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What if the thing that follows you is invisible to everyone else?
In Green Tea & Mr. Justice Harbottle, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu brings horror into private lives. Reverend Mr. Jennings, a gentle London clergyman, finds himself followed by a small black monkey with glowing eyes. No one else can see it. Dr. Martin Hesselius listens to his account, seeking answers at the border of mind and spirit.
Mr. Justice Harbottle trusts his rank, wealth, and power. But the cruel judge faces sounds, glimpses, and the growing sense that someone watches him. The memory of Lewis Pyneweck, a man he sentences to death, presses close. Presented as cases from Hesselius's papers, these tales set a good man's torment beside a bad man's fear.
What you’ll discover
- A quiet life invaded Follow Jennings as an unseen presence turns his solitary London life into a source of dread.
- Power shadowed by guilt Watch Harbottle's confidence meet the troubling memory of a man condemned by his own judgment.
- The doctor's searching eye Explore strange cases with Hesselius, whose questions reach across the border between mind and spirit.
- Horror close to home Find fear inside ordinary houses, where private troubles deepen without castles or storms.
- Two sides of haunting Consider whether these terrors come from outside their victims or rise within their minds.
Who will love it
For readers who love candlelit ghost stories, foggy Victorian London and a guilty conscience given a shape. If you enjoy a doctor who plays detective, both tales will feel like home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A haunting crosses an unseen boundary
- Small habits reveal a hidden fear
- An ordinary journey opens the door
- The watcher becomes a commanding voice
- A powerful judge dismisses a warning
- The judge receives his own accusation
- Harbottle faces his own brutal justice
- Other witnesses begin to see
- Hidden burdens take a visible shape
Who’s who
- Doctor Martin HesseliusA German physician who treats hauntings as illness of the nerves and spirit, and who listens closely to the people who come to him.
- Reverend Mr. JenningsA shy, kind clergyman with a vicarage at Kenlis who is followed by a small black monkey and wants to be rid of it.
- Lady Mary HeydukeA friend and neighbour of the clergyman who thinks him a happy, good man and knows nothing of his trouble.
- Mr. Justice HarbottleA coarse, sarcastic judge of the Court of Common Pleas, feared as a hanging judge, who laughs at every warning.
- Lewis PyneweckA Shrewsbury grocer accused of forgery, whose fate is in the judge's hands and who will not stay quiet.
- Flora CarwellThe judge's vain, handsome housekeeper, who is secretly Pyneweck's wife and wants comfort more than truth.
- Caleb SearcherAn officer serving the crown solicitor in the Kingdom of Life and Death, who announces the judge's impending trial.
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Green Tea & Mr. Justice Harbottle
A clergyman sees a small black monkey no one else can see, and a London doctor takes up his case.
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“an incredible influence on the genre; [he is] regarded by M. R. James, E. F. Bleiler, and others as the most skilful writer of supernatural fiction in English.”
In short
A small black monkey sits in the corner of a London omnibus, its eyes glowing red in the dusk. A man pokes his umbrella at it, and the umbrella passes straight through.
Green Tea & Mr. Justice Harbottle at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 40 min1 h 20 min fast, 2 h slow
- Length
- 24,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A doctor of the spirit meets a haunted vicar
Green Tea opens with a secretary who once trained as a doctor. For nearly twenty years he worked for Doctor Martin Hesselius, a German physician who collected strange cases. After the doctor dies, the secretary copies one case, told in letters to Professor Van Loo, a chemist in Leyden.
Hesselius believes that the natural world is the outer shell of a spirit world, and that the body is a garment worn by the spirit. For him a ghost is no joke and no lie. It is a problem for a doctor.
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Details
- Language
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- Reading time
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan. Green Tea & Mr. Justice Harbottle. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/green-tea-mr-justice-harbottle.
Le Fanu, J. S. (2026). Green tea & Mr. Justice Harbottle. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/green-tea-mr-justice-harbottle
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan. Green Tea & Mr. Justice Harbottle. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/green-tea-mr-justice-harbottle.
@book{lefanu2026green,
author = {Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan},
title = {Green Tea \& Mr. Justice Harbottle},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/green-tea-mr-justice-harbottle}
}
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What is Green Tea by Le Fanu about?
It follows Doctor Hesselius as he listens to a clergyman, Mr. Jennings, who is followed everywhere by a small black monkey that no one else sees. The tale links the haunting to nerves, belief and the habits of a scholar.
Who is Doctor Martin Hesselius?
He is the German physician who links the stories. His papers, kept by a secretary, record cases in which the inner senses open. He combines medical observation with a belief in a spirit world behind nature.
What does the monkey in Green Tea mean?
The story never settles it. Hesselius reads it as an inner vision caused by overworked nerves, partly from green tea. Readers often see it as guilt or an unspoken fear taking a visible shape.
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.
“In total dark it is visible as in daylight.”
More by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
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