In the middle of the eighteenth century the Gothic became the universal language of architecture, painting and literature, expressing a love not only of ruins, decay and medieval pageantry, but also the drug-induced monsters of the mind. By explaining the international dimension of Gothicism and dealing in detail with German, French and American authors, Gothic Histories demonstrates the development of the genre in every area of art and includes original research on Gothic theatre, spiritualism, ghost seeing and spirit photography and the central impact of penny-dreadful writers on the genre, while also including a host of forgotten or ignored authors and their biographies. Gothic Histories is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Gothic and its literary double, the horror genre, leading the reader from their origins in the haunted landscapes of the Romantics through Frankenstein and Dracula to the very different worlds of Hannibal Lecter and Goth culture. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it is a fascinating guide to the Gothic and horror in film, fiction and popular culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1.Now Welcome the Night: The Origins of Gothic Culture; 2. Every True Goth: From Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill to Thomas De Quincey' Opium Dreams; 3. With Raven Wings: Ann Radcliffe, German Horrors ands the Divine Marquis; 4. Land of Shadows: Melmoth the Wanderer and Sweeney Todd; 5. Dark Reflections in a Dull Mirror: Fuseli's 'The Nightmare' and the Origins of Gothic Theatre; 6. Desire and Loathing Strangely Mixed: Gothic Melodrama and The Phantom of the Opera; 7. Do You See It? The Gothic and the Ghostly; 8. It's Alive: The Rise of the Gothic Movie; 9. After Midnight: Goth Culture, Vampire Games and the Irresistible Rise of Twilight; Further Selected Readings in the Gothic; Index.

About the Author

Clive Bloom is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Middlesex University. He has written many books on popular culture, cultural history and literary criticism, regularly appears on radio and television and contributes to a number of national newspapers.

Reviews

'Clive Bloom's Gothic Histories rescues the subject from the cobwebby corner of the ivory tower in which it has recently become confined by the more esoteric branches of academic scholarship. It traces - in engaging, forceful style - the two hundred and fifty year special effect which turned a burlesque, faux medieval tale written by Horace Walpole in mid-eighteenth century Twickenham, via countless variations and remixes, into the global cultural attitude of today. The variations - sometimes fanciful, sometimes furious - include poems, plays, novels, short stories, penny-dreadfuls, pulp magazines, memoirs, polemics, phantasmagorias, horror movies, tv series, contemporary Goth culture and computer games. From the dawn of the Gothic to Twilight. The sublime, the exotic, the transgressive, the dreamlike, the schlocky and the subtle, the other - they are all in here. I enjoyed reading Gothic Histories a lot.'