Gothic Readings

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 (including Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe) and many of their followers (including Clara Reeve, Charlotte Smith, Joanna Baillie, Charles Brockden Brown, Catherine Cuthbertson and Eliza Parsons). It also includes peer reviews, private letters and diaries, chapbooks, and contemporary anecdotes about dramatic performances and the design of theatre sets. The collection covers 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; literary criticism; and anti-Gothic polemic. 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.