Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction

760 Pages·2015·2.87 MB·English

by  S. T. Joshi

Unutterable Horror
Unutterable Horror
A History of Supernatural Fiction
S. T. Joshi
Hippocampus Press
————————
New York
Copyright © 2012, 2014 by S. T. Joshi.
First Hippocampus Press edition, 2014.
Originally published by PS Publishing Ltd.
Published by Hippocampus Press
P.O. Box 641, New York, NY 10156.
http://www.hippocampuspress.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without the written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Barbara Briggs Silbert.
Cover illustration by Harry Clarke for Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Hippocampus Press logo designed by Anastasia Damianakos.
First Electronic Edition
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
978-1-61498-113-8 epub
978-1-61498-114-5 mobi
To
Steven J. Mariconda
Contents
Volume 1: From Gilgamesh to the End of the
Nineteenth Century
Preface
I. Introduction
II. Anticipations
i. Supernaturalism in Greek Literature
ii. Supernaturalism in Latin Literature
iii. The Middle Ages and the Elizabethans
III. The Gothics
i. Types of Gothic Fiction
ii. The Historical Supernatural
iii. The Explained Supernatural
iv. The Byronic Gothic
v. The Christian Supernatural
vi. The Theory of the Gothic
vii. The Nature of Gothic Fiction
IV. Interregnum
i. Supernaturalism in the Romantic Poets
ii. German Grotesque
iii. The Weird Short Story
iv. French Supernaturalism
v. Anticipations of Poe: Washington Irving
V. Edgar Allan Poe
i. Poe and the Gothics
ii. Theory and Practice
iii. Death as Threshold
v. Fantasy and Science
vi. The Longer Tales
vii. Conclusion
VI. Mid-Victorian Horrors
i. Christian Supernaturalism
ii. High and Low
iii. Occasional Supernaturalism
iv. The Americans
v. French and German Supernaturalism
vi. Irish Gothic: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
VII. The Deluge: British and European Branch
i. Ghosts and More Ghosts
ii. Horrors in the Mainstream
iii. Between the Genres
iv. French Horror
v. Slumming with Stoker and Others
VIII. The Deluge: American Branch
i. The East Coast School
ii. The West Coast School
iii. Eccentrics
Epilogue
Bibliographical Essay
Bibliography
A. Primary Texts
B. Secondary Literature