The Wyvern mystery

This 19th-century Gothic novel starts brilliantly and builds up a dark, suspenseful atmosphere in the opening chapters. But somehow I feel it all fizzles out, with too much repetitive dialogue and everything happening too slowly, until near the end there are suddenly loads of plot twists in the spac......more

This is a very tedious novel centered around very tedious people. The hero is a middle aged man who marries a young girl; ignoring that he is in debt and has a past romance that is just waiting to decimate his life. The heroine is a spineless ingénue who seemingly exists merely to adore and or pine......more

Based on the two Le Fanu novels I've read, long-form plotting is not his strength. This is better constructed than Uncle Silas and he creates a genuine sense of foreboding, but much of that is dissipated in the rushed concluding section that sinks into sweetness (small children, especially neglected......more

Although well-written in that enjoyable Gothic style that sends you scurrying to the dictionary every few pages to look up some obscure English word, this book was a huge disappointment. There was no wyvern (just an estate with that name) and there was no mystery. If it was renamed The Wyvern Romanc......more