Schalken the Painter

A young painter's apprentice falls for his master's niece — only to watch her married off to a wealthy, unsettling stranger who vanishes with her the same night. Years later, a single haunting canvas is all that remains to explain what really happened to the bride nobody ever saw again.One of Sheridan Le Fanu's most celebrated tales, and a genuine landmark of Victorian ghost fiction — a story built around a single unforgettable image that critics and anthologists have been returning to for over 150 years. Atmospheric, unresolved, and quietly terrifying.