Review: Sullivan, Elegant Nightmares (1978)

[truepenny]

Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story From Le Fanu To Blackwood by Jack Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is good, thoughtful, appreciative literary criticism of ghost stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, M. R. James, and Algernon Blackwood. It is also very short (154 pages with notes and index and very generous margins). Since M. R. James is one of my favorite writers, I am naturally inclined to look kindly on Dr. Sullivan's project, and I think he is very smart about what makes James so good at what he does. There's less to say about Blackwood, who is not as good at writing ghost stories---although I was sorry Sullivan didn't say more about "The Wendigo," which I think is successful almost despite itself---and while I very much enjoyed the chapters on Le Fanu, I have never been able to get into his writing and so can't say whether they were illuminating of their subject.

Not surprisingly, there are almost no women in this book, either as characters or as critics, though he does mention Elizabeth Bowen's The Cat Jumps favorably, which means I will have to find it.



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