In a Glass Darkly is made up of five short stories (although "Dragon Volant" is long enough to be classified as a novella) that are a mix of ghost stories, horror, mystery and fantastic. Each story is a little stranger than the last which makes for the perfect Halloween-time read especially with the lights dimmed low. The book ends with the short story "Carmilla" about a lesbian vampire who needs more than victims to survive. "Carmilla" appears to have the most success out of all the short stories, prompting other authors to write similar vampire stories with greater success. ( )

In a Glass Darkly is actually a collection of short (and one longish) stories written by Sheridan Le Fanu. The subjects of the stories are hardly related except that they all are improbable. Some are rooted in the supernatural, others in the evil of men's hearts.

The first three stories, Green Tea, The Familiar and Mr. Justice Harbottle, were the most similar. Each dealt with someone plagued with madness though the sources of the madness were debatable. In one case, guilt was suspected though it could have been a ghost. In another story, the culprit may have been too much green tea. These were good solid Victorian stories of the supernatural though none of them were mind-blowing.

The fourth story in the book was the longest and was an adventure story with human villains. The Room in the Dragon Volant was maddening in the way of Victorian stories where the reader is far more sophisticated than the trusting, naive protagonist. From the start of the story, it was obvious what mistakes young Richard made when traveling to France. However, he is also our narrator and so we could assume that everything worked out for him somewhat in the end -- though one starts to worry when the premature burial scene comes around! Yet, by the end of this story, it was my favorite of the book.

The final story, Carmilla was shorter than the previous one but also pretty long for a short story. This was again another kind of story, one that I wasn't expecting after the other four -- a lesbian vampire story. I liked this story until it got toward the end when the situation was pretty obvious but again our oblivious young narrator and protagonist can't put together the clues that are spoken right at her. For some reason, it was a bit more maddening than in the previous story. However, I found it interesting that Carmilla was written in 1872-- twenty-five years before Dracula --and was a major influence on the classic vampire story.

http://webereading.com/2009/10/though... ( )

The stories here hold some of the beginnings of what we now consider the horror genre, and they stand up to time as tales that are both chilling and fascinating. That said, the best of the bunch are easily "The Familiar" and "Carmilla"; "The Familiar" is haunting and strange--it stays with you, and that's all that needs to be said. "Carmilla" is one of the early vampire stories that directly speaks of vampires, and worthwhile not only as a story in itself, but for someone looking for the roots of vampirism in contemporary literature. "The Room in the Dragon Volant" is the one story that drags somewhat, but still, it's worth the read. On a separate note, while I fully recommend this book to lovers of horror and the supernatural, I do not recommend this particular edition that I came across, from Adamant Media Corporation, Elibron Classics. The number of typos and mistakes were, in all truth, infuriating. Nevertheless, the stories made the book well worth my time. I'd give the book four and a half stars, this edition one...hence, I settled on three. ( )

Le Fanu strikes me as being a bit on the weak side, although there are a couple of classic stories in this collection.

These Victorian ghost stories are just OK--not particularly scary, except for the last one, "Carmilla." Le Fanu indulges in the irritating Victorian practice of finishing a date or street address with a dash, (We arrived in N___ St.) I'm glad that device has gone out of style. ( )