"A classic of the first order," declared H. P. Lovecraft of this influential tale of a haunted house in the Irish countryside. First published in 1908, it bridges the era between ghost stories and modern thrillers. Its compelling journey through space and time combines the best aspects of horror, science fiction, and fantasy.

Nostalgia or Perversion? Gothic Rewriting from the Eighteenth Century until the Present Day presents an interdisciplinary approach to an important aspect of Gothic texts, films, and music: that of rewriting. From the eighteenth-century Gothic novel to present-day vampire films and Goth music, the genre is characterised by its nostalgic reflection on past worlds, narratives, and identities. Gothic nostalgia is often accompanied by a transgressive drive, resulting in perversions of the rewritten past—the modern vampire is no longer embodied evil but an attractive dandy, while Goth subcultures reflect on Victorian aesthetics but pervert them by adding fetishist elements. Gothic nostalgia transforms the past, turning it upside down, foregrounding its background, and corrupting its order. In this volume an international group of philosophy, literature, film, and music scholars investigates the instrumental role of nostalgia and perversion in the Gothic’s rewriting of the past. If elements of both nostalgia and perversion are operative in Gothic rewriting, how are they connected? How do they play out in differing media? How do they change audiences’ views on the relationships between binaries such as past and present, other and self, and norm and deviation? Nostalgia or Perversion brings together the early Gothic novel, present-day female and black Gothic literature, Goth subculture and music, and the imagery of horror films and comic books, thus broadening the definition of ‘Gothic’ from a literary genre to a gesture of pervasive cultural criticism. The interdisciplinary analysis of nostalgia and perversion in Gothic rewriting uncovers wholly new insights into the artistic and social functions of the Gothic, making the volume useful to both scholars and students. As the essays reflect on academic as well as popular texts and media, it is also accessible to general readers. "Nostalgia or Perversion provides a sophisticated analysis of how the Gothic radically rewrites the past, not as nostalgia but as a calculated act of transgression. The past and how its reconstructions break down the boundaries between real and unreal, and normal and abnormal, is examined across a range of different media, including novels, films, comic books, television and music. The essays in this collection also address how this issue shapes Gothic formulations of race, sexuality, and gender. Both ambitious in scope and focused and rigorous in its analysis, this book provides a critically important re-evaluation of the Gothic tradition." —Andrew Smith, University of Glamorgan (UK).

This two-volume set offers comprehensive coverage of horror literature that spans its deep history, dominant themes, significant works, and major authors, such as Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, and Anne Rice, as well as lesser-known horror writers. Many of today's horror story fans—who appreciate horror through movies, television, video games, graphic novels, and other forms—probably don't realize that horror literature is not only one of the most popular types of literature but one of the oldest. People have always been mesmerized by stories that speak to their deepest fears. Horror Literature through History shows 21st-century horror fans the literary sources of their favorite entertainment and the rich intrinsic value of horror literature in its own right. Through profiles of major authors, critical analyses of important works, and overview essays focused on horror during particular periods as well as on related issues such as religion, apocalypticism, social criticism, and gender, readers will discover the fascinating early roots and evolution of horror writings as well as the reciprocal influence of horror literature and horror cinema. This unique two-volume reference set provides wide coverage that is current and compelling to modern readers—who are of course also eager consumers of entertainment. In the first section, overview essays on horror during different historical periods situate works of horror literature within the social, cultural, historical, and intellectual currents of their respective eras, creating a seamless narrative of the genre's evolution from ancient times to the present. The second section demonstrates how otherwise unrelated works of horror have influenced each other, how horror subgenres have evolved, and how a broad range of topics within horror—such as ghosts, vampires, religion, and gender roles—have been handled across time. The set also provides alphabetically arranged reference entries on authors, works, and specialized topics that enable readers to zero in on information and concepts presented in the other sections.

This reference work covers the supernatural and speculative fiction published by Arkham House Publishers, Inc., of Sauk City, Wisconsin. In 1937, promising Wisconsin writer August Derleth decided to publish a collection of the stories of his recently deceased friend, H. P. Lovecraft. After two years of failed attempts, Derleth and another Lovecraft fan, Donald Wandrei, published the collection themselves under the name of Arkham. In the years that followed, Arkham House published the works of many of the foremost American and British writers of weird fiction, including Basil Copper, Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, and Robert Bloch. Arkham published Ray Bradbury's first book, Dark Carnival, in 1947. The work begins with a history of the house and biography of August Derleth; it also includes a chapter on H. P. Lovecraft's connection to Arkham. The main body of the text consists of chronologically listed descriptions and current values of the more than 230 titles published by Arkham House and its two imprints, Mycroft & Moran and Stanton & Lee. These entries detail editions, reprints, special points, restoration, care, buying and selling, investment, and future trends. Other features include alphabetical indeces of titles and authors, lists of scarcity and value ranking, a list of annual stock lists and catalogs, and a bibliography of reference literature. The book is illustrated throughout with dust jacket reproductions and photographs.

Speculative modernists--that is, British and American writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror during the late 19th and early 20th centuries--successfully grappled with the same forces that would drive their better-known literary counterparts to existential despair. Building on the ideas of the 19th-century Gothic and utopian movements, these speculative writers anticipated literary Modernism and blazed alternative literary trails in science, religion, ecology and sociology. Such authors as H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft gained widespread recognition--budding from them, other speculative authors published fascinating tales of individuals trapped in dystopias, of anti-society attitudes, post-apocalyptic worlds and the rapidly expanding knowledge of the limitless universe. This book documents the Gothic and utopian roots of speculative fiction and explores how these authors played a crucial role in shaping the culture of the new century with their darker, more evolved themes.

Fantasy is one of the most appealing and yet most puzzling of literary genres. Appealing because it can offer dreams, the fulfillment of wishes, and escape; but puzzling because it spans such a wide and diverse range of books. In Fantasy: The 100 Best Books, James Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock present a wide-ranging cross-section of the fantasy genre, from its eighteenth century Gothic origins through nineteenth century literary classics, pulp-era weird fiction, and on to modern favorites. Recognized classics are accompanied by lesser-known works ripe for rediscovery, resulting in an interestingly idiosyncratic and uniquely valuable guide to two-and-a-half centuries of fantastic stories.

Revival of religious practices of all sorts in China, after decades of systematic government suppression, is a topic of considerable interest to scholars in disciplines ranging from religious studies to anthropology to political science. This book examines contemporary religious practices among the Premi people of the Sichuan-Yunnan-Tibet area, a group of about 60,000 who speak a language belonging to the Qiang branch of Tibeto-Burman. Koen Wellens's ethnographic research in two Premi communities on opposite sides of the border, and his analysis of available historical documents, find multiple advocates and rationales for the revival of both formal Tibetan Buddhism and the indigenous Premi practices centered on ritual specialists called anji. Wellens argues that the variety in the shape the revitalization process takes--as it affects Premi on the Sichuan side of the border and their counterparts on the Yunnan side--can only be understood in a local cultural context. This full-length study of the Premi, the first in a language other than Chinese, makes a valuable contribution to our ethnographic knowledge of Southwest China, as well as to our understanding of contemporary Chinese religious and cultural politics.

The story of the diverse communities of Eastern Europe's borderlands in the centuries prior to World War II "A powerful combination of history and personal memoir. . . . A richly contextual, skillfully woven historical study."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Focusing on the former province of Galicia, this book tells the story of Europe's eastern borderlands, stretching from the Baltic to the Balkans, through the eyes of the diverse communities of migrants who settled there for centuries and were murdered or forcibly removed from the borderlands in the course of World War II and its aftermath. Omer Bartov explores the fates and hopes, dreams and disillusionment of the people who lived there, and, through the stories they told about themselves, reconstructs who they were, where they came from, and where they were heading. It was on the borderlands that the expanding great empires--German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman--overlapped, clashed, and disintegrated. The civilization of these borderlands was a mix of multiple cultures, languages, ethnic groups, religions, and nations that similarly overlapped and clashed. The borderlands became the cradle of modernity. Looking back at it tells us where we came from.

Borders are essentially imaginary structures, but their effects are very real. This volume explores both geopolitical and conceptual borders through an interdisciplinary lens, bridging the disciplines of philosophy and literature. With contributions from scholars around the world, this collection closely examines the concepts of race, nationality, gender, and sexuality in order to reveal the paradoxical ambiguities inherent in these seemingly solid binary oppositions, while critiquing structures of power that produce and police these borders. As a political paradigm, liminality may be embraced by marginal subjects and communities, further blurring the boundaries between oppressive distinctions and categories.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the French Basque province of Xiberoa was a place of refuge, conflict, transit, exile and foreign occupation. At the Liberation of France in 1944, many Xiberoans confronted ongoing local divisiveness, rooted in the interwar years, and faced new conflicts arising from legal and civic judgments made during Vichy and German occupation. This book traces the roots of their divided memories to local and official interpretations of what constituted legitimate judgment, legitimate behavior and justice during those troubled times. In order to capture a sense of the diverse ways in which Xiberoan Basques responded to the Germans in their midst, the author explores and contrasts the experiences of people in four different communities located within a fifteen mile radius.