The Cock and Anchor
by Sheridan Le Fanu
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First published in 1845, Le Fanu's The Cock and Anchor is one of the most interesting historical novels written in Ireland in the nineteenth century. It is many things at once: a record of Victorian Irish mores, a story of love struggling against class prejudice, a study of crime and punishment, and an engaging thriller. But first and foremost it is a full-bodied, energetic portrait of mid-nineteenth-century Dublin. (Goodreads)Tags
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“The Cock and Anchor” is set in Dublin in 1710, twenty years after Protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne. Ireland is under British rule and a Lord Lieutenant, Thomas, 5th Baron Wharton, is ruling the country from Dublin Castle. While the leaders of the Catholic aristocracy who supported King James have fled to France (The Wild Geese) there is still a corps of Jacobite supporters in Ireland who are readying themselves for the day when King James returns to reclaim his crown and the lands of England and Ireland.
I did not know what to expect when I started reading this novel, but what I found delighted and intrigued me. It proved to be one of those books that I did not like to put down show more and found myself making time to return to.
The Valancourt edition contains a 46 page introduction, the text of the novel (439 pages), 14 pages of informative notes referenced from within the text, and a 52 page appendix containing contemporary reviews and extracts of other works referenced in the introduction. All in all, this is a comprehensive tome for anyone intent on studying The Cock and Anchor in a serious fashion. show less
I did not know what to expect when I started reading this novel, but what I found delighted and intrigued me. It proved to be one of those books that I did not like to put down show more and found myself making time to return to.
The Valancourt edition contains a 46 page introduction, the text of the novel (439 pages), 14 pages of informative notes referenced from within the text, and a 52 page appendix containing contemporary reviews and extracts of other works referenced in the introduction. All in all, this is a comprehensive tome for anyone intent on studying The Cock and Anchor in a serious fashion. show less
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267+ Works 12,479 Members
The greatest author of supernatural fiction during the nineteenth century was undoubtedly J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Le Fanu was born in Dublin and, as with so many other English popular fiction authors of his time, entered the genre of fiction by way of journalism, working on such publications as the Evening Mail and the Dublin University Magazine. Le show more Fanu came from a middle-class background; his family was of Huguenot descent. He graduated from Trinity College and married in 1844. After his wife died in 1858, until his own death, Le Fanu was known as a recluse, creating his ghost fiction late at night in bed. Probably he began writing ghost fiction in 1838; his earliest supernatural story is often cited as being either "The Ghost and the Bone-Setter" or the "Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh," both of which were later collected in the anthology entitled The Purcell Papers (1880). Writing most effectively in the short story form, Le Fanu's tales such as "Carmilla" (a vampire story that is thought possibly to have influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula) and the problematic "Green Tea" are considered by many literary scholars to be classics of the supernatural genre. His lengthy Gothic novels, such as Uncle Silas (1864), though less highly regarded than his shorter fiction, are nonetheless wonderfully atmospheric. Le Fanu's particular brand of literary horror tends toward the refined, subtle fright rather than the graphic sensationalism of Matthew Gregory Lewis. His work influenced other prominent horror fiction authors, including M. R. James. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Cock and Anchor
- Alternate titles
- Morley Court
- Original publication date
- 1845
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 31
- Popularity
- 906,232
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 16
- ASINs
- 4
