This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of research on the Gothic Revival. The Gothic Revival was based on emotion rather than reason and when Horace Walpole created Strawberry Hill House, a gleaming white castle on the banks of the Thames, he had to create new words to describe the experience of gothic lifestyle. Nevertheless, Walpole's house produced nightmares and his book The Castle of Otranto was the first truly gothic novel, with supernatural, sensational and Shakespearean elements challenging the emergent fiction of social relationships. The novel's themes of violence, tragedy, death, imprisonment, castle battlements, dungeons, fair maidens, secrets, ghosts and prophecies led to a new genre encompassing prose, theatre, poetry and painting, whilst opening up a whole world of imagination for entrepreneurial female writers such as Mary Shelley, Joanna Baillie and Ann Radcliffe, whose immensely popular books led to the intense inner landscapes of the Bronte sisters. Matthew Lewis's The Monk created a new gothic: atheistic, decadent, perverse, necrophilic and hellish. The social upheaval of the French Revolution and the emergence of the Romantic movement with its more intense (and often) atheistic self-absorption led the gothic into darker corners of human experience with a greater emphasis on the inner life, hallucination, delusion, drug addiction, mental instability, perversion and death and the emerging science of psychology. The intensity of the German experience led to an emphasis on doubles and schizophrenic behaviour, ghosts, spirits, mesmerism, the occult and hell. This volume charts the origins of this major shift in social perceptions and completes a trilogy of Palgrave Handbooks on the Gothic-combined they provide an exhaustive survey of current research in Gothic studies, a go-to for students and researchers alike.

By the early 1830s the old school of Gothic literature was exhausted. Late Romanticism, emphasising as it did the uncertainties of personality and imagination, gave it a new lease of life. Gothic-the literature of disturbance and uncertainty-now produced works that reflected domestic fears, sexual crimes, drug filled hallucinations, the terrible secrets of middle class marriage, imperial horror at alien invasion, occult demonism and the insanity of psychopaths. It was from the 1830s onwards that the old gothic castle gave way to the country house drawing room, the dungeon was displaced by the sewers of the city and the villains of early novels became the familiar figures of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Dorian Grey and Jack the Ripper. After the death of Prince Albert (1861), the Gothic became darker, more morbid, obsessed with demonic lovers, blood sucking ghouls, blood stained murderers and deranged doctors. Whilst the gothic architecture of the Houses of Parliament and the new Puginesque churches upheld a Victorian ideal of sobriety, Christianity and imperial destiny, Gothic literature filed these new spaces with a dread that spread like a plague to America, France, Germany and even Russia. From 1830 to 1914, the period covered by this volume, we saw the emergence of the greats of Gothic literature and the supernatural from Edgar Allan Poe to Emily Bronte, from Sheridan Le Fanu to Bram Stoker and Robert Louis Stevenson. Contributors also examine the fin-de-siecle dreamers of decadence such as Arthur Machen, M P Shiel and Vernon Lee and their obsession with the occult, folklore, spiritualism, revenants, ghostly apparitions and cosmic annihilation. This volume explores the period through the prism of architectural history, urban studies, feminism, 'hauntology' and much more. 'Horror', as Poe teaches us, 'is the soul of the plot'.

In the middle of the eighteenth century the Gothic became the universal language of architecture, painting and literature, expressing a love not only of ruins, decay and medieval pageantry, but also the drug-induced monsters of the mind. By explaining the international dimension of Gothicism and dealing in detail with German, French and American authors, Gothic Histories demonstrates the development of the genre in every area of art and includes original research on Gothic theatre, spiritualism, ghost seeing and spirit photography and the central impact of penny-dreadful writers on the genre, while also including a host of forgotten or ignored authors and their biographies. Gothic Histories is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Gothic and its literary double, the horror genre, leading the reader from their origins in the haunted landscapes of the Romantics through Frankenstein and Dracula to the very different worlds of Hannibal Lecter and Goth culture. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it is a fascinating guide to the Gothic and horror in film, fiction and popular culture.

American Drama offers a comprehensive introduction for students who require detailed but clear information on the dramatists included. It has much to offer the academic and serious reader and addresses the common concern that the unfamiliar names and forgotten voices of those who made a major contribution to the history of American drama have been unfairly neglected. A range of approaches and a wide selection of plays discussed make this volume a landmark in our appreciation and understanding of some of this century's greatest writers.

The first in a three-volume sequence, this book covers the period between 1900 and 1929, providing a perceptive and thorough analysis of British literature within its historical, cultural and artistic context. It identifies the crucial, interwoven relationships between literature and the visual arts, modern poetry, popular fiction, journalism, cinema, music and radio. Much factual detail and a literary chronology guide the reader through the text.

British culture has changed almost beyond recognition since 1956. Angry young men have been displaced by Yuppies, Elvis by the Spice Girls, and meat and two veg by continental cuisine. What is more, as the death of Diana, Princess of Wales showed, the British are now more famous for a trembling lower lip than a stiff upper one. This volume, the last in the series, examines the transformations in literature and culture over the last forty years. An introductory essay provides a context for the following chapters by arguing that although there have been significant changes in British life, there are also profound continuities. It also discusses the rise of 'theory' and its impact on the humanities. Each essay in the volume concentrates on a facet of British culture over the last half century from painting to poetry, from the seriousness of the novel to the postmodern ironies of the computing age. What we get from this selection is not only an informed history of the relations between literature and culture but also a lively sense of cultural change, not least of which is the new found relationship between literature and other arts which ushers us into the new millennium.

From regicides to revolutionaries; from fascists to anarchists; from Tom Paine to Tom Wintringham, this book is a history of noble ideals and crushing failures in which Clive Bloom takes us on a journey through British history, exploring our often rocky relationship with the ruling elite. Restless Revolutionaries reveals our surprising legacy of terrorism and revolution, reminding us that Britain has witnessed centuries of revolt. This is a history encompassing three bloody civil wars in Ireland, the bombing campaigns by the IRA, two Welsh uprisings, one Lowland Scottish civil war, uprisings in Derbyshire and Kent, five attempts to assassinate the entire cabinet and seize London, and numerous attempts to murder the royal family. Restless Revolutionaries provides a fascinating testament to the fact that from the 1790s to the present day over 23,000 British subjects have fought and died for the ideal of a fair republic.

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of research on the Gothic Revival. The Gothic Revival was based on emotion rather than reason and when Horace Walpole created Strawberry Hill House, a gleaming white castle on the banks of the Thames, he had to create new words to describe the experience of gothic lifestyle. Nevertheless, Walpole's house produced nightmares and his book The Castle of Otranto was the first truly gothic novel, with supernatural, sensational and Shakespearean elements challenging the emergent fiction of social relationships. The novel's themes of violence, tragedy, death, imprisonment, castle battlements, dungeons, fair maidens, secrets, ghosts and prophecies led to a new genre encompassing prose, theatre, poetry and painting, whilst opening up a whole world of imagination for entrepreneurial female writers such as Mary Shelley, Joanna Baillie and Ann Radcliffe, whose immensely popular books led to the intense inner landscapes of the Bronte sisters. Matthew Lewis's The Monk created a new gothic: atheistic, decadent, perverse, necrophilic and hellish. The social upheaval of the French Revolution and the emergence of the Romantic movement with its more intense (and often) atheistic self-absorption led the gothic into darker corners of human experience with a greater emphasis on the inner life, hallucination, delusion, drug addiction, mental instability, perversion and death and the emerging science of psychology. The intensity of the German experience led to an emphasis on doubles and schizophrenic behaviour, ghosts, spirits, mesmerism, the occult and hell. This volume charts the origins of this major shift in social perceptions and completes a trilogy of Palgrave Handbooks on the Gothic-combined they provide an exhaustive survey of current research in Gothic studies, a go-to for students and researchers alike.

By the early 1830s the old school of Gothic literature was exhausted. Late Romanticism, emphasising as it did the uncertainties of personality and imagination, gave it a new lease of life. Gothic-the literature of disturbance and uncertainty-now produced works that reflected domestic fears, sexual crimes, drug filled hallucinations, the terrible secrets of middle class marriage, imperial horror at alien invasion, occult demonism and the insanity of psychopaths. It was from the 1830s onwards that the old gothic castle gave way to the country house drawing room, the dungeon was displaced by the sewers of the city and the villains of early novels became the familiar figures of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Dorian Grey and Jack the Ripper. After the death of Prince Albert (1861), the Gothic became darker, more morbid, obsessed with demonic lovers, blood sucking ghouls, blood stained murderers and deranged doctors. Whilst the gothic architecture of the Houses of Parliament and the new Puginesque churches upheld a Victorian ideal of sobriety, Christianity and imperial destiny, Gothic literature filed these new spaces with a dread that spread like a plague to America, France, Germany and even Russia. From 1830 to 1914, the period covered by this volume, we saw the emergence of the greats of Gothic literature and the supernatural from Edgar Allan Poe to Emily Bronte, from Sheridan Le Fanu to Bram Stoker and Robert Louis Stevenson. Contributors also examine the fin-de-siecle dreamers of decadence such as Arthur Machen, M P Shiel and Vernon Lee and their obsession with the occult, folklore, spiritualism, revenants, ghostly apparitions and cosmic annihilation. This volume explores the period through the prism of architectural history, urban studies, feminism, 'hauntology' and much more. 'Horror', as Poe teaches us, 'is the soul of the plot'.

Margaret Thatcher remains one of the United Kingdom's most polarising prime ministers. This provocative investigation sheds new light on the secret, internal 'cold war' that the Iron Lady and her government waged against 'the enemy within': anti-nuclear, new age and ecology campaigners; poll tax protesters; trade unionists at GCHQ and striking miners; feminists and homosexuals; Scottish nationalists; Ken Livingstone and the GLC; Derek Hatton and the city councillors of Liverpool; protesters and rioters in Brixton, Toxteth and Broadwater Farm; the far right; the EU; and the IRA - among others. It was a campaign fuelled by paranoia on both the left and right of the political spectrum and fought with corruption, black propaganda, dirty tricks and even murder. Expertly juxtaposing notable events with today's political arena, author Clive Bloom surmises that the United Kingdom is rapidly changing and that although Thatcher's ideals seem to have vanished, one remains: the power and importance of the extra-parliamentary state and its surveillance methods and hidden powers in a new age of terrorism. Thatcher's Secret War provides a timely, critical and compelling study of a deeply complex and controversial premiership. Accessible, fascinating and compulsive, this is a book that may well ruffle feathers and rattle cages. Longlisted for the 'Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing' in 2016.

Margaret Thatcher remains one of the United Kingdom's most polarising prime ministers. This provocative investigation sheds new light on the secret, internal 'cold war' that the Iron Lady and her government waged against 'the enemy within': anti-nuclear, new age and ecology campaigners; poll tax protesters; trade unionists at GCHQ and striking miners; feminists and homosexuals; Scottish nationalists; Ken Livingstone and the GLC; Derek Hatton and the city councillors of Liverpool; protesters and rioters in Brixton, Toxteth and Broadwater Farm; the far right; the EU; and the IRA - among others. It was a campaign fuelled by paranoia on both the left and right of the political spectrum and fought with corruption, black propaganda, dirty tricks and even murder. Expertly juxtaposing notable events with today's political arena, author Clive Bloom surmises that the United Kingdom is rapidly changing and that although Thatcher's ideals seem to have vanished, one remains: the power and importance of the extra-parliamentary state and its surveillance methods and hidden powers in a new age of terrorism. Thatcher's Secret War provides a timely, critical and compelling study of a deeply complex and controversial premiership. Accessible, fascinating and compulsive, this is a book that may well ruffle feathers and rattle cages. Longlisted for the 'Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing' in 2016.

Since 2000, London has seen unprecedented levels of unrest. Its streets have become the battleground for a host of new demands and new ideological standpoints; its occupants, protesters and authority alike, have had to invent new tactics to cope with the pressure of street politics and advances in social media. Riot City deals in detail with the story behind the capital's unrest from the perspective of protesters, police and government. Using a range of sources, from security briefings to reportage, Clive Bloom provides an analysis of the modern protest movement, placing it in the context of a long history of rebellion. From the student protests to the August riots, Bloom deftly draws parallels between London's shocking events and reveals, more disturbingly, how many lessons can still be learned from our riotous past.

American Drama offers a comprehensive introduction for students who require detailed but clear information on the dramatists included. It has much to offer the academic and serious reader and addresses the common concern that the unfamiliar names and forgotten voices of those who made a major contribution to the history of American drama have been unfairly neglected. A range of approaches and a wide selection of plays discussed make this volume a landmark in our appreciation and understanding of some of this century's greatest writers.

Tracing its origins back to Walt Whitman, the Modernist tradition in American poetry is driven by the same concern to engage with the world in revolutionary terms, inspired by the concept of democracy vital to the American dream. But this tradition is not confined to a few writers at the beginning of the century: instead it has been an enduring force, extending from coast to coast and of varying hues: Imagist, Objectivist, Beat. International in flavour but shaped by the language and conditions of America, this poetry continues to speak to us today. This collection of specially commissioned essays brings together leading scholars and critics to define the American Modernist canon, providing a range of perspectives helpful to all those interested in this fascinating poetry.

Dealing with a topic fraught with moral, political and sexual tensions, this volume provides a forum for a male/female dialogue concerning the history, dissemination and consequences of pornographic representation that will challenge established views and open doors to further exploration and debate.

This book charts the publishing industry and bestselling fiction from 1900, featuring a comprehensive list of all bestselling fiction titles in the UK. This third edition includes a new introduction which features additional information on current trends in reading including the rise of Black, Asian and LGBTQIA+ publishing; the continuing importance of certain genres and up to date trends in publishing, bookselling, library borrowing and literacy. There are sections on writing for children, on the importance of audiobooks and book clubs, self- published bestsellers as well as many new entries to the present day including bestselling authors such as David Walliams, Peter James, George R R Martin and far less well known authors whose books s sell in their thousands. This is the essential guide to best-selling books, authors, genres, publishing and bookselling since 1900, providing a unique insight into more than a century of entertainment, and opening a window into the reading habits and social life of the British from the death of Queen Victoria to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

This volume presents thirteen essays on the spy thriller in the twentieth century and includes a critical introduction to the subject. Each essay combines in a clear and understandable way, formal, historical, and aesthetic theory with sound practical criticism. Authors covered range from past masters such as Joseph Conrad and John Buchan to present masters such as Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and John le Carr, whilst subjects range widely from discussion of the formal characteristics of the genre to the conditions governing modern state surveillance and control, of which the spy novel is not only a symptom but also a warning. The book, which combines a comprehensive range of literary approaches, is the companion volume to Nineteenth-Century Suspense: From Poe to Conan Doyle, Twentieth Century Suspense: The Genre Comes of Age, Literature and Imperialism and American Crime Fiction, all available in the Insights Series.

This is a comprehensive guide to the history of Gothic from the eighteenth century to the present day that includes original research. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Gothic became the universal language of architecture, painting and literature, expressing a love not only of ruins, decay and medieval pageantry, but also the drug-induced monsters of the mind. By explaining the international dimension of Gothicism and dealing in detail with German, French and American authors, "Gothic Histories" demonstrates the development of the genre in every area of art and includes original research on Gothic theatre, spiritualism, 'ghost seeing' and spirit photography and the central impact of penny-dreadful writers on the genre, while also including a host of forgotten or ignored authors and their biographies. "Gothic Histories" is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Gothic and its literary double, the horror genre, leading the reader from their origins in the haunted landscapes of the Romantics through Frankenstein and Dracula to the very different worlds of Hannibal Lecter and Goth culture. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it is a fascinating guide to the Gothic and horror in film, fiction and popular culture.

From regicides to revolutionaries; from fascists to anarchists; from Tom Paine to Tom Wintringham, this book is a history of noble ideals and crushing failures in which Clive Bloom takes us on a journey through British history, exploring our often rocky relationship with the ruling elite. Restless Revolutionaries reveals our surprising legacy of terrorism and revolution, reminding us that Britain has witnessed centuries of revolt. This is a history encompassing three bloody civil wars in Ireland, the bombing campaigns by the IRA, two Welsh uprisings, one Lowland Scottish civil war, uprisings in Derbyshire and Kent, five attempts to assassinate the entire cabinet and seize London, and numerous attempts to murder the royal family. Restless Revolutionaries provides a fascinating testament to the fact that from the 1790s to the present day over 23,000 British subjects have fought and died for the ideal of a fair republic.

We live in an age of terrorism and like to think that the United Kingdom is a reasonably peaceful place, largely untroubled by the latest atrocity committed by foreign fanatics. Yet we too have a hidden tradition of terrorism that official history has chosen to ignore. Since the 1790s, almost 23,000 British subjects have fought and died on British soil for the ideals of revolutionary republicanism. As well as the three bloody civil wars in Ireland, and the bombing campaigns by the IRA in English cities, there have been two Welsh uprisings, one Lowland Scottish civil war, one crofters' rebellion, one uprising in Derbyshire and another in Kent. There have also been five attempts to assassinate the entire cabinet and seize London, numerous attempts to murder the royal family and an almost continuous history of terrorism from the Fenians of the 1860s to the Tartan Army of the 1970s. Clive Bloom's new book tells for the first time the full story of attempts to set up a British republic. Colourful and revealing, it throws light on the links between English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh republicanism and shows how the anti-terror state was born not in 2001 but in the 1790s.

Literature and Culture in BritainVolume Three: 1956-1999Clive Bloom and Gary Day(spine)Literature and Culture in BritainVolume Three: 1956-1999Clive Bloom and Gary DayLongman logo(back cover)Literature and Culture in BritainVolume Three: 1956-1999Clive Bloom and Gary DayBritish culture has changed almost beyond recognition since 1956. Angry young men have been displaced by Yuppies, Elvis by the Spice Girls, and meat and two veg by continental cuisine. What is more, as the death of Diana, Princess of Wales showed, the British are now more famous for a trembling lower lip than a stiff upper one. This volume, the last in the series, examines the transformations in literature and culture over the last forty years. An introductory essay provides a context for the following chapters by arguing that although there have been significant changes in British life, there are also profound continuities. It also discusses the rise of 'theory' and its impact on the humanities. Each essay in the volume concentrates on a facet of British culture over the last half century from painting to poetry, from the seriousness of the novel to the postmodern ironies of the computing age. What we get from this

The first in a three-volume sequence, this book covers the period between 1900 and 1929, providing a perceptive and thorough analysis of British literature within its historical, cultural and artistic context. It identifies the crucial, interwoven relationships between literature and the visual arts, modern poetry, popular fiction, journalism, cinema, music and radio. Much factual detail and a literary chronology guide the reader through the text.