Gothic Short Stories by David Blair
Selected and Edited with an Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent at Canterbury. Late in the eighteenth century authors began to write ‘Gothic’ stories as a way of putting literature back in touch with the irrational, the supernatural and the bizarre, which had been neglected in the ‘Age of Reason’. This superb new collection brings together stories from the earliest decades of Gothic writing with later 19th and early 20th century tales from the period in which Gothic diversified into the familiar forms of the ghost- and-horror-story. Work by writers such as Poe, Dickens, Hawthorne, Gaskell and M. R. James appears alongside that of anonymous writers from the start of the period and many lesser-known authors from Britain and America. Some of these stories, like the haunting ‘The Lame Priest’ are ‘lost masterpieces’ and several have never been anthologised before. Together they cover the spectrum of Gothic story-telling – tales of madness and violence, of shape-shifters and spectres, that express some of the deepest fears of the human mind – insanity, sexuality, death and the often terrible power of the past to catch up with the present. In a lively, authoritative introduction David Blair provides fresh insights and a detailed commentary on the stories’ place in the complex traditions of Gothic writing in British and American literature.
DAVID BLAIR'S first book, Ascension Days, was chosen by Thomas Lux for the 2007 Del Sol Poetry Prize, and he is also the author of Friends with Dogs (Sheep Meadow Press, 2016). He has taught at the New England Institute of Art and in the MFA Writing Program at the University of New Hampshire. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife and daughter, and he has degrees from Fordham University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781840224252 |
| ISBN 10 | 1840224258 |
| Title | Gothic Short Stories |
| Author | David Blair |
| Series | Tales Of Mystery And The Supernatural |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Wordsworth Editions Ltd |
| Year published | 2002-09-05 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |