Review of “Squire Toby’s Will” (1868)
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (writer).
Read in 2017.
A compelling piece of Grand Guignol with black-and-grey morality. I particularly admire Fanu’s choice of giving Handsome Charlie his crippling riding accident; it is at once unrelated to the thrust of the narrative and perfectly apt. It is also brilliant to devote the last paragraph to Cooper, the servant, whose more credible and representative life goes on past the catastrophe of the Marstons’. A highly effective remake of “Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling” (1864).
References here: “The Vision of Tom Chuff” (1870).