American Gothic: From Salem Witchcraft to H. P. Lovecraft, an Anthology (Blackwell Anthologies)

American Gothic remains an enduringly fascinating genre, retaining its chilling hold on the imagination. This revised and expanded anthology brings together texts from the colonial era to the twentieth century including recently discovered material, canonical literary contributions from Poe and Wharton among many others, and literature from sub-genres such as feminist and ‘wilderness’ Gothic. Revised and expanded to incorporate suggestions from twelve years of use in many countries An important text for students of the expanding field of Gothic studies Strong representation of female Gothic, wilderness Gothic, the Gothic of race, and the legacy of Salem witchcraft Edited by a founding member of the International Gothic Association The trial of G.B. ; The trial of Martha Carrier ; A notable exploit, wherein, dux faemina facti (The narrative of Hannah Dustan) / Cotton Mather (1663-1728) A surprising account of the discovery of a lady ... / Abraham Panther Letter IX (from letters from an American farmer) / J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) Somnambulism / Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) The legend of Sleepy Hollow / Washington Irving (1783-1859) Idiosyncrasies / John Neal (1793-1876) From The Quaker city, or, the monks of Monk Hall / George Lippard (1822-1854) The skeleton in armor / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) A struggle for life / Henry Clay Lewis (1825-1850) Alice Doane's appeal ; Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Hop-frog ; The cask of Amontillado ; The facts in the case of M. Valdemar ; The fall of the house of Usher ; The raven ; The city in the sea ; Ulalume ; Annabel Lee ; Dream-land / Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) The bell tower / Herman Melville (1819-1891) My visitation / Rose Terry Cooke (1827-1892) Through lane it lay, through bramble ; I felt a funeral, in my brain ; 'Tis so appalling, it exhilarates ; The soul has bandaged moments ; One need not be a chamber to be haunted ; 'Twas like a maelstrom, with a notch ; If I may have it, when it's dead ; What mystery pervades a well! / Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) A whisper in the dark / Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) Her story ; Circumstance / Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835-1921) The death of Halpin Frayser ; An inhabitant of Carcosa / Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) The turn of the screw / Henry James (1843-1916) Jean-ah Poquelin / George Washington Cable (1844-1925) The little room / Madeline Yale Wynne (1847-1918) The foreigner / Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) Desiree's baby / Kate Chopin (1851-1904) Old woman Magoun ; Luella Miller / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) The bell in the fog / Gertrude Atherton (1857-1948) Talking bones / Anonymous (folk tale) The sheriff's children ; The dumb witness / Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) The giant wisteria ; The yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) The house that was not / Elia Wilkinson Peattie (1862-1935) The eyes / Edith Wharton (1862-1937) In the court of the dragon / Robert W. Chambers (1865-1943) Nancy Knapp ; Barry Holden / Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950) Luke Havergal ; Lisette and Eileen ; The dark house ; The mill ; Souvenir ; Why he was there / Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) Lauth / Frank Norris (1870-1902) The monster / Stephen Crane (1871-1900) The lynching of Rube Benson / Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) Chinnubbie and the owl / Alexander Posey (1873 -1908) Samuel / Jack London (1876-1916) The outsider / H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). The chilling creativity of the American Gothic has retained its power to attract readers since it burst onto the literary scene in the eighteenth century, yet it has been the object of serious scholarship for only a few decades. Edited by a founding member of the International Gothic Association, the new edition of this anthology incorporates the whole range of factual and imaginative writing, from Cotton Mather's account of the witchcraft trials in the colonial era, through the poetry of Poe, Dickinson, and Longfellow and unsettling tales both long (Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw") and short (the anonymous "Talking Bones"), to the beginning of the modernism in the twentieth century. The collection demonstrates the startling abundance of themes explored by these writers and reflects contemporary academic perspectives, with generous selections from genres such as feminist and "wilderness" Gothic. It includes recently unearthed as well as canonical material and provides an unflinching view of America's secrets and fears: the thoughts that have been repressed, silenced, or forbidden. -- From publisher's description Overview: American Gothic remains an enduringly fascinating genre, retaining its chilling hold on the imagination. This revised and expanded anthology brings together texts from the colonial era to the twentieth century including recently discovered material, canonical literary contributions from Poe and Wharton among many others, and literature from sub genres such as feminist and ‘wilderness’ Gothic.