Chapter I: Preface

The aim of this book is to give some account of the growth of supernatural fiction in English literature, beginning with the vogue of the Gothic Romance and Tale of Terror towards the close of the eighteenth century. The origin and development of the Gothic Romance are set forth in detail from the appearance of Walpole's _Castle of Otranto_ in 1764 to the publication of Maturin's _Melmoth the Wanderer_ in 1820; and the survey of this phase of the novel is continued, in the later chapters, to modern times. One of these is devoted to the Tale of Terror in America, where in the hands of Hawthorne and Poe its treatment became a fine art. In the chapters dealing with the more recent forms of the tale of terror and wonder, the scope of the subject becomes so wide that it is impossible to attempt an exhaustive survey.

The present work is the outcome of studies begun during my tenure of the William Noble Fellowship in the University of Liverpool, 1916-18. It is a pleasure to express here my thanks to Professor R.H. Case and to Dr. John Sampson for valuable help and criticism at various stages of the work. Parts of the MS. have also been read by Professor C.H. Herford of the University of Manchester and by Professor Oliver Elton of the University of Liverpool. To Messrs. Constable's reader I am also indebted for several helpful suggestions.--E.B.

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL,

December, 1920.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTORY.

The antiquity of the tale of terror; the element of fear in myths, heroic legends, ballads and folk-tales; terror in the romances of the middle ages, in Elizabethan times and in the seventeenth century; the credulity of the age of reason; the renascence of terror and wonder in poetry; the "attempt to blend the marvellous of old story with the natural of modern novels." Pp. 1-15.

CHAPTER II - THE BEGINNINGS OF GOTHIC ROMANCE.

Walpole's admiration for Gothic art and his interest in the middle ages; the mediaeval revival at the close of the eighteenth century; _The Castle of Otranto_; Walpole's bequest to later romance-writers; Smollett's incidental anticipation of the methods of Gothic Romance; Clara Reeve's _Old English Baron_ and her effort to bring her story "within the utmost verge of probability"; Mrs. Barbauld's Gothic fragment; Blake's _Fair Elenor_; the critical theories and Gothic experiments of Dr. Nathan Drake. Pp. 16-37.

CHAPTER III - "THE NOVEL OF SUSPENSE." MRS. RADCLIFFE.

The vogue of Mrs. Radcliffe; her tentative beginning in _The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne_, and her gradual advance in skill and power; _The Sicilian Romance_ and her early experiments in the "explained" supernatural; _The Romance of the Forest_, and her use of suspense; heroines: _The Mysteries of Udolpho_; illustrations of Mrs. Radcliffe's methods; _The Italian_; villains; her historical accuracy and "unexplained" spectre in _Gaston de Blondeville_; her reading; style; descriptions of scenery; position in the history of the novel. Pp. 38-62.

CHAPTER IV - THE NOVEL OF TERROR. LEWIS AND MATURIN.

Lewis's methods contrasted with those of Mrs. Radcliffe; his debt to German terror-mongers; _The Monk_; ballads; _The Bravo of Venice_; minor works and translations; Scott's review of Maturin's _Montorio_; the vogue of the tale of terror between Lewis and Maturin; Miss Sarah Wilkinson; the personality of Charles Robert Maturin; his literary career; the complicated plot of _The Family of Montorio_; Maturin's debt to others; his distinguishing gifts revealed in _Montorio_; the influence of _Melmoth the Wanderer_ on French literature; a survey of _Melmoth_; Maturin's achievement as a novelist. Pp. 63-93.

CHAPTER V - THE ORIENTAL TALE OF TERROR. BECKFORD.

The Oriental story in France and England in the eighteenth century; Beckford's _Vathek_; Beckford's life and character; his literary gifts; later Oriental tales. Pp. 94-99.

CHAPTER VI - GODWIN AND THE ROSICRUCIAN NOVEL.

Godwin's mind and temper; the plan of _Caleb Williams_ as described by Godwin; his methods; the plot of _Caleb Williams_; its interest as a story; Godwin's limitations as a novelist; _St. Lean_; its origin and purpose; outline of the story; the character of Bethlem Gabor; Godwin's treatment of the Rosicrucian legend; a parody of _St. Lean_; the supernatural in _Cloudesley_ and in _Lives of the Necromancers_; Moore's _Epicurean_; Croly's _Salathiel_; Shelley's youthful enthusiasm for the tale of terror; _Zastrozzi_; its lack of originality; _St. Irvyne_; traces of Shelley's early reading in his poems. Pp. 100-127.

CHAPTER VII - SATIRES ON THE NOVEL OF TERROR.

Jane Austen's raillery in _Northanger Abbey_; Barrett's mockery in _The Heroine_; Peacock's _Nightmare Abbey_; his praise of C.B. Brown in _Gryll Grange_; _The Mystery of the Abbey_, and its misleading title; Crabbe's satire in _Belinda Waters_ and _The Preceptor Husband_; his ironical attack on the sentimental heroine in _The Borough_; his appreciation of folktales; _Sir Eustace Grey_. Pp. 128-144.

CHAPTER VIII - SCOTT AND THE NOVEL OF TERROR.

Scott's review of fashionable fiction in the Preface to _Waverley_; his early attempts at Gothic story in _Thomas the Rhymer_ and _The Lord of Ennerdale_; his enthusiasm for Bürger's _Lenore_ and for Lewis's ballads; his interest in demonology and witchcraft; his attitude to the supernatural; his hints to the writers of ghost-stories; his own experiments; Wandering Willie's Tale, a masterpiece of supernatural horror; the use of the supernatural in the Waverley Novels; Scott, the supplanter of the novel of terror. Pp. 145-156.

CHAPTER IX - LATER DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TALE OF TERROR.

The exaggeration of the later terror-mongers; innovations; the stories of Mary Shelley, Byron and Polidori; _Frankenstein_; its purpose; critical estimate; _Valperga_; _The Last Man_; Mrs. Shelley's short tales; Polidori's _Ernestus Berchtold_, a domestic story with supernatural agency; _The_ FACES _Vampyre_; later vampires; De Quincey's contributions to the tale of terror; Harrison Ainsworth's attempt to revive romance; his early Gothic stories; _Rookwood_, an attempt to bring the Radcliffe romance up to date; terror in Ainsworth's other novels; Marryat's _Phantom Ship_; Bulwer Lytton's interest in the occult; _Zanoni_, and Lytton's theory of the Intelligences; _The Haunted and the Haunters_; _A Strange Story_ and Lytton's preoccupation with mesmerism. Pp. 157-184.

CHAPTER X - SHORT TALES OF TERROR.

The chapbook versions of the Gothic romance; the popularity of sensational story illustrated in Leigh Hunt's _Indicator_; collections of short stories; various types of short story in periodicals; stories based on oral tradition; the humourist's turn for the terrible; natural terror in tales from _Blackwood_ and in Conrad; use of terror in Stevenson and Kipling; future possibilities of fear as a motive in short stories. Pp. 185-196.

CHAPTER XI - AMERICAN TALES OF TERROR.

The vogue of Gothic story in America; the novels of Charles Brockden Brown; his use of the "explained" supernatural; his Godwinian theory; his construction and style; Washington Irving's genial tales of terror; Hawthorne's reticence and melancholy; suggestions for eery stories in his notebooks; _Twice-Told Tales_; _Mosses from an Old Manse; The Scarlet Letter_; Hawthorne's sympathetic insight into character; _The House of the Seven Gables_, and the ancestral curse; his half-credulous treatment of the supernatural; unfinished stories; a contrast of Hawthorne's methods with those of Edgar Allan Poe; _A Manuscript found in a Bottle_, the first of Poe's tales of terror; the skill of Poe illustrated in _Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death_, and _The Cash of Amontillado_; Poe's psychology; his technique in _The Pit and the Pendulum_ and in his detective stories; his influence; the art of Poe; his ideal in writing a short story. Pp. 197-220.

CHAPTER XII - CONCLUSION.

The persistence of the tale of terror; the position of the Gothic romance in the history of fiction; the terrors of actual life in the Brontë's novels; sensational stories of Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu and later authors; the element of terror in various types of romance; experiments of living authors; the future of the tale of terror. Pp 221-228.

INDEX. Pp. 229-241