The Gothic imagination, that dark predilection for horrors and terrors, specters and sprites, occupies a prominent place in contemporary Western culture. First given fictional expression in Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto of 1764, the Gothic mode has continued to haunt literature, fine art, music, film, and fashion ever since its heyday in Britain in the 1790s. Terror and Wonder, which accompanies a major exhibition at the British Library, is a collection of essays that trace the numerous meanings and manifestations of the Gothic across time, tracking its prominent shifts and mutations from its 18th-century origins, through the Victorian period, and into the present day. Edited and introduced by Dale Townshend, and consisting of original contributions by Nick Groom, Angela Wright, Alexandra Warwick, Andrew Smith, Lucie Armitt, and Catherine Spooner, Terror and Wonder provides a compelling and comprehensive overview of the Gothic imagination over the past 250 years.

Collects the best of Kamin's writings for the Chicago Tribune from the past decade.

This collection of thirteen essays on American literature and culture defines and examines a gothic tradition in frontier writing. As the imaginative border between the known and the unknown, the frontier subject has provided a bridge to gothic domains and has been used by writers from every period in American history to explore social, ethnic, and gender frontiers, as well as frontiers of art and language. The frontier gothic world, for all of its ambiguity and ambivalence, is nevertheless immanent, palpable, and undeniably present, and it impinges significantly upon the conventional world, forcing that world to change, to adapt, to transform itself or be destroyed. The essays consider canonical writers such as Brockden Brown, Cooper, Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville; they also discuss Mary Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edward Abbey, William Gibson, Gerald Vizenor, Leslie Silko, and Rudolfo Anaya. Also included is a previously uncollected short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Giant Wistaria," discussed by essayist Gary Scharnhorst as "A Hieroglyph of the Female Frontier Gothic." In American literature, the frontier gothic tradition expresses the spirit of a nation proud of its pragmatic realism and hungry for romance, vigorously pursuing a manifest destiny in the light of day, yet troubled and enraptured by gothic intimations of twilight apparitions, midnight curses, and the demons that haunt the last hour before dawn.

The Age of Wonder is a colorful and utterly absorbing history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science. When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose near-suicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the awe-inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science—an era whose consequences are with us still. BONUS MATERIAL: This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Richard Holmes's Falling Upwards.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal! For fans of Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, and Make way for Ducklings. "Out on the islands that poke their rocky shores above the waters of Penobscot Bay, you can watch the time of the world go by, from minute to minute, hour to hour, from day to day . . ." So begins this classic story of one summer on a Maine island from the author of One Morning in Maine and Blueberries for Sal. The spell of rain, the gulls and a foggy morning, the excitement of sailing, the quiet of the night, the sudden terror of a hurricane, and, in the end, the peace of the island as the family packs up to leave are shown in poetic language and vibrant, evocative pictures.

Welcome to Black Sheep: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder, an extraordinary anthology magazine that transcends the boundaries of science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. Prepare to embark on a thrilling journey through the darkest corners of the human imagination, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the mundane transforms into a realm of unspeakable terror and awe-inspiring wonder. Within these pages, you'll discover a collection of captivating stories carefully curated to transport you to realms beyond the mundane. Each issue presents an array of unique tales crafted by talented visionaries, both established and emerging, who dare to defy conventions and push the boundaries of speculative fiction. Whether you're a seasoned lover of the fantastic or just curious to explore new frontiers, Black Sheep: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder will be your guide through the realms of the extraordinary. Prepare to be enthralled, enchanted, haunted. So put on your dark sunglasses … and unleash your inner Black Sheep. In this issue: CLEAN-UP IN AISLE FOUR-MILLION LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH DC Merryweather THE DONKEY TREE Robert Pettus MONEY PROBLEMS: A LEVEL HEAD STORY Nicholas Woods RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE JEWS Philip Graubart DEATH GRADER Wayne Kyle Spitzer ROT M.D. Baker TARRAGON J.E.M. Miller THE NUMBERS Robert Delilah THE SURVIVALIST MANIFESTO Shahbaz Khayambashi UNDER A STRANGE SKY Paul Stansbury

The Gothic World offers an overview of this popular field whilst also extending critical debate in exciting new directions such as film, politics, fashion, architecture, fine art and cyberculture. Structured around the principles of time, space and practice, and including a detailed general introduction, the five sections look at: Gothic Histories Gothic Spaces Gothic Readers and Writers Gothic Spectacle Contemporary Impulses. The Gothic World seeks to account for the Gothic as a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional force, as a style, an aesthetic experience and a mode of cultural expression that traverses genres, forms, media, disciplines and national boundaries and creates, indeed, its own ‘World’.

This spine-tingling novel has more than enough fear factor for the most ardent fan of scary stories. Uncle Montague lives alone in a big house, but regular visits from his nephew, Edgar, give him the opportunity to recount some of the frightening stories he knows. As each tale unfolds, an eerie pattern emerges of young lives gone awry in the most terrifying of ways. Young Edgar begins to wonder just how Uncle Montague knows all these ghastly tales. This clever collection of stories-within-a-story is perfectly matched with darkly witty illustrations by David Roberts. Look for the other spine-tingling book in Chris Priestley's Tales of Terror series, Tales of Terror from the Black Ship!

In a searing takedown of the populist authoritarian vision of America, The Terror of the Unforeseen tackles the resurgence of fascism in the age of Donald Trump's presidency. Through the mendacious exchange of facts for "fake news," Henry A. Giroux examines the language of hatred that activates neoliberal fascism, complete with state-sanctioned racism, casino capitalism, and fear-mongering at federal and local levels. In this "age of disposability," Trump's rhetoric eschews reason and democratic principles in favor of impetuous politics rooted in bigotry, all to injuriously catastrophic effect. Through protests, strikes, and education, Giroux proposes an international social movement that joins together various modes of resistance to illuminate a democratic renewal, and proves himself once again as one of the great public intellectuals of our time.