Checkmate

Checkmate (1871) is a novel by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Although less well-known than his more popular works of Gothic horror and mystery, including the vampire novella Carmilla (1872) and the novel The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Checkmate remains central to Le Fanu’s legacy as an innovator whose literary works inspired Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Walter Longcluse is a mysterious gentleman, a drifter and self-made man whose travels throughout France, Austria, and England r...