Gothic effigy brings together for the first time the multifarious visual motifs and media associated with Gothic, many of which have never received serious study before. This guide is the most comprehensive work in its field, a study aid that draws links between a considerable array of Gothic visual works and artifacts, from the work of Salvator Rosa and the first illustrations of Gothic Blue Books to the latest Gothic painters and graphic artists. Currently popular areas such as Gothic fashion, gaming, T.V. and film are considered, as well as the ghostly images of magic lantern shows. This groundbreaking study will serve as an invaluable reference and research book. In its wide range and closely detailed descriptions, it will be very attractive for students, academics, collectors, fans of popular Gothic culture and general readers. -- .

This book is the first study of the vampires in silent cinema, presenting a detailed academic yet accessible discussion of the films themselves and their sources. For the very first time, The Fire Elemental from the Wharton brothers’ The Mysteries of Myra (1916) is identified as cinema’s original vampire, his appearance initiating a rich and variegated period of film production that is currently missing from studies of horror cinema. Exciting and ground-breaking, Vampires on the Silent Screen also discusses Drakula Halála / Dracula’s death (1920), the first ever filmic female vampire in Erich Kober’s Lilith and Ly (1919), and the Dracula lookalike, Count Merlin in Alexander Korda’s Magic (1917) as well as many other productions. A socio-cultural framework with critical highlighting of eco-horror theory is used throughout to draw these unique discoveries together. This project is a must read for any horror enthusiasts out there.

"The Mysterious Stranger," an anonymous tale originally published in German in 1823 and translated into English soon after, is the earliest vampire story with many of the elements that later found their way into Bram Stoker's Dracula: a Carpathian Mountains setting, an aristocratic vampire who sleeps in a coffin in a ruined crypt by day and has dominion over wolves, a young woman in peril.... Long out of print, this story is a gripping read in its own right. The volume is completed with two other rarely reprinted vampire tales: "The Last Lords of Gardonal" (1867) by William Gilbert, the father of the famous D'Oyly Carte librettist, and Mary Cholondeley's 1890 chiller, "Let Loose."

This is a ground-breaking exploration that runs generally against the critical grain in identifying a burgeoning production of films of fear and horror before the admission of the horror film genre per se. It is a study that reveals and emphasises the formative and innovative power of film, from Georges Melies's Le Manoir du Diable (1896) to Edgar G. Ulmer's superbly reflexive The Black Cat (1934). With its focus on twenty-one key films, and referencing other relevant productions, the present study involves an inclusive and sensitive approach. It reveals an awareness of the heterogeneity of horror production with the discussion spanning the period of the invention of movies, the expansion from single-reelers to longer and continuous productions, and the advent of talkies. Stepping beyond the bounds of Anglo-American studios, in its seven chapters the book involves the work of directors from France, Spain, England, Moravia, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Mexico and the USA, to consider and compare films that have not previously received serious attention.

Gavin Selerie (poet, and Shearsman author) is currently one of the most skilful and imaginative exponents of the long, book-length poem in English. His friends and colleagues gather together here in this volume to offer poems, essays, interviews, memoirs, photographs and artworks in his honour, along with some reprinted pieces by Gavin himself. Contributors are Gilbert Adair, Gillian Allnutt, David Annwn, Tilla Brading, Ian Brinton, Lyndon Davies, Laurie Duggan, Andrew Duncan, Ken Edwards, Amy Evans Bauer, Allen Fisher, Harry Gilonis, John Goodby, Giles Goodland, Alan Halsey, Robert Hampson, Randolph Healy, Jeff Hilson, Paul Holman, David Hackbridge Johnson, Ian MacFadyen, Matt Martin, Ian McMillan, Susana Medina, Anthony Mellors, Peter Middleton, David Miller, Lesley Newland, Frances Presley, Elaine Randell, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Gavin Selerie, Peterjon Skelt, Yasmin Skelt, Simon Smith and Mandie Wright.

This exciting volume combines the diverse talents of an impressive range of writer-critics in an engaged and lively response to the poetry of Geraldine Monk. Monk's reputation as one of the most exciting and provocative writer-performers on the British scene has been established for some time and this new collection aims to reflect critically on a prolific career which has spawned fourteen major works in the last twenty five years. The contributions within pursue several lines of enquiry beginning with considerations of the early pamphlets published in the late seventies and early eighties, the substantial works of the mid-late 80s and 90s and the major collections of the beginning of the twenty first century. Unsurprisingly what many consider as one of Monk's finest books, 1994's Interrregnum (now available in the new Salt Selected Poems) - a stunningly complex evocation of the fate of the Pendle Witches - is examined from a variety of angles concerning its poetics of difficulty, its relationship to ideas of place, nature and eco-criticism, and its politics. Other contributors look at the presence of the 'eerie' in Monk's work; the role and function of children's games throughout her oeuvre and the ways Monk engages with the visual and the sonic aspects of language. This will be the first collection of critical responses to Monk's poetry and will be a must for any reader interested in engaging with this dynamic and strenuous writer.