The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Paperback)

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 its origins in the late eighteenth century. 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.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Oxford Books of Prose & Verse
Release date:	March 2009
First published:	May 2009
Editors:	Chris Baldick
Dimensions:	195 x 129 x 32mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	533
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-956153-7
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Collections & anthologies of various literary forms Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > General Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Horror & ghost stories Books > Fiction > Special features > Classic fiction Promotions
LSN:	0-19-956153-2
Barcode:	9780199561537

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