Horace Walpole

This historically grounded account of Gothic fiction takes issue with received accounts of the genre as a stable and continuous tradition. Charting its vicissitudes from Walpole to Scott, Watt shows the Gothic to have been a heterogeneous body of fiction, characterized at times by antagonistic relations between writers or works. Watt examines the novels' political import and concludes by looking ahead to the fluctuating critical status of Scott and the Gothic, and perceptions of the Gothic as a monolithic tradition, which continue to exert a powerful hold.

The English Gothic novel has recently attracted renewed attention by modern critics who have argued its importance as a mirror of late 18th-century discomfort with the political, psychological, and sexual climate of the times. Elizabeth Napier's work challenges these views, suggesting that the instability of the form may be more successfully addressed through a study of generic structure and its relationship to the designs of the fictional works that preceded it. The first full-length study of narrative conventions in the Gothic, The Failure of Gothic examines the disjunctive form of much Gothic fiction, and its repeated, troubling failure to deal conclusively with both the ethical and the formal issues it raises.

Dissenters and Mavericks reinvigorates the interdisciplinary study of literature, history, and politics through an approach to reading that allows the voices heard in writing a chance to talk back, to exert pressure on the presuppositions and preferences of a wide range of readers. Offering fresh and provocative interpretations of both well-known and unfamiliar texts--from colonial writers such as Horace Walpole and Edmund Burke to twentieth-century Indian writers such as Nirad Chaudhuri, V.S. Naipaul, and Pankaj Mishra--the book proposes a controversial challenge to prevailing academic methodology in the field of postcolonial studies.

With its roots in Romanticism, antiquarianism, and the primacy of the imagination, the Gothic genre originated in the 18th century, flourished in the 19th, and continues to thrive today. This reference work provides an introduction to Gothic literature and its abundant criticism and summarizes contemporary developments and critical opinion in Gothic Studies. The volume includes alphabetically arranged entries for more than 50 Gothic writers from Horace Walpole to Stephen King. Each entry includes a primary bibliography, a critical essay on the author's place in the Gothic tradition, and a selected, annotated bibliography of scholarship. Entries for Russian, Japanese, French, and German writers give an international scope to the book, while the focus on English and American literature shows the dynamic nature of Gothicism today.

What do Pamela, Shamela, and Evelina have in common? Who is Coningsby? Where is The Moonstone? When does one need A Room of One's Own? Why is it that Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit? And just how good is the British novel? These are just a few of the questions answered in The Columbia History of the British Novel. John Richetti's comprehensive history takes us from the birth of the novel in the eighteenth century through its social and culture-conscious growing pains in the nineteenth century to its angst-ridden maturity in the twentieth century. Concise, cohesive, and complementary to any collection of must-read classics, The Columbia History of the British Novel challenges and enlightens us by examining canonical writers as well as women and postcolonial novelists. Discover the origins of the novel in the "scandalous" books of Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, and Delarivier Manley and follow its development through Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Laurence Sterne against the backdrop of the novel's meteoric rise in the 1700s. Follow Frances Burney and the rise of the woman novelist, and the gothic novel as invented by Horace Walpole and perfected by Mary Shelley and Matthew Lewis. Remember remarkable reunions in Jane Austen; the bond between chivalry, Waverley, and Sir Walter Scott; the Brontes, Amelia Opie, Maria Edgeworth, and the tradition of Romantic women's fiction; Charles Dickens and the professionalization of literature; George Eliot and the novel of ideas; and Wilkie Collins and the sensation mania of the 1860s. Continue through the nineteenth century with the "Condition of England" novels of Benjamin Disraeli and Elizabeth Gaskell, Hardy's tales of class and sexualdifference, and Anglo-Indian perspectives on the empire from Rudyard Kipling and Philip Meadows Taylor. Enter the twentieth century and examine the modern novel with Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Then trace the anti-

Few countries can boast a history as endlessly intricate and fascinatingly complex as Britain. From the Glorious Revolution to the invention of golf, British history is a rich tapestry of enigmatic personalities, contentious politics, indelible legacies, and stunning achievements. For centuries, Britain has been a world leader and innovator, yet its distinct culture, with its fondness for royalty, lukewarm ale and left-hand side driving, remains, at times, impenetrable to the outsider. Now, in The Oxford Companion to British History, readers have a comprehensive and authoritative perspective into all the idiosyncrasies and nuances that make British history so uniquely British. Featuring 4000 A-Z entries written by 120 of the leading political, social, economic, and military scholars in the United Kingdom and Ireland, this single volume reference offers a wealth of information on British history. The Oxford Companion to British History covers all facets of this storied subject, from the arrival of Julius Caesar on British shores in 55 B.C. to John Majors ill-fated back to basics initiative in the 1990s. Readers can explore this rich 2000-year history with insightful and meticulous descriptions of every important person, place, date, and movement in this fabled country, including the political legacies of the Magna Carta and the Gunpowder Plot, the legendary reigns of such monarchs as Henry VIII and Queen Victoria, the social movements of the Luddites and the Parlimentarians, cultural and artistic phenomena like Romanticism and neo-classical architecture, and the scientific achievements of Newton and Darwin. Here the etymology of the cardigan sweater (named after Crimean War hero James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan) and the biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), get equal billing with such familiar figures as William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, and Elizabeth I. In addition, general interest articles on topics like the monarchy and the Second World War are interspersed with more esoteric subjects like Ida, the sixth century king of Bernicia, to create a complete reference of British history. Whether your interest lies in the Beatles, Robin Hood, Northern Ireland, John Locke, the Tower of London, Gothic Architecture, Princess Diana, or beagling (the hunting of hares on foot with the aid of beagle hounds), nothing is slighted. Designed for ease of use, the Companion offers ample cross-referencing between essay-length articles and short, quick-reference entries, supported by 12 detailed maps and an exemplary general index. Ideal for everyone with an interest in British history, The Oxford Companion to British History is the definitive window into this fascinating world.