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Title: The Tale of Terror

Author: Edith Birkhead

Release Date: November 26, 2004 [eBook #14154]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF TERROR***

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THE TALE OF TERROR

A Study of the Gothic Romance

by

EDITH BIRKHEAD M.A.

Assistant Lecturer in English Literature in the University of Bristol
Formerly Noble Fellow in the University of Liverpool

London
Constable & Company Ltd.

1921

PREFACE

The aim of this book is to give some account of the growth of
supernatural fiction in English literature, beginning with the
vogue of the Gothic Romance and Tale of Terror towards the close
of the eighteenth century. The origin and development of the
Gothic Romance are set forth in detail from the appearance of
Walpole's _Castle of Otranto_ in 1764 to the publication of
Maturin's _Melmoth the Wanderer_ in 1820; and the survey of this
phase of the novel is continued, in the later chapters, to modern
times. One of these is devoted to the Tale of Terror in America,
where in the hands of Hawthorne and Poe its treatment became a
fine art. In the chapters dealing with the more recent forms of
the tale of terror and wonder, the scope of the subject becomes
so wide that it is impossible to attempt an exhaustive survey.

The present work is the outcome of studies begun during my tenure
of the William Noble Fellowship in the University of Liverpool,
1916-18. It is a pleasure to express here my thanks to Professor
R.H. Case and to Dr. John Sampson for valuable help and criticism
at various stages of the work. Parts of the MS. have also been
read by Professor C.H. Herford of the University of Manchester
and by Professor Oliver Elton of the University of Liverpool. To
Messrs. Constable's reader I am also indebted for several helpful
suggestions.--E.B.

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL,

December, 1920.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTORY.

The antiquity of the tale