"An Account of Some Strange
Disturbances in Aungier Street"
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

"Horror of horrors! Within a stair or two beneath the spot where I stood, the unearthly tread smote the floor. My eye caught something in motion; it was about the size of Goliah's foot – it was grey, heavy, and flapped with a dead weight from one step to  another. As I am alive, it was the most monstrous grey rat I ever beheld or imagined."

Summary

This fictional short story is told through the eyes of Dick, a medical student who moves with his cousin Tom into his uncle's unoccupied house on Aungier Street, somewhere in Dublin. After moving in, two young men learn that the house was once occupied by a Judge who hung himself over the railing of the staircase. Dick and Tom begin having nightmares in which they are visited by mysterious floating portraits and the ghost of the judge. On multiple occasions Dick is awoken during the night by footsteps descending from the attic. Upon leaving his room to investigate, he comes upon a "black monster...with great greenish eyes" one night and a "monstrous grey rat" another night. Tom has similarly horrific experiences, so the two decide to move out. At the end of the story readers learn ironically appropriate fate of the house: it was burned down by a demented doctor, then rebuilt and inhabited by an undertaker, 
someone who prepares dead bodies for funerals.

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Haunted Houses in Victorian Literature

• 19th-century ghost story authors usually portrayed supernatural beings in one of two ways: as fearful, evil and intending to do harm to people they encounter OR as troubled, hopeful to be reunited with family and desiring to fix some unfinished deed.
• Female authors frequently used the haunted house as a motif to make comments on property, class and economic issues. Many referred to haunted houses as "uncomfortable houses", because their stories often involved an unsolved social injustice the resulted in deceased inhabitants asking for the help of the current property owners. In these stories, the characters learn to take responsibility and a happy ending is achieved.
• Male authors, on the other hand, often feature malicious ghosts who terrify visitors with visions or physical harm and successfully drive them away.
• In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's story, the creatures and ghosts that appear are belligerent and menacing. Their intention is not to reconcile the past but to frighten Dick and Tom.
• This piece of fiction is not a social commentary, but a source of entertainment and excitement for the reader.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you believe in ghosts? If so, do you think they are malicious or benevolent? Both?
   
2. Do you believe spirits can remain in a house after a person's death?
3. Have you had any experiences with a haunted house?