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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.
This book is an attempt to trace in outline the origin and
development of the
Gothic Romance and the
Tale of Terror. Such a
survey is necessarily incomplete. For more than fifty years after
the publication of
The Castle of Otranto the
Gothic Romance remained
a definitely recognised kind of fiction; but, as the scope of the
novel gradually came to include the whole range of human expression,
it lost its individuality, and was merged into other forms.
To
follow every trail of its influence would lead us far afield. The
Tale of Terror, if we use the term in its wider sense, may be said
to include the magnificent story of the Writing on the Wall at Belshazzar's Feast, the
Book of Job, the legends of the Deluge and
of the Tower of Babel, and Saul's Visit to the Witch of Endor, which
Byron regarded as the best
ghost story in the world. In the
Hebrew
writings fear is used to endow a hero with superhuman powers or to
instil a moral truth.
The sun stands still in the heavens that
Joshua may prevail over his enemies. In modern days the
Tale of Terror is told for its own sake. It has become an end in itself, and
is probably appreciated most fully by those who are secure from
peril. It satisfies the human desire to experience new emotions and
sensations, without actual danger.
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