This Zittaw edition brings together two of Sarah Wilkinson's forgotten novels: The Spectre of Lanmere Abbey and The Child of Mystery. Though long forgotten and marginalized as a purveyor of literary rubbish, Sarah Wilkinson's work nevertheless belongs to that body of work which is representative of female authors in the 19th century. The Spectre of Lanmere Abbey and The Child of Mystery illustrate the versatility of Wilkinson's pen: one a Gothic novel with decaying buildings and terrifying spectres, and the other, a domestic novel of high fashion based on recent events in London. This edition includes an introduction by Franz J Potter, Wilkinson's letters to the Royal Literary Fund and a complete list of her works.

To better understand and contextualise the twilight of the Gothic genre during the 1920s and 1830s, The History of Gothic Publishing, 1800-1835: Exhuming the Trade examines the disreputable aspects of the Gothic trade from its horrid bluebooks to the desperate hack writers who created the short tales of terror. From the Gothic publishers to the circulating libraries, this study explores the conflict between the canon and the twilight, and between the disreputable and the moral.

Discusses previously marginalized or underappreciated women Gothic authors. Provides innovative readings of specific Gothic texts. Reintroduces lesser known primary texts into the critical discussion. Presents a core thesis which advances the field of Gothic studies and rethinks previous perceptions of literary culture.

This study breaks new ground surveying the origins of the Gothic chapbook, its publishers and authors, in order to establish conclusively the impact these pamphlets had on the development of the Gothic genre. Considered the illegitimate offspring of the Gothic novel, the lowly chapbook flooded the market in the late eighteenth century, creating a separate and distinct secondary market for tales of terror. The trade was driven by a handful of individuals who were booksellers and dealers, circulating library proprietors, stationers, and small publishers – what they produced were more than four hundred chapbooks, bluebooks and shilling shockers containing Gothic tales from magazines, redactions of popular novels, extractions of entire inset tales, and original tales of terror. This book responds to the urgent and pressing need to contextualise the Gothic chapbook in ascertaining a more concise and comprehensive view of the entire Gothic genre.