The Woman in the Black Coat - About the Author

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

(1814–73)

This Irish novelist was born into a well-educated Dublin family. He trained as a lawyer but never practised. Instead he started writing short stories, and his first novel

appeared in 1845. He became owner and editor of the Dublin University Magazine in 1849.

But it was not until 1861, three years after his wife died, that his most important work began. Le Fanu was one of the best-selling writers of the 1860s–80s, writing ingenious tales of mystery and terror. Among the most famous are 

The House by the Churchyard (1863) and the remarkable collection of short stories entitled

In a Glass Darkly (1872). Sadly the public then lost interest in Le Fanu’s work. However, in the twentieth century, Le Fanu’s reputation rose steadily. He is now recognized as being
almost unequalled as a writer of sinister and supernatural stories.