14 h 45 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 14 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your safety rests with a family whose secrets you cannot trust?
At Wyvern, an old English country house, a young woman lives in the shadow of people with more power than she has. Property, marriage and family secrets press in around her. In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s The Wyvern Mystery, knowing whom to trust matters as much as having the resolve to survive.
Land and money shape this Victorian world, and inheritance decides who holds power. With few rights, the young woman must find her way through dangers rooted in family life. Le Fanu builds dread through suggestion and atmosphere, drawing you into a house where questions of law, marriage and safety carry a deeply personal weight.
What you’ll discover
- A house with a hold Enter Wyvern, where the country house shapes the story’s mood and the young woman’s fears.
- Resolve against unequal power Follow a young woman whose determination matters in a world that grants her few rights.
- Inheritance with real stakes Explore how land and money give some people power over the safety of others.
- Secrets close to home Feel the strain of family ties when marriage and property make trust difficult.
- Dread that gathers slowly Settle into brooding suspense that lets suggestion and atmosphere do the work of fear.
Who will love it
Readers who love Gothic atmosphere, old country houses and family secrets, and anyone who enjoys a heroine facing dark glens, uncanny omens and the pull of inheritance.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young woman hides a secret errand
- The old Squire becomes a frightening suitor
- Two sons wait for the estate
- Love carries Alice to Carwell Grange
- An omen warns of danger in the gallery
- Debts and a hidden worry darken the marriage
- A stranger comes to the Grange by night
- Secrets decide who owns Wyvern
- How a storyteller builds dread
Who’s who
- Alice MaybellA gentle orphan raised at Wyvern who marries for love and hopes for a quiet life, though she senses her husband's fear.
- Charles FairfieldThe Squire's elder son, called the Captain, handsome and kind but weak, hiding debts and a dreadful worry from his wife.
- Squire Henry FairfieldThe proud, violent old master of Wyvern, who guards what he owns and wants Alice for himself.
- Harry FairfieldThe younger son, a jovial horse dealer who hides his sharp calculations behind jokes and proverbs.
- Mildred TarnleyThe sour old housekeeper of Carwell Grange, who knows its legends and tells lies to keep the peace.
- Dulcibella CraneAlice's loyal, talkative old nurse, who loves her mistress and fears secrets.
- Lady WyndaleAlice's warm aunt, who longs to look after her and offers her shelter at Oulton.
- Bertha VelderkaustA blind, fierce woman from Hoxton, called the old soldier, who claims a hold on the Fairfield family.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 14 h 45 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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El misterio de Wyvern
by J. Sheridan Le Fanu · 1869
A girl in furs detours to a ruined grange, and a veiled woman wrapped in gray listens for her answers.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Why does a young woman bribe her coachman to leave the road home and visit a ruined house in a dark glen? The Wyvern Mystery is a Gothic novel by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, set in an old English squire's country of ivy, moorland and ancient family pride.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young woman hides a secret errand
Alice Maybell is an orphan raised at Wyvern, the house of the gaunt old Squire Henry Fairfield. As the book opens she says goodbye to her aunt, Lady Wyndale, and admits in a whisper that she is not happy. Something weighs on her, and she cannot find the words to share it.
On the road home she makes her driver turn aside to Carwell Grange, an empty looking house in a wooded vale, and pays him two pounds to keep quiet. A tall veiled woman with a foreign accent blocks the lane and sends questions through her own driver, asking whether anyone is bound for the Grange. At the house, the sour old servant Mrs. Tarnley accepts a tiny miniature as proof of Alice's right to enter, then hands her a letter that makes her weep.
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What is The Wyvern Mystery about?
It follows Alice Maybell, an orphan raised at Wyvern, who leaves a possessive old squire to marry for love. In the lonely Carwell Grange she meets omens, debts and a secret that threatens her marriage and her child's future.
Who wrote The Wyvern Mystery and when?
It was written by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, the Irish author who died in 1873. It belongs to the Victorian Gothic tradition of old houses, family secrets and mysterious visitors, set in rural England.
Who is the old soldier in The Wyvern Mystery?
The old soldier is the family's nickname for a fierce, foreign-speaking woman from Hoxton who makes a claim on Charles Fairfield. Her connection to the family drives the central mystery of the story.
The author
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
1814–1873 · Irish Gothic novelist
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer born in Dublin in 1814. He lived in Ireland and died in Dublin in 1873. He wrote Gothic tales, mystery novels, and ghost stories. His novels include Uncle Silas, published in 1864, and The Wyvern Mystery, published in 1869.
More by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
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