Remembered today primarily as an Irish Gothic novelist and short story writer, Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin on 28 August 1814 to the Rev Thomas Philip Le Fanu (1784-1845) and his wife Emma Lucretia (née Dobbin; d. 1861). The second child and elder son of his parents’ three children, Le Fanu enjoyed a privileged upbringing in the idyllic surroundings of the Phoenix Park, where the family lived from 1815, when the Rev Le Fanu assumed the role of chaplain to the Royal Hibernian Military School. At the age of 12, Le Fanu moved with his family to Abington, Co Limerick, on his father’s appointment as Dean of Emly.
In Abington, the Le Fanu family experienced firsthand the sectarian unrest accompanying the campaign for Catholic Emancipation as well as the Tithe Wars that
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Citation: Morin, Christina. "Sheridan Le Fanu". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2653, accessed 23 November 2024.]
