A young girl whose love for her fiance continues even after her death; a sinister old lady with claw-like hands who cares little for the qualities of her companions provided they are young and full of life; and a haunted mirror that drains the beauty from those who gaze into its depths and reflects back a withered old age. These are just some of the haunting and terrifying tales gathered in this new collection of macabre short stories. The Face in the Glass highlights the deliciously dark imagination of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, an author increasingly seen as one of the finest and most entertaining of her generation. This is the first selection of Braddon's supernatural short stories to be widely available in over 100 years. By turns curious, sinister, haunting and terrifying, each tale explores in dazzling fashion the dark shadows beyond the rational world. The Face in the Glass is edited and introduced by Greg Buzwell, Curator of Printed Literary Sources at the British Library and co-curator of the major exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination."

The Salamander and Other Gothic Tales contains eight stories by Vladimir Odoevsky (1804-69). These include The Salamander, The Cosmorama, and The Sylph, Odoevsky's three main metaphysical tales. The collection as a whole represents some of the best of Russian Romantic fiction from the first half of the nineteenth century. This is the first English edition of Odoevsky's work to be published since 1965 and six of the tales are here translated for the first time.

Sheena is a vampire from Leeds who works in a call center, and has a dark secret that even she doesn't know about. Her boyfriend has to discover it the hard way, alas. Like the other two vampire stories included in the book, both of which feature vampire babies, "Sheena" is a love story, which shares the life-enhancing attributes common to all love stories. Here are ten tales of the fantastic, the horrific, and the gothic, including: "Rose, Crowned with Thorns," "Rent," "Tenebrio," "Behind the Wheel," "Innocent Blood," "Emptiness," "The Woman in the Mirror," "Regression," "Heartbreaker," and "Sheena." Great reading by a great writer!

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Literature and the Senses critically probes the role of literature in capturing and scrutinizing sensory perception. Organized around the five traditional senses, followed by a section on multisensoriality, the collection facilitates a dialogue between scholars working on literature written from the Middle Ages to the present day. The contributors engage with a variety of theorists from Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Michel Serres to Jean-Luc Nancy to foreground the distinctive means by which literary texts engage with, open up, or make uncertain dominant views of the nature of perception. Considering the ways in which literary texts intersect with and diverge from scientific, epistemological, and philosophical perspectives, these essays explore a wide variety of literary moments of sensation including: the interspecies exchange of a look between a swan and a young Indigenous Australian girl; the sound of bees as captured in an early modern poem; the noxious smell of the 'Great Stink' that recurs in the Victorian novel; the taste of an eggplant registered in a poetic performance; tactile gestures in medieval romance; and the representation of a world in which the interdependence of human beings with the purple hibiscus plant is experienced through all five senses. The collection builds upon and breaks new ground in the field of sensory studies, focusing on what makes literature especially suitable to engaging with, contributing to, and challenging our perennial understandings of, the senses.

Against the social and economic upheavals that characterized the nineteenth century, the border-bending nosferatu embodied the period’s fears as well as its forbidden desires. This volume looks at both the range among and legacy of vampires in the nineteenth century, including race, culture, social upheaval, gender and sexuality, new knowledge and technology. The figure increased in popularity throughout the century and reached its climax in Dracula (1897), the most famous story of bloodsuckers. This book includes chapters on Bram Stoker’s iconic novel, as well as touchstone texts like John William Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872), but it also focuses on the many “Other” vampire stories of the period. Topics discussed include: the long-war veteran and aristocratic vampire in Varney; the vampire as addict in fiction by George MacDonald; time discipline in Eric Stenbock’s Studies of Death; fragile female vampires in works by Eliza Lynn Linton; the gender and sexual contract in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s “Good Lady Ducayne;” cultural appropriation in Richard Burton’s Vikram and the Vampire; as well as Caribbean vampires and the racialized Other in Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire. While drawing attention to oft-overlooked stories, this study ultimately highlights the vampire as a cultural shape-shifter whose role as “Other” tells us much about Victorian culture and readers’ fears or desires.

To celebrate one hundred days in Miss Bindergarten's kindergarten class, all her students bring one hundred of something to school, including a one hundred-year-old relative, one hundred candy hearts, and one hundred polka dots.

The Book of Gothic Tales' brings together an unprecedented assembly of literary genius, spanning two centuries of Gothic fiction that has haunted, thrilled, and ensnared readers across the globe. This collection showcases a stellar array of literary styles, from the psychological terror and eerie mysteries of Poe to the romantic despair of the Brontës, all under the broad and shadowy umbrella of the Gothic tradition. Each tale has been meticulously selected for its ability to explore the darker facets of human nature, the thin line between the supernatural and the psychological, and the societal undercurrents of the time. The anthology resonates with themes of forbidden knowledge, the supernatural, and the struggle between reason and passion, making it a cornerstone for understanding the depth and diversity of Gothic literature. The contributing authors, distinguished by their significant contributions to literature and the Gothic genre, come from diverse backgrounds, both culturally and historically. Together, they represent a cross-section of the 19th and early 20th centuries' most influential literary figures. Their collective works capture the evolving nature of Gothic fiction, reflecting on the anxieties of their respective eras - from the haunting landscapes of Irish and Scottish lore to the nuanced critiques of social norms and the exploration of the human psyche. This anthology aligns with essential literary movements, assembling pieces that, though varied in setting and subject, share a core fascination with the macabre, the mysterious, and the grotesque. 'The Book of Gothic Tales' is essential reading for anyone keen to explore the rich tapestry of Gothic literature through its most iconic narratives and figures. It offers readers a unique opportunity to engage with the works of literary giants within a single volume, presenting a broad, yet curated exploration of Gothic fictions evolution and its enduring relevance in contemporary discussions around fear, desire, and the supernatural. Inviting both scholars and enthusiasts to traverse its haunting pages, this collection promises an unparalleled journey through the minds of those who crafted the Gothic literary tradition.

Originally published in 1934, Seven Gothic Tales, the first book by "one of the finest and most singular artists of our time" (The Atlantic), is a modern classic. Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the nineteenth-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe.

This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge—is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, The Washington Post Book World).