Product Description

'He was a man of fairly firm fibre, but there was something in this sudden, uncontrollable shriek of horror which chilled his blood and pringled in his skin. Coming in such a place and at such an hour, it brought a thousand fantastic possibilities into his head...'

The Victorian fin de siècle: the era of Decadence, The Yellow Book, the New Woman, the scandalous Oscar Wilde, the Empire on which the sun never set. This heady brew was caught nowhere better than in the revival of the Gothic tale in the late Victorian age, where the undead walked and evil curses, foul murder, doomed inheritance and sexual menace played on the stretched nerves of the new mass readerships. This anthology collects together some of the most famous
examples of the Gothic tale in the 1890s, with stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Vernon Lee, Henry James and Arthur Machen, as well as some lesser known yet superbly chilling tales from the era. The introduction explores the many reasons for the Gothic revival, and how it spoke to the anxieties of the moment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49441 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 326 pages

Synopsis
'He was a man of fairly firm fibre, but there was something in this sudden, uncontrollable shriek of horror which chilled his blood and pringled in his skin. Coming in such a place and at such an hour, it brought a thousand fantastic possibilities into his head...' The Victorian fin de siecle: the era of Decadence, The Yellow Book, the New Woman, the scandalous Oscar Wilde, the Empire on which the sun never set. This heady brew was caught nowhere better than in the revival of the Gothic tale in the late Victorian age, where the undead walked and evil curses, foul murder, doomed inheritance and sexual menace played on the stretched nerves of the new mass readerships. This anthology collects together some of the most famous examples of the Gothic tale in the 1890s, with stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Vernon Lee, Henry James and Arthur Machen, as well as some lesser known yet superbly chilling tales from the era. The introduction explores the many reasons for the Gothic revival, and how it spoke to the anxieties of the moment.

Customer Reviews

Excellent selection, both for the student and the casual reader
I bought this in conjunction with Fred Botting's Gothic and have found this to be an excellent pair of books to supplement my knowledge and understanding of late Victorian Gothic literature. The range of tales on offer extends from well established names such as Oscar Wilde and Henry James through to rather more obscure figures like Grant Allen and B.M. Croker.

The collection is edited by Roger Luckhurst who provides an excellent introduction, and it is on the basis of this that I award this book 5 stars. His essay will be required reading for my students, and the select bibliography is thorough and up-to-date.

Above all, though, these stories provide entertaining and at times chilling reading, while at others the reader cannot help but laugh out loud at what seem to modern eyes hopelessly sentimental and over-the-top evocations of gothic terror.

All in all, this is well worth buying, whether you intend to study the period in depth, or want a range of engaging and effective stories.