Best of
Gothic

2004

Stone Tears


Victoria Francés - 2004
    Presents an illustrated gothic romantic fantasy reminiscent of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, with tales of vampires, magic, and the undying spirit of lovers which reaches across the centuries.

Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon


Elizabeth Russell Miller - 2004
    How Stoker became the creator of the mysterious, seductive count from a castle (and coffin) in Transylvania was a story in and of itself. Over the past century, Dracula has never been out of print and has become its own cultural phenomena, starting with Bela Lugosi’s famed rendition in 1931, to Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Lee, Buffy, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and the hugely popular Twilight series. This generously illustrated documentary collection explores in full the scope of the Dracula phenomenon, from the folkloric origins of the vampire legend to its unending legacy as a vital influence on the literary and performing arts, not to mention the Romanian tourist industry. Nor does it overlook Bram Stoker himself, and includes his working notes and exceptional primary documents.

What Is Goth?


Aurelio Voltaire - 2004
    Imagine The Preppy Handbook colliding with Charles Addams. Then add a lot more melancholy and a lot more spooky. What Is Goth? dispels the false stereotypes and reinforces the true ones surrounding Goths and Goth culture. "To the mundane," Voltaire writes, "Goths are weird, black-clad freaks who are obsessed with death; they are sad all of the time. Take a closer look at the Goth scene, however, and you will find a rich tapestry of ideas and practices and a menagerie of colorful characters. Oh, dear. I said 'colorful.'" Yes, Goths are pale, wear black clothing, love black makeup (on men and women), mope, listen to real downer music, and perfect the art of living in a perpetual state of ennui and melancholy. But there's so much more to being Goth. Goths come from all walks of life. Many are teenagers who live with their parents; others are doctors, lawyers, musicians, and so on. Most Goths are highly literate and creative, but all real Goths have to dress the part. In other words, "Abandon all hope ye who enter a Goth club in khakis " Eerily illustrated, What Is Goth? is the perfect book for any Goth, Goth wannabe, or "mundane" who is hopelessly confused by all the gloom.

Forget Me Not


Michelle M. Pillow - 2004
    Pillow comes a tragically beautiful love story that defies perception.When the scandalously independent Isabel Drake refuses to marry the man her parents choose for her, they force her to take lessons on how to become a respectable lady. However, her new tutor makes her feel anything but proper. Although her attraction to Mr. Weston is instantaneous, he resolves to keep her in her place—even as his desires for her become unmistakable.Things are not what they seem at Rothfield Park. With Mr. Weston’s arrival, there comes an abundance of restless spirits who insinuate themselves into her life. Quickly, Isabel loses her grasp on reality, not knowing who’s alive or dead. Time is running out, and Isabel must solve the ghostly mystery of the eerie night mist that surrounds the manor before it comes to claim everyone she holds dear—including her Mr. Weston.Forget Me Not, Re-Edited and Revised 17th Anniversary Edition published November 2020Paranormal Regency Historical Ghost Gothic RomanceFormerly Titled: The Mists of Midnight, Originally Published 2004​

In Light of Shadows: More Gothic Tales by Izumi Kyoka


Kyōka Izumi - 2004
    It includes the famous novella Uta andon (A story by lantern light), the bizarre, antipsychological story Mayu kakushi no rei (A quiet obsession), and Ky�ka's hauntingly erotic final work, Ruk�shins� (The heartvine), as well as critical discussions of each of these three tales. Translator Charles Inouye places Ky�ka's literature of shadows (kage no bungaku) within a worldwide gothic tradition even as he refines its Japanese context. Underscoring Ky�ka's relevance for a contemporary international audience, Inouye adjusts Tanizaki Jun'ichir�'s evaluation of Ky�ka as the most Japanese of authors by demonstrating how the writer's paradigm of the suffering heroine can be linked to his exposure to Christianity, to a beautiful American woman, and to the aesthetic of blood sacrifice.In Light of Shadows masterfully conveys the magical allusiveness and elliptical style of this extraordinary writer, who Mishima Yukio called the only genius of modern Japanese letters.

毒姫 1 [Dokuhime 1]


Mitsukazu Mihara - 2004
    Then under the sheets. And inside the clothes. Even mixed in the milk that they feed the newborn. This way the child gradually gets used to poisons and becomes the perfect assassination tool - the “Poison Princess” whose every kiss, tear and even touch bring death. Her only chance of survival is to fulfill her duty as an assassin and find a way to live on in the enemy land she is sent to… if her heart is strong enough.

The San Veneficio Canon


Michael Cisco - 2004
    He learns to pick the brains of corpses and gradually sacrifices his sanity on the altar of a dubious mission of espionage. Without ever understanding his own reasons, he moves toward destruction with steely determination. Eventually he find himself reduced to a walker between worlds - a creature neither of flesh nor spirit, stuffed with paper and preserved with formaldehyde - a zombie of his own devising. The line twixt clairvoyance and madness is thinner than a razor blade. In 1999, The Divinity Student captured the attention of fans of dark fantasy everywhere, eventually winning the International Horror Guild Award for best first novel. Now, The Divinity Student has been paired with its sequel, The Golem, for a must-have book - The San Veneficio Canon. Michael Cisco has created a city and a character that will live in the reader's imagination long after this book has been read...

The Gothic


David Punter - 2004
     Provides an overview of the most significant issues and debates in Gothic studies. Explains the origins and development of the term Gothic. Explores the evolution of the Gothic in both literary and non-literary forms, including art, architecture and film. Features authoritative readings of key works, ranging from Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. Considers recurrent concerns of the Gothic such as persecution and paranoia, key motifs such as the haunted castle, and figures such as the vampire and the monster. Includes a chronology of key Gothic texts, including fiction and film from the 1760s to the present day, and a comprehensive bibliography.

The Mistress of Trevelyan


Jennifer St. Giles - 2004
    It has long been whispered that Trevelyan Manor hides dark secrets and sinister deeds -- including the murder of Benedict's wife. But Ann refuses to pay heed to spiteful rumor.As she grows to cherish her young charges, Ann also finds herself powerfully drawn to the handsome Benedict, whose passionate persuasion introduces her to a new world of sensual pleasures. But even while falling in love with the master of Trevelyan, Ann wonders if his attentions are intended to blind her to the secrets of the past -- and if Benedict holds he key to her destiny...or her destruction.

Boneland


Jeffrey Thomas - 2004
    Families go mad. Parents commit suicide. A president is assassinated.By 1918, in the bleak boneland of the 20th Century, human assassins commit atrocities and global wars are waged to sate the appetites of the Guests. John Board is a crime scene photographer, whose nightmarish images of human destruction are used as titillating entertainment. Board's future is tied in with these unseen, unfathomable forces—and so is his past. America is drowning in a sea of blood as flashbulbs click and movie cameras roll. The Guests are here to stay.Boneland is a tale of a not-so-alternate history...a story of horror, science fiction, and the surreal by Jeffrey Thomas, acclaimed author of Letters From Hades, Punktown and Monstrocity.

I Love My Smith and Wesson


David Bowker - 2004
    Death stalks these streets in the form of a hired killer named Rawhead--a shadowy yet powerful figure desperate to control a ruthless mob family called The Priesthood. He will stop at nothing to invade their inner sanctum.Author Billy Dye has finally found success after years of struggle. But now Rawhead, his childhood friend turned maniacal assassin, has reentered his life and involved him in a plot to take over The Priesthood and wrest control of the Manchester underworld. Nobody is safe in this action-packed, violent, and often hilarious crime novel.David Bowker is the new voice of British crime and the most original author to burst on the scene in years.

A Dark Dividing


Sarah Rayne - 2004
    But once he's met the enigmatic Simone, Harry is intrigued. Just what did happen to Simone's twin sister who disappeared without trace several years before? And what is the Anderson sisters' connection to another set of twin girls, Viola and Sorrel Quinton, born in London on 1st January 1900? All Harry's lines of enquiry seem to lead to the small Shropshire village of Weston Fferna and the imposing ruin of Mortmain House, standing grim and forbidding on the Welsh borders. As Harry delves into the violent and terrible history of Mortmain, in an attempt to uncover what happened to Simone and Sonia and, a century before them, to Viola and Sorrel Quinton, he finds himself drawn into a number of interlocking mysteries, each one more puzzling -- and sinister -- than the last.

Charles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic


Peter Kafer - 2004
    His first book, Wieland, is the story of a religious fanatic haunted by demonic voices instructing him to murder his wife and children; in subsequent works, a young country bumpkin confronts the depravities of city existence, an impecunious daughter becomes the erotic obsession of an insane egomaniacal rationalist, and a sleepwalker awakes to--and participates in--the extremes of frontier savagery. How could a glorious age of American history also give rise to the darkest of literary traditions, one that would inspire Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and many other best-selling American writers?In Charles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic, Peter Kafer carefully unravels the mystery of what compelled this pious Philadelphia Quaker to become fascinated with a peculiar form of dark European imagery and transform it into something wholly American. In the new nation, Kafer notes, there were no ancient monasteries, no haunted castles, no hierarchies of nobility to draw upon. Taking inspiration instead from his pacifist family's persecution at the hands of the American Revolutionaries, including the likes of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, as well as from perverse expressions of European-American Protestantism and the suppressed histories of his native Pennsylvania, Brockden Brown wrote of the horrors that lurked below the triumphant veneer of the young American republic. In doing so, he became the literary conscience of his generation.Written with a witty and acutely critical eye, Charles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic illuminates the social and political influences on the nation's first professional novelist and reveals the surprising origins of one of American literature's most popular and enduring genres.

J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales V1


J. Sheridan Le Fanu - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2


J. Sheridan Le Fanu - 2004
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Midnight Island Sanctuary


Susan Peterson - 2004
    She never expected to be magnetically drawn to her brooding employer, Jacob Mackenzie - the formidable lord of the manor who harbored haunting secrets of his own...But this secluded hideaway was not the safe haven that it seemed... Suddenly mysterious incidents and unexplained deaths were as commonplace as the dark, stormy clouds and rolling mists that surrounded Jacob's ancient castle. With hysteria at an all-time high and Cora's deranged stalked lying in wait within the shadowy crevices of Midnight Island, Cora had no choice except to place all her trust in the enigmatic man who vowed to keep her safe.

Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery


John Walker Guss - 2004
    Such is the manner in which those resting under the trees of Laurel Grove Cemetery are memorialized. Established in 1850 out of the property of Springfield, one of Savannah's earliest plantations, Laurel Grove Cemetery is one of the most mysterious and intriguing cemeteries in all of the city. Through her gates lie individuals who have made their mark locally and worldwide. In this beautiful sanctuary rest such notable individuals as Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of America; Florence Martus, who became more popularly known as the Waving Girl; James Pierpont, author of "Jingle Bells," the popular Christmas carol; and more than 600 Confederate soldiers.

Phantom Fortune


Mary Elizabeth Braddon - 2004
    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Revising Charles Brockden Brown: Culture, Politics, And Sexuality In The Early Republic


Philip Barnard - 2004
    literary and cultural history. Brown’s prose fiction, periodical writings, historiography, and pamphlets take part in the full range of political, literary, scientific, and other debates that form the cultural landscape of the first decades of the American republic from 1790 to 1810. Scholarship in the twentieth century developed a general understanding of Brown as an ambitious novelist but only began to explore the full extent of his writings and the issues they raise.Revising Charles Brockden Brown explores the writer as a key figure for understanding the cultural politics of this crucial era of U.S. and Atlantic history. Using contemporary critical models drawn from history, interdisciplinary cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender and queer theory, and other areas, the essays in this collection bring Brown studies into the twenty-first century, synthesizing and extending the implications of the upsurge in Brown scholarship that has occurred over the last twenty years. These essays explore Brown in his own right and as a window onto the social dynamics of the early republic, as a participant in and commentator on the tumultuous conflicts and transformations of this postrevolutionary moment. These studies focus on the period’s political and ideological discourses in “Revolution and Republican Communities,” address questions concerning the construction of subjectivity and gender in “Gender and Sexuality,” and explore the later development of Brown’s intellectual origins in the radical enlightenment in the “Cultural Politics of the Later Years.”Contributors: Philip Barnard, Martin Brückner, Bruce Burgett, Michelle Burnham, Sean X. Goudie, Mark L. Kamrath, Robert S. Levine, Stephen Shapiro, Frank Shuffelton, Julia Stern, Fredrika J. Teute, W. M. Verhoeven, and Ed WhitePhilip Barnard teaches in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. He writes on American literature and cultural theory and has translated and edited work by such figures as Victor Séjour, Philippe Sollers, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. Mark L. Kamrath teaches early American literature in the Department of English at the University of Central Florida. He is author of a forthcoming book on Brown’s historical writing, and co-editor of a collection of essays on eighteenth-century American periodicals. Stephen Shapiro teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick. He writes on American literature and cultural materialism and is preparing a book-length study on Brown, ideology, and the Atlantic world-system.

Novel Relations: The Transformation of Kinship in English Literature and Culture, 1748-1818


Ruth Perry - 2004
    These include the development of a market economy and waged labor, enclosure and the redistribution of land, urbanization, the 'rise' of the middle class, and the development of print culture.