Uncle Silas

Uncle Silas (1864) is a novel by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Expanded from an earlier short story, Uncle Silas is considered an important precursor to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, and remains the author’s most popular novel. It has been adapted several times for film, television, and radio.

Following the untimely death of her father, Maud Ruthyn is sent to live at Bartram-Haugh, the estate of her estranged Uncle Silas. Under the terms of her father’s will, Maud must live in Silas’s care for three and a half years, or until she is old enough to take control of the family fortune. Unsure, but trusting her father’s judgment, she consents to the terms and makes her way to Bartram-Haugh, where she will live with a man of whom she knows very little. Rumored to have lived a troubled youth, Silas has supposedly found religion, but the recent suicide of a man to whom Silas owed money casts doubts on his intentions and unsettles young Maud. Nevertheless, she soon grows accustomed to life at his estate, befriending Silas’s daughter Millicent. When Dudley, her cousin, begins to court her, Maud first denies his advances before seeking her uncle’s advice. The family soon discovers that Dudley has been married all along, and he is banished from Bartram-Haugh, leaving Maud in peace for a time. Soon, however, Millicent is sent away to France to attend school, leaving Maud at the estate on her own. Only slightly comforted by Silas’s promise to reunite the two cousins as soon as he can, Maud waits for the day of her journey, altogether unaware of the plot unfolding right before her eyes. Uncle Silas is a masterful novel of mystery and suspense from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, an important pioneer of Gothic horror.

This edition of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

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