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.

As the novel of terror passes from the hands of Mrs. Radcliffe to those of "Monk" Lewis, Maturin and their imitators, there is a crashing crescendo of emotion. The villain's sardonic smile is replaced by wild outbursts of diabolical laughter, his scowl grows darker and darker, and as his designs become more bloody and more dangerous, his victims no longer sigh plaintively, but give utterance to piercing shrieks and despairing yells; tearful Amandas are unceremoniously thrust into the background by vindictive Matildas, whose passions rage in all their primitive savagery; the fearful ghost "fresh courage takes," and stands forth audaciously in the light of day; the very devil stalks shamelessly abroad in manifold disguises.

We are caught up from first to last in the very tempest, torrent and whirlwind of passion. When the novel of terror thus throws restraint to the winds, outrageously o'ersteps the modesty of nature and indulges in a farrago of frightfulness, it begins to defeat its own purposes and to fail in its object of freezing the blood.

The limit of human endurance has been reached - and passed. Emphasis and exaggeration have done their worst. Battle, murder, and sudden death - even spectres and fiends - can appal no more. If the old thrill is to be evoked again, the application of more ingenious methods is needed.