The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales edited by Chris Baldick
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.
Format: Paperback | 560 pages
Dimensions (cm): 19.6 x 12.9 x 3 | 406g
Publication Date: 12 Mar 2009
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication City/Country: Oxford, United Kingdom
Language: English
Edition Number: 2
ISBN10: 0199561532
ISBN13: 9780199561537
Condition: Good
A book that has been read but is in good condition. Some obvious damage to the cover including minor scuff marks and scratching, and a fair amount of creasing, but no holes or tears. The majority of pages are undamaged with some creasing but no tearing. No pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins. No missing pages. Still a very clean, solid, and readable copy.