Uncle Silas is a satisfying Victorian mystery with creepy gothic overtones and a thrilling denoument. As with others of this genre you must leave your sense of disbelief behind.

The tale is narrated by Maud, the teenage heiress to a large fortune, who has grown up living with her emotionally distant father in an ancient mansion, complete with ghosts; the obligatory evil governess arrives posthaste and makes life miserable for our heroine. Madame gets the boot after she is discovered rifling through Papa's desk, but Maud's life soon takes a turn for the worse when Papa suffers a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Suddenly orphaned, Maud is sent to live with mysterious Uncle Silas, who has lived Under A Cloud since a gambler apparently slit his own throat while staying with him many years previously. The visitor's room was locked from the inside--hence the term "locked room mystery"--but Silas has been shunned by Society ever since.

Initially life goes well for Maud; she feels her father wishes her to clear the family name. She civilizes Silas' awkward daughter Milly but finds her other cousin, Dudley, to be a boor and a nuisance, especially after he starts mooning about and declaring his love for her. The servants are nearly universally malevolent, and Maud starts receiving warnings from various quarters as how Things Are Not As They Seem and she should watch her back. Silas' catatonic fits increase--due to overuse of opium, claims the doctor--Madame shows up, and Maud finds herself not only isolated but trapped.

As you might expect, things go from bad to worse and then much worse, but never fear, all is put right in the end.

I read the Project Gutenburg edition on my iPhone. Because I couldn't read ahead I found I was deeply involved in the story and finished it in about three sittings.

While a fine example of its kind, Uncle Silas does not exceed the limitations of genre, and certain loose ends are left hanging. ( )

989 Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh, by J. S. LeFanu (read 22 Dec 1968) This book has good moments, but also moves slowly and pointlessly at times. Written about 1865, I think it sounds like it. It has some moments. For instance: "Well, one room more - just that whose deepset door fronted me, with a melancholy frown, at the opposite end of the chamber. So to it I glided, shoved it open, advancing one step, and the great bony figure of Madame de la Rougierre was before me." I may read other LeFanu stories: but not his novels, if this is his best. ( )

Leisurely horror story, first published in 1864. Uncle Silas doesn't appear in the flesh until page 200, but we know his story by then. The younger son of an ancient family, the dissolute Silas gambled away his inheritance. A gambler and money lender was found with his throat cut and Silas was accused of his death.

The heroine is the daughter of Silas's older brother Austin, the eccentric and reclusive heir to the family fortune. Austin has always believed in his brother's innocence and stakes his daughter's future on proving it.

An early psychological novel and possibly the first locked room mystery, Uncle Silas is an entertaining and interesting read. ( )

Silas Rutvyn is something of a riddle. To some, including his niece, he is something of a ghost. As Le Fanu gradually unfolds the layers of this story, we are irresistibly drawn into his world. There are, however, no simple answers.
From the writer of such works as Through a Glass Darkly, and The House by the Churchyard, this eerie and chilling tale is one of the finest examples of his art.

About the Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the renowned gothic novelist, was born in Dublin in 1873. His vampire novella Carmella is known to have directly influenced Barm Stoker's Dracula, among others. Likewise, Le Fanu's A Chapter in the History of the Tyrone Family is thought to have been a source of inspiration for Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. It is, however, his tales of the supernatural for which he is best remembered. ( )

Probably my favorite of all of the Le Fanu novels. I first got interested in this author when, many years back, I saw this dramatized on PBS. Peter O'Toole played a very evil Uncle Silas.

Another Victorian gothic involving not so nice relatives, an evil governess and a damsel in distress. HIGHLY recommended! ( )