Uncle Silas (1864)

Bartram-Haugh is the supreme Victorian labyrinth of architectural decay and predatory kinship. Following her father's eccentric testamentary bequest, young heiress Maud Ruthyn is placed under the guardianship of her disgraced uncle Silas. Le Fanu excels in portraying the quiet psychological terror of an adolescent surrounded by debt-ridden relatives plotting murder disguised as suicide. The creeping dread is anchored entirely in family obligation and cold pecuniary greed.