# An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

## What happens

The narrator, an invalid, moves with his family into a seemingly modern seaside house. Soon after arrival, his wife sees a tall, dark figure beside her bed. Servants report glimpses of a retreating, one-eyed woman with a strange red light, who vanishes when pursued. The narrator later learns from a friend that the house is actually an old government store, once isolated and suitable for secret crimes. The family leaves after their stay, and the narrator offers no further explanation, leaving the mystery unresolved.

## Themes in this chapter

### Supernatural and the Uncanny

The chapter centers on unexplained apparitions—a tall figure by the bed and a one-eyed woman with a glowing red light—that defy rational explanation.

### Memory and Nostalgia

The friend's recollection of the house as a lonely spot fifty years ago contrasts with its modern appearance, hinting at a hidden past.

## Character check-ins

### Doctor Hesselius

The narrator's physician who ordered the seaside change and later pronounced a longer stay unnecessary.

### Mr. Smith

The butler who saw the ill-looking, one-eyed woman in his room and reported her appearance and vanishing act.

## Key lines

> She insisted that she had seen an unnaturally tall figure come beside her bed and stand there. The light was too faint to enable her to define anything respecting this apparition, beyond the fact of her having most distinctly seen such a shape, colourless from the insufficiency of the light to disclose more than its dark outline.

The narrator's wife claimed she saw an abnormally tall figure standing by her bed; the dim light only revealed its dark silhouette.

_First supernatural encounter in the house, establishing the haunting._

> He was lying with his face towards the wall, but observing a light and some little stir in the room, he turned round in his bed, and saw the figure of a woman, squalid, and ragged in dress; her figure rather low and broad; as well as I recollect, she had something—either a cloak or shawl—on, and wore a bonnet.

The butler Smith saw a ragged, low-built woman in his room, wearing a bonnet and cloak, searching on the floor.

_Second apparition described in detail, reinforcing the haunting._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/an-authentic-narrative-of-a-haunted-house
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_31_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters