Gothic novels of the twentieth century: an annotated bibliography

642 Pages·1979·1.32 MB·English

by  Elsa J. Radcliffe

Gothic Novels of the Twentieth Century :
title:
An Annotated Bibliography
author: Radcliffe, Elsa J.
publisher: Scarecrow Press
isbn10 | asin: 0810811901
print isbn13: 9780810811904
ebook isbn13: 9780585226361
language: English
American fiction--20th century--Bio-
bibliography, English fiction--20th century--
subject
Bio-bibliography, Gothic revival
(Literature)--Bibliography.
publication date: 1979
lcc: Z1231.F4R32 1979eb
ddc: 016.823'0872
American fiction--20th century--Bio-
bibliography, English fiction--20th century--
subject:
Bio-bibliography, Gothic revival
(Literature)--Bibliography.
Page i
Gothic Novels of the Twentieth Century
An Annotated Bibliography
by
Elsa J. Radcliffe
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Metuchen, N.J. & London
1979
Page ii
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Radcliffe, Elsa J., 1935-
Gothic novels of the twentieth century.
Includes index.
1. American fiction20th centuryBibliography. 2. Eng-
lish fiction20th centuryBibliography. 3. Gothic revival (Lit-
erature)Bibliography. I. Title.
Z1231. F4R32 [PS379] 016. 823'0872 78-24357
ISBN 0-8108-1190-1
Copyright © 1979 by Elsa J. Radcliffe
Manufactured in the United States of America
Page iii
Dedicated to all lovers of castles, ghosts,
heroines, heroes and quests;
and to my hero, Jim.
Page v
Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction ix
List of References xvii
The Bibliography 1
Index of Titles 247
Page vii
Foreword
Let those who smile at me, ask themselves whether they have been indebted
most to imagination or reality for all they have enjoyed in life, if indeed they
have ever enjoyed anything.
C. R. Maturin, in Melmoth the Wanderer
Due to opinions instilled in me throughout my education, it was rather
late in life that I came upon, via detective fiction, the literature called
"Gothic. " I found, somewhat to my surprise, that these tales held a
great appeal. The more I read, however, the more I became aware that
between the covers of a book labeled "Gothic" one could find
anything from a tale of mystery and detection, or sentimental and
historical romance, to a "pure'' Gothic, and any quality from superb to
utter nonsense. I further discovered that Gothic fiction in paperback
editions is only a fraction of a huge body of literature which has been
written ever since the 1760's by authors of greatly varied backgrounds
and skills. For lovers of the Gothic genre, there is available an almost
limitless amount of reading pleasure if one has some way to discover
it.
Thus, it seemed that it could be most helpful to make available to the
reading public a fairly comprehensive bibliography and to give some
indication of relative quality to help the reader and librarian select
from the mind-boggling quantity.
This bibliography may be of use some day in the distant future to
scholars who, from my observations, appear to be interested in this
type of literature only in retrospect, when it achieves the distinction of
antiquity, if nothing more.
I wish to express my appreciation to the Shippensburg State College
Library and in particular to Dr. Scott Bruntjen, whose tech-

Page viii
nical help and moral support were invaluable; and to Mrs. Barbara
Taylor, whose help with interlibrary loans went far beyond any routine
library service. I am also indebted to the Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
Public Library's extensive paperback book collection, to the Coyle
Free Library of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and to the Public
Library of Alexandria, Virginia.
E. J. R.
Page ix
Introduction
You serious people must not be too hard on human beings for what they
choose to amuse themselves with when they are shut up as in a prison, and are
not even allowed to say that they are prisoners. If I do not soon get a little bit
of fun, I shall die.
Pierre Andrezel, Introduction to The Angelic Avengers
When I first began reading contemporary Gothic fiction, the question,
What is a Gothic? did not seem particularly complicated. Lovers of
the form will know what I mean when I say that I came to "sense"
Gothics without having to define them. But that explanation really
won't do when one is trying to defend the inclusion or omission of
works in a bibliography, so I went to the scholars of English literature
to see what I could find.
It seems to be generally agreed that the first work to be called
"Gothic" was Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto, written in 1765.
That book apparently began a fad and served as the direct model for
an enormous number of stories, increasingly varied in theme,
thereafter. The term "Gothic" was used to describe these books
because they tended to romanticize the medieval period. These Gothic
stories were the first to use suspense, the supernatural and
romanticism of the medieval. Later, "the term [Gothic] lost all
connotation of 'medieval,' and became synonymous for the grotesque,
ghastly, and violently supernatural or superhuman in fiction. Gothic
romance became the romance of the supernatural."1 According to
Devendra Varma, science fiction, mystery-detective and spy fiction all
had their origins in the Gothic era.2
1 Devendra Varma, The Gothic Flame: A History of the Gothic Novel in
England, p. 13.
2. Ibid., p. 158.