Uncle Silas is a Victorian Gothic mystery-thriller novel by the Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It shows a strong interest in the occult and in the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg. The novel is a first person narrative told from the point of view of the teenager Maud Ruthyn, an heiress living with her reclusive father Austyn Ruthyn in their mansion at Knowl. She gradually becomes aware of the existence of Silas Ruthyn, a black sheep uncle whose past holds a dark mystery.