Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814 –1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic novels, one of the most infl uential ghost story writers of the nineteenth century. “Ghostly Tales ” is a tremendous collection of four chilling stories: “Schalken the Painter,” “An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street,” “An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House” and “Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen.”