History of the Gothic: Gothic Literature 1764-1824

Offers an introduction to classic British Gothic literature. This book examines works by Gothic authors such as Horace Walpole, Matthew Lewis, Ann Radcliffe, William Godwin and Mary Shelley against the backdrop of eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century British social and political history.

As the pragmatic title of the volume announces, its approach to the genre is firmly anchored by historicism; indeed, its strongest and most persuasive accounts of individual novels are those in which they are carefully mapped onto 'their very specific historic and geographic moments'...Davison's study lays out a clear and suggestive introduction to the genre in this period as well as a valuable re-shaping of the critical body of work that has so far underpinned our understanding of it. Helen Stoddart - University of Glasgow "As the volume that covers what is usually regarded as the heartland of early Gothic fiction, Davison's contribution bears a heavy responsibility, and she addresses this task with weight and dignity. She has things to say about all the major Gothic fictions of the period, from Horace Walpole to C. R. Maturin, and indeed takes this further into some interesting thoughts on Victorian Gothic. As an introduction to these novels and stories, this will undoubtedly be a useful text for scholars and students alike, and arguably it fulfills its remit admirably... [A] very valuable book."--David Punter, University of Bristol "European Romantic Review "