A genre of supernatural fiction was among the more improbable products of the Age of Enlightenment. This book questions the historical reasons for its growing popularity in the late eighteenth century. Beginning with the notorious case of the Cock Lane ghost, a performing poltergeist who became a major attraction in London in 1762, and with Garrick's spellbinding and paradigmatic performance as the ghost-seeing Hamlet, it moves on to look at the Gothic novels of Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, M. G. Lewis, and others, in unexpected new lights, drawing out the connection between fictions of the supernatural and the growth of consumerism.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A careful, detailed study of the transformation and persistence of the supernatural across the period into an age of skepticism and empiricism....Clery draws a great deal of evidence, from the theater, from drama criticism, and from contemporary accounts of Mary Toft and the Cock Lane ghost, evidence that is carefully marshaled and thoroughly interpreted." Studies in English Literature
"Clery's is one of the best books on the novel in the Romantic period which I have recently read. Altogether, Clery's book is a landmark." Romanticism
"Clery's is one of the best books on the novel in the Romantic period which I have recently read. Altogether, Clery's book is a landmark." Romanticism
Book Description
A genre of supernatural fiction was among the more improbable products of the Age of Enlightenment. This book questions the historical reasons for its growing popularity in the late eighteenth century. Beginning with the notorious case of the Cock Lane ghost, a performing poltergeist who became a major attraction in London in 1762, and with Garrick's spellbinding and paradigmatic performance as the ghost-seeing Hamlet, it moves on to look at the Gothic novels of Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, M. G. Lewis, and others, in unexpected new lights, drawing out the connection between fictions of the supernatural and the growth of consumerism.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History of the Gothic,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Rise of Supernatural Fiction, 1762-1800 (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism) (Paperback)
This book is an excellent read for anyone with an interest in the history or scholarship the Gothic or "horrible" literature in general. Its focus on the shift in English society to a more luxury and consumer-driven economy, during the time when supernatural literature developed as a genre, becomes a little dense at times, if that isn't one's area of particular interest. However, it is full of insight into the reading public that made the field of supernatural fiction what it remains today, and why people found it (and by extension, still find it) so entertaining to be shocked and frightened by unreal events.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
you need a phd in lit to understand most of it,
This review is from: The Rise of Supernatural Fiction, 1762-1800 (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism) (Paperback)
you need a phd in lit to understand most of it, but its really interesting if you've read every classic gothic lit book out there
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
In the second week of January 1762, an advertisement appeared in the London daily newspaper the Public Ledger reporting that a young lady had been lured to London, and then imprisoned and murdered by poisoning. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
apparition narratives, terror fiction, artificial terror, strange luxury, supernatural fiction, supernatural terror, second preface Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cock Lane, Ann Radcliffe, Drury Lane, Monthly Review, The Old English Baron, Clara Reeve, Minerva Press, The Wrongs of Woman, Horrid Mysteries, Aaron Hill, Adam Smith, Charlotte Smith, Gaston de Blondeville, Mary Tofts, Northanger Abbey, Sir Philip, The Drummer, Burke's Enquiry, Duke of York, Elizabeth Canning, Lord Mayor, Public Ledger, William Hogarth New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In the second week of January 1762, an advertisement appeared in the London daily newspaper the Public Ledger reporting that a young lady had been lured to London, and then imprisoned and murdered by poisoning. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
apparition narratives, terror fiction, artificial terror, strange luxury, supernatural fiction, supernatural terror, second preface Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cock Lane, Ann Radcliffe, Drury Lane, Monthly Review, The Old English Baron, Clara Reeve, Minerva Press, The Wrongs of Woman, Horrid Mysteries, Aaron Hill, Adam Smith, Charlotte Smith, Gaston de Blondeville, Mary Tofts, Northanger Abbey, Sir Philip, The Drummer, Burke's Enquiry, Duke of York, Elizabeth Canning, Lord Mayor, Public Ledger, William Hogarth New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
15
books
cite this book:
See all 15 books citing this book
- The Castle of Otranto (Classic, Modern, Penguin) by Horace Walpole on 16 pages
- The Mysteries of Udolpho (Oxford World's Classics) by Ann Radcliffe on 10 pages
- The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe on 8 pages
- Horrid Mysteries by Karl Grosse on 5 pages
- The Fable of the Bees: And Other Writings by Bernard Mandeville on 5 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel: From Richardson to George Eliot by Leah Price in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Literary Channel: The Inter-National Invention of the Novel (Translation/Transnation) by Margaret Cohen on page 221, and Back Matter
- The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature) by Jerrold E. Hogle on page 37, and Back Matter
- Ghost Stories by British and American Women: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities) by Lynette Carpenter in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Boss Ladies, Watch Out!: Essays on Women, Sex and Writing by Terry Castle in Back Matter
See all 15 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
