Editing Sheridan Le Fanu (section)

===''Spalatro''===
An anonymous novella ''Spalatro: From the Notes of Fra Giacomo'', published in the ''Dublin University Magazine'' in 1843, was added to the Le Fanu canon as late as 1980, being recognised as Le Fanu's work by W. J. McCormack in his biography of that year. ''Spalatro'' has a typically Gothic Italian setting, featuring a bandit as the hero, as in [[Ann Radcliffe]] (whose 1797 novel ''[[The Italian (Radcliffe novel)|The Italian]]'' includes a repentant minor villain of the same name). More disturbing, however, is the hero Spalatro's necrophiliac passion for an undead blood-drinking beauty, who seems to be a predecessor of Le Fanu's later female vampire Carmilla. Like Carmilla, this undead femme fatale is not portrayed in an entirely negative way and attempts, but fails, to save the hero Spalatro from the eternal damnation that seems to be his destiny.

Le Fanu wrote this story after the death of his elder sister Catherine in March 1841. She had been ailing for about ten years, but her death came as a great shock to him.<ref>McCormack 1997, p. 113.</ref>