Dreams of Shadow and Smoke: Stories For J.S. LeFanu

Cover image by Jason Zerrillo

"Perhaps other souls than human are sometimes born into the world, and clothed in human flesh."
— Uncle Silas, Chapter XXVII

With Henry James, Elizabeth Bowen, and James Joyce among his admirers, the ghost stories and novels of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) cast a long shadow on the literary landscape. Dreams of Shadow and Smoke features ten new tales of the fantastic and macabre written in celebration of the bicentenary of Dublin's "Invisible Prince". Revisit a world in which certain elixirs remain capable of awakening the mind to the presence of unknown forces; where the monuments, portraits, and other legacies of history lay traps for the unwary; and the logic of finance butts up against the unyielding rules of folklore. We would like to think that should Le Fanu be handed this book, he would smile at the results and deem it worthy of his consideration.

Contents

• "A Preliminary Word" by Jim Rockhill & Brian J. Showers
• "Seaweed Tea" by Mark Valentine
• "Let the Words Take You" by Angela Slatter
• "Some Houses — A Rumination" by Brian J. Showers
• "Echoes" by Martin Hayes
• "Alicia Harker's Story" by Sarah LeFanu
• "Three Tales from a Townland" by Derek John
• "The Corner Lot" by Lynda E. Rucker
• "Rite of Possession" by Gavin Selerie
• "A Cold Vehicle for the Marvellous" by Emma Darwin
• "Princess on the Highway" by Peter Bell
• "Story Notes"
• "Biographical Notes"
• "Acknowledgements"

Limited hardcover with dustjacket