Of mad excess, of hope decayed,
Of dark and cheerless melancholy;

'Still, memory, to me thou art
The dearest of the gifts of mind,
For all the joys that touch my heart
Are joys that I have left behind.


Le Fanu's literary life may be divided into
three distinct periods. During the first of these,
and till his thirtieth year, he was an Irish
ballad, song, and story writer, his first published
story being the 'Adventures of Sir Robert
Ardagh,' which appeared in the 'Dublin University
Magazine' of 1838.

In 1844 he was united to Miss Susan Bennett,
the beautiful daughter of the late George
Bennett, Q.C. From this time until her decease,
in 1858, he devoted his energies almost entirely
to press work, making, however, his first essays
in novel writing during that period. The
'Cock and Anchor,' a chronicle of old Dublin
city, his first and, in the opinion of competent
critics, one of the best of his novels, seeing the
light about the year 1850. This work, it is to
be feared, is out of print, though there is now a
cheap edition of 'Torlogh O'Brien,' its immediate
successor. The comparative want of success