half beyond Islington, unless it has come down within the last two years, a singular and grand old house. It belonged to the family of Arden, once distinguished in the Northumbrian counties. About fifty acres of ground, rich with noble clumps and masses of old timber, surround it; old-world fish-ponds, with swans sailing upon them, tall yew hedges, quincunxes, leaden fauns and goddesses, and other obsolete splendours surround it. It rises, tall, florid, built of Caen stone, with a palatial flight of steps, and something of the grace and dignity of the genius of Inigo Jones, to whom it is ascribed, with the shadows of ancestral trees and the stains of two centuries upon it, and a vague character of gloom and melancholy, not improved by some indications not actually of decay, but of something too like neglect. It is now evening, and a dusky glow envelopes the scene. The setting sun throws its level beams, through tall drawing-room windows, ruddily upon the Dutch tapestry on the opposite walls, and not unbecomingly lights up the little party assembled there. Good-natured, fat Lady May Penrose, in her bonnet, sips her tea and chats agreeably. Her carriage waits outside. You will ask who is that extremely beautiful girl who sits opposite, her large soft grey eyes gazing towards the western sky with a look of abstraction, too forgetful for a time of her company, leaning upon the slender hand she has placed under her cheek. How silken and golden-tinted the dark brown hair that grows so near her brows, making her forehead low, and marking with its broad line the beautiful oval of her face! Is there carmine anywhere to match her brilliant lips? And when, recollecting something to tell Lady May, she turns on a sudden, smiling, how soft and pretty the dimples, and how even the little row of pearls she discloses!

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

(Author)

View Author's Page

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer born on August 28, 1814 in Dublin, and who died on February 7, 1873 in the same city. He is best known for his mystery and horror stories. Coming from a family of Huguenot origin, his father was a pastor in various Protestant localities. Joseph studied Law at Trinity College, where he was appointed auditor of the University's History Society. He never practiced law, dedicating himself to journalism. In 1838, he began publishing stories in the Dublin University Magazine; and from 1940 he took control of several newspapers. In 1844, he married Susanna Bennett, with whom he had four children. Gradually, he became involved in politics due to his campaign against the British government's indifference to the Irish famine, but his personal life was complicated due to his wife's illness, who suffered from anxiety attacks and an advanced neurosis that apparently cost her life in 1858. Le Fanu stopped writing, tormented by the death of his wife, and did not do so again until the death of his mother in 1861, supported by his cousin, Lady Gifford, with whom he maintained correspondence until her death. Upon becoming the owner of the Dublin University Magazine, he took the opportunity to publish his novels in serial form in this magazine. Although due to the demands of editors and his readers he wrote stories and novels following the British fashions of the time, in his last stories he returned to Irish folklore as a source of inspiration.

See less