An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in an Old House in Aungier-Street

This is a review of the short story An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in an Old House in Aungier-Street, written by Sheridan Le Fanu and published in his collection Green Tea and Other Weird Stories. Read my review of The Haunted House in Westminster and Green Tea here and here. Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer who wrote ghost stories in the 19^th century. His most famous work is Carmilla, a vampire story that predates Dracula.

The plot of this story involves a pair of cousins studying medicine in Dublin. They rent an old house, which turns out to be haunted by the ghost of a corrupt judge who hanged himself. This judge defines malevolent spirit. The narrator’s cousin is more affected, at first, because he sleeps in the judge’s old chambers. After he flees, the narrator starts experiencing ghostly visions, which last until the cousins find different lodgings. Anticlimactic, but you get the idea.

What sets this story apart from many other ghost stories is the fact that the cousins know the house is haunted, but won’t leave until things get very, very bad. Why? I am not sure. It’s not money, nor is it because don’t believe in ghosts or are incapable of moving. For some reason, they just – don’t – even in the face of significant discomfort and danger.

The narrator’s cousin doesn’t sleep for days, and has his final encounter with the judge after he literally passes out on the bed. Before that, he tells nobody. The narrator is no better. He claims finding a new place is a pain in the neck, and thus subjects himself to several more days of spectral encounters. I am unsure if this is due to a morbid sense of curiosity coupled with the tendency to procrastinate when performing tasks we don’t enjoy, i.e. moving.

Le Fanu’s style can fairly be described as wordy and ornate, but his interest in human nature and the interior lives of his characters makes him a modern writer. The malevolent judge is taken from The Haunted House in Westminster, but the best part of this story is its depiction of human nature. Recommended for lovers of Victorian horror and weird fiction.