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248:, Madame de la Rougierre, as a companion for her. Madame terrifies Maud and appears to have designs on her: during two of their walks together, Maud is brought into suspicious contact with strangers that seem to be known to Madame. (In a cutaway scene that breaks the first-person narrative, we learn that she is in league with Silas's good-for-nothing son Dudley.) The governess is eventually dismissed when she is discovered by Maud in the act of searching her father's locked desk.
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sight, Maud witnesses Dudley brutally murder Madame in the near-darkness, mistaking her for Maud. Silas enters the room, having been waiting outside; as he does this, Maud slips out undetected. Assisted by Dickon's daughter, whom Maud had befriended during her stay, she is swiftly conveyed by carriage to Lady
Knollys's estate, and away from Bartram-Haugh.
312:. After falling asleep during the journey and being escorted under the cover of darkness, Maud awakes to find herself again at Bartram-Haugh: she had in fact been on a round trip to London and back. Maud finds herself now imprisoned in one of the mansion's many bedrooms under the guard of Madame, whilst everyone believes she is in France.
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intended for Maud and promptly falls asleep on Maud's bed. Later that night, Dudley scales the building and enters the unlit room, which is the one in which the supposed suicide took place; the window he uses is set upon concealed hinges that allow it to be opened only from the outside. Hidden out of
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Various ominous happenings begin to take place at
Bartram-Haugh, and it becomes increasingly difficult for Maud and Millicent to find any way out of the estate. Meanwhile, Dudley's courtship culminates in a marriage proposal to Maud; when she complains to Silas about it, he attempts to coax her into
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told from the point of view of the adolescent girl Maud Ruthyn, an heiress living with her wealthy, sombre, reclusive father Austin Ruthyn in their mansion at Knowl. Through her father and her worldly, cheerful cousin, Lady Monica
Knollys, she gradually learns more regarding her uncle, Silas Ruthyn,
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This world is a parable—the habitation of symbols—the phantoms of spiritual things immortal shown in material shape. May the blessed second-sight be mine—to recognise under these beautiful forms of earth the ANGELS who wear them; for I am sure we may walk with them if we will, and hear them
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and fellow
Swedenborgian, Dr. Bryerly, attempts in vain to overturn the codicil, realizing its dangerous implications for the young heiress; despite their efforts, Maud consents willingly to spending the next three and a half years at Bartram-Haugh.
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Maud is shocked to discover Madame de la
Rougierre is residing at Bartram-Haugh in the employ of Silas, and suspects also that Dudley may not have left the country. Despite Maud's strong protests, Madame is charged with accompanying her first to
296:, and after being disowned by his father, he and his wife leave to set sail to Australia. Silas decides that Millicent should attend a boarding school in France, and sends her away with the promise that Maud is to join her after three months.
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to it so that Maud will live with Silas, who becomes her guardian until she comes of age. However, the will allows that, if she were to die whilst still a minor, the estate would then pass to Silas. Lady
Knollys, together with Austin's
327:, while Dudley becomes a fugitive and is thought to be hiding in Australia. Maud is happily married to the charming and handsome Lord Ilbury and ends her recollections on a philosophical note:
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grew out of an earlier short story, in this case "A Passage in the Secret
History of an Irish Countess" (1839), which he also published as "The Murdered Cousin" in the collection
255:, if she is willing to undergo some kind of "ordeal" to clear the name of her uncle, and of the family more generally; shortly after she assents, her father dies from a ruptured
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Remembering the earlier warnings of Lady
Knollys, Maud refuses to drink anything offered to her; instead, Madame, ignorant of Silas's true intentions, drinks drugged
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Maud initially finds life at
Bartram-Haugh strange but not unpleasant, despite ominous signs such as the uniformly unfriendly servants and Silas's malevolent
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of a man to whom Silas owed an enormous gambling debt, which took place within a locked, apparently impenetrable room in Silas's mansion at
Bartram-Haugh.
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368:; both writers, while recognisably within the Gothic tradition, depict heroines who are far more highly developed than the persecuted maidens of
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was the first to identify a distinctly Irish subtext to the novel, however, in spite of its English setting. It was first serialized in the
652:, 1996, "The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fictions from 1765 to the Present Day", Vol. I, "The Gothic Tradition", pp. 203-6.
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Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed.
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and gambler, he is now apparently a fervently reformed Christian. His reputation has been tainted by the suspicious
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In October 2021, principal photography began on an adaptation financed by
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1981, a 3-part adaptation by Joan O'Connor directed by Kay Patrick, with
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This article is about the 1864 novel. For the film of the same name, see
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1995, a 3-part adaptation by Alan Drury directed by Enyd Williams, with
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The BBC has also broadcast radio adaptations of the novel, including:
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as Silas, premiered on BBC Television in 1989, and was broadcast on
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as the heroine (whose given name was changed from Maud to Carolyn).
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Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography
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862:"BBC Radio 4 Extra - Sheridan le Fanu - Uncle Silas, Knowl, 1864"
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A feature-length British television adaptation was made for the
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accepting. She is relieved when it is discovered that Dudley is
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In the first part of the novel, Maud's father hires a French
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Works originally published in the Dublin University Magazine
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Silas is discovered in the morning lying dead of a laudanum
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remains Le Fanu's best-known novel. It was the source for
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23:. For the rural reprobate of stories by H.E. Bates, see
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of the family whom she has never met; once an infamous
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as Maud and Gladys Spencer as Madame de la Rougierre.
439:(though initially released in the United States as
518:as Silas. It was released in 2023 under the title
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133:, subtitled "A Tale of Bartram Haugh", is an 1864
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447:in 1947. It was directed by Charles Frank, with
251:Maud is asked in obscure terms by her father, a
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629:. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press. p. 168.
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760:Variety Television Reviews, Vol. 17 (1991–92)
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607:. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing.
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687:Mystery and Imagination - Uncle Silas
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468:(1968). Maud was played by
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365:The Woman in White
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