6 h 45 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A house feels wrong, a rumour takes hold, and the quiet begins to frighten you.
A Stable for Nightmares gathers eleven tales of ghosts, murder and the supernatural, including a story by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. These short stories belong to the Victorian ghost-story tradition, where a single evening gives dread time to settle and an ordinary place can turn strange.
Le Fanu’s kind of fear grows through suggestion rather than gore: a sound at night, a figure at the edge of a room, a feeling of being watched. Murder and ghosts share this collection’s ground, while guilt, betrayal and hidden wrongs give the supernatural a troubling human shadow.
What you’ll discover
- Dread that takes root Feel how a mood or rumour can unsettle you before anything openly threatens.
- The uncanny close by Explore the fear that gathers around familiar houses, country roads and quiet towns.
- Ghosts and hidden wrongs Discover how crimes and secrets can give supernatural fear its human weight.
- A quieter kind of horror Find unease in suggestion, where a half-seen figure leaves room for your imagination.
- An introduction to Le Fanu Meet his short fiction through a tale in the Victorian ghost-story tradition.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who like old-fashioned ghost stories, Gothic atmosphere and slow-building unease, and anyone curious about Irish horror writing. If you want fast action or modern shocks, the pace may feel too quiet.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Fear comes from mood, not from gore
- Ordinary places hide the uncanny
- Guilt, secrets and the sins of the past
- How to read these tales today
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- 6 h 45 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 4 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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A Stable for Nightmares
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu; Charles Young
A house feels wrong, a rumour takes hold, and the quiet begins to frighten you.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
Fear comes from mood, not from gore
Le Fanu belongs to the Gothic tradition, but his stories lean on suggestion. A strange sound in the night, a figure seen at the edge of a room, or a feeling of being watched does the work that blood does in later horror. The reader is asked to fill the gap, and the imagination usually supplies something worse than the writer could.
This restraint is a main reason his tales still hold up. He lets the ordinary world go on around the strange event, with dinners, journeys, letters and polite conversation. Then he lets one detail slip out of place. The calm surface makes the disturbance feel real.
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What is A Stable for Nightmares about?
It is a collection of short weird tales by several writers, including J. Sheridan Le Fanu, dealing with ghosts, murder and the supernatural. The stories rely on atmosphere, suggestion and the lingering effects of past wrongs rather than on graphic horror.
Who was J. Sheridan Le Fanu?
He was a nineteenth century Irish writer and journalist who died in 1873. He is a leading figure in Gothic and ghost fiction, known for Carmilla, Uncle Silas and In a Glass Darkly.
Is A Stable for Nightmares hard to read?
The prose is Victorian, with longer sentences and a slow opening, but it is clear and rewarding. Reading a story at a time, or aloud, helps the mood and pace come through.
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.
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