This collection reappraises and retheorizes Marie Corelli's diverse fictional writings and locates them in their contemporary literary and social context. Marie Corelli (1855-1924) was a fabulously popular novelist in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Yet, in her day, critics railed against her taste for sentimentality, melodrama, supernatural worlds, and overt didacticism. Many critics are still ambivalent about her writing. However, in their reappraisal, the contributors to this volume largely circumvent the earlier critics and engage afresh with Corelli's writing strategies; genre choices; representations of social issues; and ideas about science, metaphysics, and morality. Moving beyond the now outdated project of "recovery", the volume also discusses Corelli's literary market place, analysing both her publishing successes and her decline in popularity. An important theme throughout is Corelli's troubled relationship with an emerging literary Modernism and an ever-widening gulf between high and popular culture. The contributors interrogate the critical templates, assumptions, and biases of a literary establishment (past and present) centred on Modernist tropes and structures. As a result, the Corelli they unearth is not a defective Modernist but an innovative and original writer who eschewed the dictates of a movement with which she had no empathy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women's Writing.

This collection reappraises and retheorizes Marie Corelli's diverse fictional writings and locates them in their contemporary literary and social context. Marie Corelli (1855-1924) was a fabulously popular novelist in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Yet, in her day, critics railed against her taste for sentimentality, melodrama, supernatural worlds, and overt didacticism. Many critics are still ambivalent about her writing. However, in their reappraisal, the contributors to this volume largely circumvent the earlier critics and engage afresh with Corelli's writing strategies; genre choices; representations of social issues; and ideas about science, metaphysics, and morality. Moving beyond the now outdated project of "recovery", the volume also discusses Corelli's literary market place, analysing both her publishing successes and her decline in popularity. An important theme throughout is Corelli's troubled relationship with an emerging literary Modernism and an ever-widening gulf between high and popular culture. The contributors interrogate the critical templates, assumptions, and biases of a literary establishment (past and present) centred on Modernist tropes and structures. As a result, the Corelli they unearth is not a defective Modernist but an innovative and original writer who eschewed the dictates of a movement with which she had no empathy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women's Writing.

Consisting of sixteen original essays by experts in the field, including leading and lesser-known international scholars, Global Frankenstein considers the tremendous adaptability and rich afterlives of Mary Shelley's iconic novel, Frankenstein, at its bicentenary, in such fields and disciplines as digital technology, film, theatre, dance, medicine, book illustration, science fiction, comic books, science, and performance art. This ground-breaking, celebratory volume, edited by two established Gothic Studies scholars, reassesses Frankenstein's global impact for the twenty-first century across a myriad of cultures and nations, from Japan, Mexico, and Turkey, to Britain, Iraq, Europe, and North America. Offering compelling critical dissections of reincarnations of Frankenstein, a generically hybrid novel described by its early reviewers as a "bold," "bizarre," and "impious" production by a writer "with no common powers of mind", this collection interrogates its sustained relevance over two centuries during which it has engaged with such issues as mortality, global capitalism, gender, race, embodiment, neoliberalism, disability, technology, and the role of science.

Consisting of sixteen original essays by experts in the field, including leading and lesser-known international scholars, Global Frankenstein considers the tremendous adaptability and rich afterlives of Mary Shelley's iconic novel, Frankenstein, at its bicentenary, in such fields and disciplines as digital technology, film, theatre, dance, medicine, book illustration, science fiction, comic books, science, and performance art. This ground-breaking, celebratory volume, edited by two established Gothic Studies scholars, reassesses Frankenstein's global impact for the twenty-first century across a myriad of cultures and nations, from Japan, Mexico, and Turkey, to Britain, Iraq, Europe, and North America. Offering compelling critical dissections of reincarnations of Frankenstein, a generically hybrid novel described by its early reviewers as a "bold," "bizarre," and "impious" production by a writer "with no common powers of mind", this collection interrogates its sustained relevance over two centuries during which it has engaged with such issues as mortality, global capitalism, gender, race, embodiment, neoliberalism, disability, technology, and the role of science.

Written from various critical standpoints by international scholars, Scottish Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion interrogates the ways in which the concepts of the Gothic and Scotland have intersected and been manipulated from the mideighteenth century to the present day. This interdisciplinary collection will be the first ever published study to investigate the multifarious strands of Gothic in Scottish fiction, poetry, theatre and film. Its contributors -- all specialists in their field -- combine an attention to socio-historical and cultural contexts with a rigorous close reading of works, both classic and lesser known, produced between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries.

Interrogates the Gothic in relation to Scotland, 'Scottishness', British Gothic, cultural and national boundaries, and issues of identity Written from various critical standpoints by internationally renowned scholars, Scottish Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion interrogates the ways in which the concepts of the Gothic and Scotland have intersected and been manipulated from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. This interdisciplinary collection is the first ever published study to investigate the multifarious strands of Gothic in Scottish fiction, poetry, theatre and film. Its contributors -- all specialists in their fields -- combine an attention to socio-historical and cultural contexts with a rigorous close reading of works, both classic and lesser known, produced between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. Key Features Offers the first critical collection devoted to the topic of the Scottish Gothic as it is manifested across centuries Re-ignites ongoing debates about the relationship between Scotland and the Gothic, Scotland and Romanticism, Scotland and the Enlightenment, and the role of the Gothic in relation to national identity issues Considers issues of religion, politics, history, and culture/cultural identity in Scottish Gothic texts across centuries against the backdrop of the Act of Union and the process of devolution/independence Presents fresh readings of established, overlooked, and recent Scottish Gothic works across a variety of cultural and literary forms

When the handsome young peasant lad Donald saves the beautiful Matilda from drowning, he quickly becomes a favourite of her father, Lord Bosmora. The two youths soon fall in love, and nothing seems to stand in their way but Donald's uncertain parentage.

Little do they suspect the evil forces that surround them, represented by three villains. The wicked Lady Margaret has sworn vengeance on the young lovers, while the lecherous Baron Duncaethal threatens to storm Bosmora Castle and seize Matilda by force. And then there is the mysterious bandit Darthalgo-who is he, and what is his inscrutable purpose?

"The Caledonian Bandit; or, The Heir of Duncaethal" (1811) is one of the best of the later Minerva Press Gothic novels and also one of the rarest, with only two known copies surviving. This new edition features the unabridged text of the original two-volume edition as well as a new introductory essay by Carol Margaret Davison focusing on Scottish Gothic, notes, and a bibliography.

Mrs. Smith's other Gothic novel, "Barozzi; or, The Venetian Sorceress" (1815), is also available in paperback from Valancourt Books.