Chantel's Reviews > Uncle Silas

** spoiler alert ** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on abuse, psychological distress, physical assault, extreme violence, grief, & others.

The primary reason for which I write reviews is so that I am able to transfer my thoughts & better analyze my feelings. When one is writing, one is engaging a part of the brain that requires a second’s extra time before the letter becomes a word & that word a series of ideas. I do not write perfect reviews, languages set obstacles in my way; an eagerness to get the thoughts out of my head rushes my fingers; the process as a whole requires patience & time. We all encounter errors & stutter in our mannerisms. Yet, here is an author who had every opportunity in the world not to do that. Le Fanu sat & wrote nearly 500 pages of plot that had nothing of substance to offer but to rid the reader of an annoyance that I cannot rightly name.

I do not endeavour to read the Classics in ignorance. I am aware that times have changed & shifted. I recognize that what might have been a truly ghastly tale of horror upon publication may very well be a common occurrence in the society in which the reader lives at that moment. Unfortunately for me, this is exactly what has occurred in my case. I wanted to read this book because it is highly regarded & has been placed on the lists that boast the scariest stories ever told. I find myself once again, disappointed.

The reader meets Maud, the main character, as she sits in a gorgeous bourgeois house in the countryside of England. Maud is 17 at the beginning of this story but she is writing these recollections of her youth from an undistinguished moment in the future. Her recollections often include forethought & acknowledgement on her behalf that some of the events that transpired might be viewed differently by anyone else, anyone who had more life experience than she did. I appreciated this inclusion as it allowed both the author & their main character the liberty of exploring the banality of the story. Maud is an heiress to a grand fortune & her entire life up until the passing of her father is filled with blissful ignorance.

This story is sectioned into three parts & though this may be used as a proper device to draw the interest of the reader & engage their levels of curiosity, in this case, it did nothing but leave me wondering when the action & bulk of the story might take place. As was likely to happen, I had a favourite part of the three & felt the weight of my disappointment more acutely because I preferred the first part over the second & third. Le Fanu did a phenomenal job of setting the scene in the first section; making life as cloistered & dull as it could be. All the while, the reader is reminded that Austin Ruthyn is a brilliant man of very literary pursuits.

This detail is important because it allows the reader to engage with the story as a whole. Austin, Maud’s father, is not hidden from the world like his brother, Silas, because of any forces outside of his control. He remains abreast of society because he does not necessarily agree with everything that happens & the choices those in charge make; never being able to reach the height of their positions. He remains well-respected, simply a person who enjoys their company so much that they do not feel lonely. Maud on the other hand suffers because of this isolation & goes through life completely out to lunch.

I find it difficult to reflect emotionally on this story because it wouldn’t have gone anywhere if the main character had any semblance of a clue. It truly wouldn’t have gone anywhere if the legal system that prevailed at the time was worth an ounce. Silas was accused of brutally murdering a man inside his own home, a man to whom he owed a great deal of money. Because the room appeared to be sealed from the inside, the courts deemed it a suicide & not a murder. We are so lucky to have been made aware of the fiendish practices of the unsavoury through the works of Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, & many others. I wonder if they ever chanced an opportunity to read this book & thought the premise a ridiculous crux at which to lean the entire plot.

This is where I remain at an impasse. Surely, for its time, this story allows readers to appreciate that the legal system could not be wrong. Who indeed could kill a person in an allegedly locked room? A locked room that was sealed from the inside, mind you. In today’s day & age, with all the literature, film & exposure to the reality that has filled our days since the publication of this book, the concept does not seem as impossible as it might have in 1864.

Let us pretend for a second that Silas didn’t actually murder anyone. He’s still a mean person. He remains a brute & someone to whom the gentile side of life does not appeal. Yet, knowing this, Austin still bequeathed his own daughter to his care, assuming that if she were to randomly die, Silas would get the entire fortune. This is a bizarre choice. This decision does not align with the person that we are meant to believe Austin to be. Why would someone so smart, aware, & cautious of details choose to place his child in the home of someone he knew was neglecting his own children? I suppose we all do very dumb & silly things from time to time but, this is a bit extreme.

I say this & remember that there is an entire section within this novel that hints at being more than what it is. The evil French governess who roamed the property, tormenting & thieving from Maud felt interminably long to me. So long, in fact, that I welcomed the second section with open spirits because at least then, the book was moving in a different direction. I could not find it in myself to care about the wildly peculiar ramblings of a woman who should not have been hired as the governess in the first place. Yet again I find myself questioning the man who is meant to be smart. Your child is crying & scared & all you have to say is, to get over it.

Given the fact that Maud is recollecting these events, it was safe to assume that she survived whatever befell her. Certainly, if she had been abducted by the people on the property her journalling might be indicative of an end-of-life testament. But in all, everything felt too quaint for that to be the case. Silas never read as a great villain. He was dependent on Opium the entire time we knew him & was constantly zoned out from reality because he consumed the drug at leisure & without measuring it before consumption. I failed to find the languid body of someone high on Opium to be as terrifying as it was meant to be.

At what point was I meant to look upon the decaying man before me & think that he was some looming demon in the night? We already know he’s capable of murder. I gathered by the brutality of the crime that he didn’t give a lick about committing cruel acts & so it was tedious for me to read through 445 pages of the same ramblings from Maud, trying to convince the reader that her Uncle Silas was a tender & good man. Again, Maud couldn’t grasp the intention of sentences told to her clearly in plain language so I do not put any weight into what she may or may not believe her uncle capable of.

Because of this, the story wound around in circles. Maud blushes, she is annoyed, she is studious, she cries all of the time & she wants Milly to be a more posh individual. Nothing really happens which is not necessarily bad but, when I am promised a tale of daring psychological thrill, I expect to find that within the plot, at least once. Unfortunately, this story felt interminably long. I paused quite often to wonder at what might possibly occur that was not already wagered from the synopsis or, to be kind, from the introductory chapter.

Overall, I do not begrudge reading this book but it was not what I had hoped for. This was long & drawn out in such a way that made me hope for one of the phantoms of the old houses to come alive in a vampiric way so as to draw some blood from the stone which this plot proved to be.