| Gothic Readings Contributor(s): Norton, Rictor (Author) |
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ISBN: 0718502175 ISBN-13: 9780718502171 Publisher: Leicester University Press OUR PRICE: $108.90 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2000 Annotation: The Gothic tradition has fascinated both readers and scholars for centuries. Now, Continuum presents a sourcebook for all Gothic enthusiasts. Rictor Norton has assembled selections from such seminal figures in Gothic literature as Horace Walpole, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as lesser-known writers such as Joanna Baillie and Hannah Cowley. The readings address common early Gothic themes such as the aesthetics of the sublime, religion and the supernatural, prison reform, incest, and madness. Gothic Readings covers all of Gothic literature's major genres: historical Gothic, the Radcliffe school of terror, the Lewis school of horror, tragic melodrama, comic parody, and supernatural poetry and ballads. To place these pieces in a literary and historical context, Norton also provides selections from private letters, diaries, and chapbooks, and he outlines the major approaches to Gothic literature. Contemporary reviews and anecdotes further supplement this valuable resource on the beginnings of an illustrious literary tradition. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Gothic & Romance - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Dewey: 823.087 |
| LCCN: 00022223 |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.05" W x 9.19" (1.22 lbs) 560 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Gothic Readings: The First Wave, 1764-1840 is an anthology of Gothic literature, set within the context of contemporary criticism and readers' responses. It includes selections from the major practitioners - indcluding Horace Walpole, William Beckford, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Godwin, Mary Shelley, Charles Robert Maturin and Edgar Allan Poe - and many of their followers, as well as contemporary reviews, private letters and diaries, chapbooks, and anecdotes about dramatic performaces and the design of theatre sets. The volume provides representative samples of the major genres: historical Gothic, the Radcliffe school of terror, the Lewis school of horror, tragic melodrama, comic parody, supernatural poetry and ballads, book reviews and literary criticism and anti-Gothic polemic. Also covered are the major Gothic issues such as the aesthetics of the sublime, religionn and the supernatural and the influence of ancient Romance, 'hobgoblin machinery' (including vampires, spectres, orphans, the Inquisition, banditti, nuns, storms and ruined castles), and social and political themes. A general introduction reviews the major approaches to Gothic literature, and short introductions place individual selections in context. All the texts are based on first editions. The collection is suitable as a textbook for courses on the Gothic novel or on Romantic literature and will appeal to all Gothic enthusiasts. Rictor Norton is the author of Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. |