Green Tea

Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching “Jonathan Dunne Horror” on YouTube.

Title: Green Tea

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 142

Author: Sheridan Le Fanu

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1869

Public Domain: Yes

Description:

Green Tea is one of Sheridan Le Fanu’s most haunting and influential tales of supernatural psychological horror — a chilling descent into isolation, obsession, and unseen terror.

The story follows the Reverend Mr. Jennings, a learned and deeply thoughtful clergyman whose quiet scholarly life begins to unravel after an encounter with obscure occult research and long periods of nervous exhaustion. As his health and peace of mind deteriorate, Jennings becomes increasingly troubled by strange experiences he cannot explain and dares not fully confess.

Concerned by his growing distress, a physician specializing in disorders of the mind and spirit attempts to understand the nature of the affliction consuming him. Yet the deeper the investigation goes, the more uncertain the boundary becomes between psychological collapse and something far more sinister.

Le Fanu masterfully sustains an atmosphere of creeping dread, allowing terror to emerge gradually through suggestion, ambiguity, and mounting paranoia. Rich with Gothic unease and spiritual anxiety, Green Tea remains a landmark work of Victorian horror — a disturbing meditation on guilt, perception, and the terrifying possibility that some doors, once opened, can never truly be closed.