There has never been a boom in his writings. I am not anxious for one, though if it comes I shall be prepared to concede the great author of booms, Poet Gosse, several points or bisques. I have heard the proposition advanced that Edgar Allan Poe stands at the head of those who have written terrible stories in English, but I can in no sort of way agree with those who think so. To be really frightful , the story must seem possible and near for the moment. But Poe's tales have to my mind such an essential flavour of 1830-1840 as takes the whole edge off them, and suggests the costume, furniture and art of the time when they were written.
Reality is there none.
This low estimate may perhaps be influenced by my abhorrence of his verses. However, it is time to say something about Le Fanu - and what he wrote. For many years he edited the Dublin University Magazine and another Dublin organ, a newspaper whose name I don't remember. I believe that he was a singularly striking personality both in looks and in conversation. In a Glass Darkly and The Purcell Papers - this last is a posthumous publication, with a memoir by Mr Graves prefixed to it.