An innovative collection of essays examining the sometimes paradoxical alignment of Realism and Naturalism with the Gothic in American literature to highlight their shared qualitiesFollowing the golden age of British Gothic in the late eighteenth century, the American Gothic’s pinnacle is often recognized as having taken place during the decades of American Romanticism. However, Haunting Realities explores the period of American Realism—the end of...

This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history. Quotes from the book: "Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute." "Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of...

Cthulhu Mythos scholar Robert M. Price claims the irregular sonnet The Kraken, written in 1830 by Alfred Tennyson, was a major inspiration for Lovecraft's story, as both reference a huge aquatic creature sleeping for an eternity at the bottom of the ocean and destined to emerge from its slumber in an apocalyptic age.

The romance novel has the strange distinction of being the most popular but least respected of literary genres. While it remains consistently dominant in bookstores and on best-seller lists, it is also widely dismissed by the critical community. Scholars have alleged that romance novels help create subservient readers, who are largely women, by confining heroines to stories that ignore issues other than love and marriage.Pamela Regis argues that such critical studies fail to take i...

The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel by Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890. A substantially revised and expanded edition was published in April 1891. For the new edition, Wilde revised the content of the novel's existing chapters, divided the final chapter into two chapters, and created six entirely new additional chapters. Whereas the original edition of the novel contains 13 chapters, the revised edition of the novel contains 20 chapters.The novel tel...

Jerry is loose, hiding somewhere in Jack's vicinity, waiting to strike again. The FBI, however, has a plan, one in which Jack is their star player. But another agency, Hellfire Club Ltd, has a better idea. And a more sinister plot.The only question is: how far is Jack willing to go to get his revenge?

Includes an active table of contents so you can easily navigate to each book.Table of ContentsAshton-Kirk, Investigator (1910)Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent (1912)Ashton-Kirk, Criminologist (1918)The Three Wise Men (1906)The Young Continentals at Bunker Hill (1910)Ashton-Kirk, Investigator-Those who have found their way to Ashton-Kirk's door have been of many races and interests. Men of science have often been surprised to find him in to...

Christopher Frayling has spent 45 years exploring the history of one of the most enduring figures in the history of mass culture the vampire. Vampyres is a comprehensive and generously illustrated history and anthology of vampires in literature, from the folklore of Eastern Europe to the Romantics and beyond. Frayling recounts the most significant moments in gothic history, while extracts from a huge range of sources including Bram Stokers detailed research notes for Dracula, penny dreadfu...

First serialized in the journal "The Dark Blue" and published shortly thereafter in the short story collection In a Glass Darkly, Le Fanu’s 1872 vampire tale is in many ways the overlooked older sister of Bram Stoker’s more acclaimed Dracula. A thrilling gothic tale, Carmilla tells the story of a young woman lured by the charms of a female vampire.This edition includes a student-oriented introduction, tracing the major critical responses to Carmilla,

Monsters are fragmentary, uncertain, frightening creatures. What happens when they enter the realm of the theatre?The Monster in Theatre History explores the cultural genealogies of monsters as they appear in the recorded history of Western theatre. From the Ancient Greeks to the most cutting-edge new media, Michael Chemers focuses on a series of ‘key’ monsters, including Frankenstein’s creature, werewolves, ghosts, and vampires, to reconsider what monsters in performance might mea...

The Handbook to the Ghost Story sets out to survey and significantly extend a new field of criticism which has been taking shape over recent years, centring on the ghost story and bringing together a vast range of interpretive methods and theoretical perspectives. The main task of the volume is to properly situate the genre within historical and contemporary literary cultures across the globe, and to explore its significance within wider literary contexts as well as those of the s...

Faith thought that starting a new school for her senior year was as bad as it was going to get. She thought that making new friends and finishing her exams were going to be her biggest problems, but she was wrong. When she meets smooth talking Sam on her first day, she can tell something isn't right about him. After going to a party and bumping into him again, she finds herself waking up the next morning with no memory of what happened. There is someone who knows what happened, though, but...