Contents

Preface

Chapter I -  Introductory

The antiquity of the Tale of Terror; the element of fear in myths, heroic legends, ballads and folk- tales; terror in the romances of the middle ages, in Elizabethan times and in the seventeenth century; the credulity of the age of reason; the renascence of terror and wonder in poetry; the "attempt to blend the marvellous of old story with the natural of modern novels."

Chapter II -  The Beginnings of Gothic Romance

Walpole's admiration for Gothic art and his interest in the middle ages; the mediaeval revival at the close of the eighteenth century; The Castle of Otranto ; Walpole's bequest to later romance- writers; Smollett's incidental anticipation of the methods of Gothic Romance; Clara Reeve's Old English Baron and her effort to bring her story "within the utmost verge of probability"; Mrs. Barbauld's Gothic fragment; Blake's Fair Elenor ; the critical theories and Gothic experiments of Dr. Nathan Drake.

Chapter III -  "The Novel of Suspense" Mrs. Radcliffe

The vogue of Mrs. Radcliffe; her tentative beginning in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne , and her gradual advance in skill and power; The Sicilian Romance and her early experiments in the "explained" supernatural; The Romance of the Forest , and her use of suspense; heroines: The Mysteries of Udolpho ; illustrations of Mrs. Radcliffe's methods; The Italian ; villains; her historical accuracy and "unexplained" spectre in Gaston de Blondeville ; her reading; style; descriptions of scenery; position in the history of the novel.

Chapter IV -  The Novel of Terror - Lewis and Maturin

Lewis's methods contrasted with those of Mrs. Radcliffe; his debt to German terror- mongers; The Monk ; ballads; The Bravo of Venice ; minor works and translations; Scott's review of Maturin's Montorio; the vogue of the Tale of Terror between Lewis and Maturin; Miss Sarah Wilkinson; the personality of Charles Robert Maturin; his literary career; the complicated plot of The Family of Montorio ; Maturin's debt to others; his distinguishing gifts revealed in Montorio ; the influence of Melmoth the Wanderer on French literature; a survey of Melmoth; Maturin's achievement as a novelist.

Chapter V -  The Oriental Tale of Terror - Beckford

The Oriental story in France and England in the eighteenth century; Beckford's Vathek ; Beckford's life and character; his literary gifts; later Oriental tales.

Chapter VI -  Godwin and The Rosicrucian Novel

Godwin's mind and temper; the plan of Caleb Williams as described by Godwin; his methods; the plot of Caleb Williams ; its interest as a story; Godwin's limitations as a novelist; St. Lean ; its origin and purpose; outline of the story; the character of Bethlem Gabor; Godwin's treatment of the Rosicrucian legend; a parody of St. Lean ; the supernatural in Cloudesley and in Lives of the Necromancers ; Moore's Epicurean ; Croly's Salathiel ; Shelley's youthful enthusiasm for the tale of terror; Zastrozzi ; its lack of originality; St. Irvyne ; traces of Shelley's early reading in his poems.

Chapter VII -  Satires on The Novel of Terror

Jane Austen's raillery in Northanger Abbey ; Barrett's mockery in The Heroine ; Peacock's Nightmare Abbey ; his praise of C.B. Brown in Gryll Grange ; The Mystery of the Abbey , and its misleading title; Crabbe's satire in Belinda Waters and The Preceptor Husband ; his ironical attack on the sentimental heroine in The Borough ; his appreciation of folktales; Sir Eustace Grey .

Chapter VIII -  Scott and The Novel of Terror

Scott's review of fashionable fiction in the Preface to Waverley ; his early attempts at Gothic story in Thomas the Rhymer and The Lord of Ennerdale ; his enthusiasm for Bürger's Lenore and for Lewis's ballads; his interest in demonology and witchcraft; his attitude to the supernatural; his hints to the writers of ghost- stories; his own experiments; Wandering Willie's Tale, a masterpiece of supernatural horror; the use of the supernatural in the Waverley Novels; Scott, the supplanter of the novel of terror.

Chapter IX -  Later Developments of The Tale of Terror

The exaggeration of the later terror- mongers; innovations; the stories of Mary Shelley, Byron and Polidori; Frankenstein ; its purpose; critical estimate; Valperga ; The Last Man ; Mrs. Shelley's short tales; Polidori's Ernestus Berchtold , a domestic story with supernatural agency; The FACES Vampyre ; later vampires; De Quincey's contributions to the Tale of Terror; Harrison Ainsworth's attempt to revive romance; his early Gothic stories; Rookwood , an attempt to bring the Radcliffe romance up to date; terror in Ainsworth's other novels; Marryat's Phantom Ship ; Bulwer Lytton's interest in the occult; Zanoni , and Lytton's theory of the Intelligences; The Haunted and the Haunters ; A Strange Story and Lytton's preoccupation with mesmerism.

Chapter X -  Short Tales of Terror

The chapbook versions of the Gothic Romance; the popularity of sensational story illustrated in Leigh Hunt's Indicator ; collections of short stories; various types of short story in periodicals; stories based on oral tradition; the humourist's turn for the terrible; natural terror in tales from Blackwood and in Conrad; use of terror in Stevenson and Kipling; future possibilities of fear as a motive in short stories.

Chapter XI -  American Tales of Terror

The vogue of Gothic story in America; the novels of Charles Brockden Brown; his use of the "explained" supernatural; his Godwinian theory; his construction and style; Washington Irving's genial tales of terror; Hawthorne's reticence and melancholy; suggestions for eery stories in his notebooks; Twice- Told Tales ; Mosses from an Old Manse; The Scarlet Letter ; Hawthorne's sympathetic insight into character; The House of the Seven Gables , and the ancestral curse; his half- credulous treatment of the supernatural; unfinished stories; a contrast of Hawthorne's methods with those of Edgar Allan Poe; A Manuscript found in a Bottle , the first of Poe's tales of terror; the skill of Poe illustrated in Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death , and The Cash of Amontillado ; Poe's psychology; his technique in The Pit and the Pendulum and in his detective stories; his influence; the art of Poe; his ideal in writing a short story.

Chapter XII -  Conclusion

The persistence of the Tale of Terror; the position of the Gothic romance in the history of fiction; the terrors of actual life in the Brontë's novels; sensational stories of Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu and later authors; the element of terror in various types of romance; experiments of living authors; the future of the tale of terror.