In the time of early Victorian technology, steam-trains and the electric telegraph, many writers retreated into a backward-looking world of sentiment, chivalry and terror, often modelled on the Medieval Gothic of Ann Radcliffe and Walter Scott. The results can be seen in Tennyson’s fairy poems of the early 1830s, Charlotte Brontë hiding guilty secrets in the Gothic towers of Thornfield in Jane Eyre (1847), and the way Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1842) cruelly reconstructs the torture-chambers of the Spanish Inquisition.
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Victorian Poetry and Fiction
The Victorian Gothic
Image licence:
Gustave Courbet [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
| # | Essay Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hand Signals from Beyond |
... |
Julian Thompson |
| 2 | Outdoor Gothic |
The analysis is of the following paragraph from Algernon Blackwood’s ‘The Willows’,... |
Julian Thompson |
| 3 | Victorian Gothic: An Introduction |
In the time of early Victorian technology, steam-trains and the electric telegraph, many writers... |
Julian Thompson |
| 4 | Robert Louis Stevenson |
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh on the 13 November 1850. His... |
Charlotte Barrett |
| 5 | Spiritualism, Science and Atavism |
In the Victorian era, Gothic fiction had ceased to be a dominant literary genre. However, the... |
Charlotte Barrett |
| # | Title | Description | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The doom of the Griffiths |
ebook version of The doom of the Griffiths |
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 |
| 2 | Wuthering Heights |
ebook version of Wuthering Heights |
Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848 |
| 3 | On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life |
ebook version of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of... |
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 |
| 4 | Dracula |
ebook version of Dracula |
Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912 |
| 5 | Carmilla | J. Sheridan Le Fanu | |
| 6 | The Vampyre |
A Tale |
John Polidori |
| 7 | The Merry Men and Other Tales |
Collection of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 8 | The Turn of the Screw |
Henry James'novella, the ghost story 'The Turn of the Screw', first published in 1898. |
Henry James |
| 9 | Northanger Abbey | Jane Austen | |
| 10 | The Mysteries of Udolpho | Ann Radcliffe | |
| 11 | Goblin Market and Other Poems | Christina Rossetti | |
| 12 | Supernatural Horror in Literature |
Long essay by the celebrated horror writer H. P. Lovecraft surveying the field of horror fiction... |
H.P. Lovecraft |
| 13 | The Oval Portrait (Life in Death) |
from Graham's Magazine, April 1842 |
Edgar Allen Poe |
| 14 | The Pit and the Pendulum |
From 'The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present', 1842–1843 |
Edgar Allen Poe |
| 15 | The Fall of the House of Usher |
From Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, September 1839 |
Edgar Allen Poe |
| 16 | Bleak House | Charles Dickens | |
| 17 | Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
Publisher: London : Longmans, Green |
Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 18 | The adventures of Oliver Twist, or, The parish boy's progress. |
By Charles Dickens. With twenty-four illustrations on steel, by George Cruikshank ... |
Charles Dickens |
| # | Resource Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wilkie Collins' Grave |
Photograph depicting Wilkie Collin's grave in Kensal Green Cemetery, London [Public Domain] via... |
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| 2 | Illustrated Caricature of Wilkie Collins |
Illustration by Frederick Waddy, 1872 [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons... |
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| 3 | Wilkie Collins' Signature |
Image of Wilkie Collins'signature written in ink, 1893.
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| 4 | Illustrated Cover for 'The Woman in White' |
Cover art Chatto & Windus: London, 1889. Yellowback [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons... |
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| 5 | Front Cover for 'The Woman in White' |
By Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York 1860 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
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| 6 | Illustrated Frontispiece to 'The Woman in White' |
Illustration by John Gilbert. Frontispiece to the 1861 edition of Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in... |
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| 7 | The Desperate Man |
Gustave Courbet self portrait
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| 8 | Whitby goth couple |
A Goth Couple at Whitby Goth Weekend. |
| # | Resource Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Science and the Supernatural |
In this short blog post, Melissa Dickson explores the connection between developments in... |
Melissa Dickson |
| 2 | Dracula and Modern Life |
In this short blog post, Dr Emilie Taylor-Brown, Dr Hosanna Krienke, and Dr Sarah Green discuss... |
Emilie Taylor-Brown, Hosanna Krienke, Sarah Green |
| 3 | Reading Culture in the Victorian Underworld |
Essay with images and links by Rosalind Crone. Part of the OpenLearn unit 'History of reading:... |
Rosalind Crone |