The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192862197 ISBN 13: 9780192862198

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2001

Synopsis

The Gothic tale has been with us for over two hundred years, but this collection is the first to illustrate the continuing strength of this special fictional tradition from the late eighteenth century to the present day. Gothic fiction is generally identified from Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto and the works of Ann Radcliffe, and with heroes and heroines menaced by feudal villains amid crumbling ruins. While the repertoire of claustrophobic settings, gloomy themes, and threatening atmosphere established the Gothic genre, later writers from Poe onwards achieved an ever greater sophistication, and a shift in emphasis from cruelty to decadence. Modern Gothic is distinguished by its imaginative variety of voice, from the chilling depiction of a disordered mind to the sinister suggestion of vampirism. This anthology brings together the work of writers such as Le Fanu, Hawthorne, Hardy, Faulkner, and Borges with their earliest literary forebears, and emphasizes the central role of women writers from Anna Laetitia Aikin to Isabel Allende and Angela Carter. While the Gothic tale shares some characteristics with the ghost story and tales of horror and fantasy, the present volume triumphantly celebrates the distinctive features that define this powerful and unsettling literary form.

About this title

Review:

"The perfect book to put beside the bed of a timorous guest you wish would go home."--The Economist "The perfect book to put beside the bed of a timorous guest you wish would go home."--The Economist "The perfect book to put beside the bed of a timorous guest you wish would go home."--The Economist "The perfect book to put beside the bed of a timorous guest you wish would go home."--The Economist

About the Author:

Chris Baldick is Professor of English at Goldsmith's College, University of London. His books include In Frankenstein's Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth Century Writing and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0192862197
• ISBN 13: 9780192862198
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 533
• Editor: Baldick Chris