The House by the Church-Yard (1863) is a novel by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. An important source for James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, The House by the Church-Yard is a hybrid of the mystery and historical genres of fiction. With its complex use of side plots and extensive frame narrative, the novel is central to Le Fanu’s legacy as an innovator whose literary works inspired Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

During a routine interment at a churchyard in the historic village of Chapelizod, a grave is disturbed revealing a skull buried a century earlier. Upon examination, a gruesome discovery is made—not only does the skull show signs of severe head trauma, it contains a hole from an emergency trepanning procedure. Stirred by the discovery, an old man named Charles de Cresseron pieces together the story of a time the village had nearly forgotten. In the eighteenth century, a coffin was secretly buried in the churchyard, with no defining characteristics except for the initials “R.D.” As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this burial is somehow related to a series of mysterious events—a love triangle between a general’s daughter, a local official, and a man who has taken residence in a home rumored to be haunted; the suicide of a disgraced prisoner; and a rivalry between a deeply indebted doctor and the agent of a local lord whose home has been infiltrated by a dubious imposter. As these plots swirl and converge, The House by the Church-Yard emerges as a masterpiece of suspense, a thriller that delights its reader just as much as it demands their attention.

This edition of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s The House by the Church-Yard is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

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