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Wylder's Hand

by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873)

  • Free to read
  • 11 hours to read
  • 75 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"Wylder's Hand" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a novel written during the mid-19th century. The story unfolds with the protagonist, Charles de Cresseron, as he journeys to Gylingden while carrying a letter from Mark Wylder, hinting at a complex interplay of family relations and an impending marriage. The narrative is characterized by its rich descriptions of the English countryside and a focus on the entangled lineage of Wylders and Brandons, which sets the stage for themes of madness, inheritance, and the intricacies of interpersonal relationships. The opening of "Wylder's Hand" introduces us to Charles de Cresseron as he reflects upon his past while driving through Gylingden. He encounters memories of his childhood, particularly connected to the Brandon family, which are laced with a sense of nostalgia and foreboding. The letter from Mark Wylder reveals his recent inheritance and his plans to marry Dorcas Brandon, stirring apprehension in Charles as he remembers the intertwined histories of their families. As Charles arrives at Brandon Hall, the dynamics between characters become clear, highlighting the complexities at play, including the impending marriage and potential conflicts that could arise from it. This opening sets a tone of mystery and tension, inviting the reader to delve deeper into the unfolding drama.

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  • Detective and mystery stories
  • Inheritance and succession
  • Missing persons

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Chapter I

RELATING HOW I DROVE THROUGH THE VILLAGE OF GYLINGDEN WITH MARK WYLDER'S LETTER IN MY VALISE.

It was late in the autumn, and I was skimming along, through a rich English county, in a postchaise, among tall hedgerows gilded, like all the landscape, with the slanting beams of sunset. The road makes a long and easy descent into the little town of Gylingden, and down this we were going at an exhilarating pace, and the jingle of the vehicle sounded like sledge-bells in my ears, and its swaying and jerking were pleasant and life-like. I fancy I was in one of those moods which, under similar circumstances, I sometimes experience still—a semi-narcotic excitement, silent but delightful.

An undulating landscape, with a homely farmstead here and there, and plenty of old English timber scattered grandly over it, extended mistily to my right; on the left the road is overtopped by masses of noble forest. The old park of Brandon lies there, more than four miles from end to end. These masses of solemn and discoloured verdure, the faint but splendid lights, and long filmy shadows, the slopes and hollows—my eyes wandered over them all with that strange sense of unreality, and that mingling of sweet and bitter fancy, with which we revisit a scene familiar in very remote and early childhood, and which has haunted a long interval of maturity and absence, like a romantic reverie.

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Contents

Show all 75 chapters
  1. Front Matter
  2. Chapter I
  3. Chapter II
  4. Chapter III
  5. Chapter IV
  6. Chapter V
  7. Chapter VI
  8. Chapter VII
  9. Chapter VIII
  10. Chapter IX
  11. Chapter X
  12. Chapter XI
  13. Chapter XII
  14. Chapter XIII
  15. Chapter XIV: In Which Various Persons Give Their Opinions of Captain Stanley Lake
  16. Chapter XV
  17. Chapter XVI: 'Jenny, Put the Kettle on.'
  18. Chapter XVII: Rachel Lake Sees Wonderful Things by Moonlight from Her Window
  19. Chapter XVIII
  20. Chapter XIX
  21. Chapter XX
  22. Chapter XXI
  23. Chapter XXII
  24. Chapter XXIII
  25. Chapter XXIV
  26. Chapter XXV
  27. Chapter XXVI
  28. Chapter XXVII
  29. Chapter XXVIII
  30. Chapter XXIX
  31. Chapter XXX
  32. Chapter XXXI
  33. Chapter XXXII
  34. Chapter XXXIII
  35. Chapter XXXIV
  36. Chapter XXXV
  37. Chapter XXXVI
  38. Chapter XXXVII
  39. Chapter XXXVIII
  40. Chapter XXXIX
  41. Chapter XL
  42. Chapter XLI
  43. Chapter XLII
  44. Chapter XLIII
  45. Chapter XLIV
  46. Chapter XLV
  47. Chapter XLVI
  48. Chapter XLVII
  49. Chapter XLVIII
  50. Chapter XLIX
  51. Chapter L
  52. Chapter LI
  53. Chapter LII
  54. Chapter LIII: The Vicar's Complications, Which Lively People Had Better Not Read
  55. Chapter LIV
  56. Chapter LV
  57. Chapter LVI
  58. Chapter LVII: Concerning a New Danger Which Threatened Captain Stanley Lake
  59. Chapter LVIII
  60. Chapter LIX
  61. Chapter LX
  62. Chapter LXI
  63. Chapter LXII
  64. Chapter LXIII
  65. Chapter LXIV
  66. Chapter LXV
  67. Chapter LXVI
  68. Chapter LXVII
  69. Chapter LXVIII
  70. Chapter LXIX
  71. Chapter LXX
  72. Chapter LXXI
  73. Chapter LXXII
  74. Chapter LXXIII
  75. Chapter LXXIV

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About this edition

This free edition of Wylder's Hand by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #9983, released 2006-02-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery, Novels, British Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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