His university career was a success. He won academic honors and was active in debate and the historical society. After completing studies in classics he pursued legal studies at King's Inns in London but never took up the practice of law. His interests already lay in literary pursuits. As early as 1837 he had begun contributing to the Dublin University Magazine, and in 1839 he took ownership of the Irish Protestant newspaper The Warder. From this time on journalism constituted Le Fanu's foremost professional undertaking. He assumed a financial interest in several newspapers over the course of his career, including the Statesman, the Dublin Evening Mail, and Dublin University Magazine, and used these publications to promote his conservative political views.
In December 1843 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a barrister, and they had four children. Their years together were plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, and when she died in April 1858 at the age of thirty-four, it came as a life-shattering blow to Le Fanu, who blamed himself for her suffering. He wrote at the time, as quoted by Kathryn West in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "The greatest misfortune of my life has overtaken me.
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