The Wyvern Mystery

Alice Maybell, an orphan raised on the fringes of a proud old family, is drawn into a secret marriage with the brooding Charles Fairfield, heir to the Wyvern estate. What should be happiness curdles into fear as she begins to sense that her husband is hiding something monstrous in his past, and that the lonely house holds a danger she cannot name. Le Fanu builds his Victorian Gothic on jealousy, buried guilt, and a menacing first wife, ground he shares with Charlotte Bronte, though the mood here runs darker and the sense of entrapment sharper. Published in 1869, it is a taut study of a woman caught among the men who claim to protect her. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available to download.