The modern Gothic and literary doubles : Stevenson, Wilde, and Wells

The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles is concerned with Gothic representations of London in the late nineteenth-century. Establishing that a modern Gothic literary mode relocates the traditional rural Gothic to the late nineteenth-century metropolis, this volume explores the cultural history of London in the nineteenth century. The subsequent discussion of the Gothic fictions of Stevenson, Wilde and Wells offers new perspectives from which to assess the impact of contemporary perceptions of London as a Gothicized space on the works of these novelists. The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles offers refreshing new analyses of the fictions of Gothic duality of Stevenson, Wilde and Wells. Establishing that a modern Gothic literary mode relocates the traditional rural Gothic of earlier writers to the late nineteenth-century metropolis, this volume examines how narratives of the period present London as the location of Gothic encounters and transformations. An understanding of London's cultural history in the nineteenth century helps to explain why the metropolis was such a fertile topic for the literary imagination to work upon, and this volume offers a comprehensive overview of the events and changes in the metropolitan landscape that informed modern Gothic fictions. The book demonstrates how narratives like Jekyll and Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Time Machine and ar of the Worlds were deeply influenced by late nineteenth-century perceptions of London, and are thus symptomatic of a modern, metropolitan Gothic. "The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles offers a new analyses of the fictions of Gothic duality of Stevenson, Wilde and Wells. Establishing that a modern Gothic literary mode relocates the traditional rural Gothic of earlier writers to the late nineteenth-century metropolis, this volume examines how narratives of the period present London as the location of Gothic encounters and transformations. An understanding of London's cultural history in the nineteenth century helps to explain why the metropolis was such a fertile topic for the literary imagination to work upon, and this volume offers a comprehensive overview of the events and changes in the metropolitan landscape that informed modern Gothic fictions."--Jacket Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Foreword......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Abbreviations......Page 14 1 Introduction: the Literary Mood of the Fin de Siècle......Page 16 2 The Modern Gothic......Page 34 3 The City: London, Real and Imagined......Page 60 4 ‘City of Dreadful Night’: Stevenson’s Gothic London......Page 89 5 Oscar Wilde: Gothic Ironies and Terrible Dualities......Page 125 6 ‘The Coming Terror’: Wells’s Outcast London and the Modern Gothic......Page 162 Epilogue: Gothic Futures......Page 201 Notes......Page 206 Bibliography......Page 220 Index......Page 229 The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles is concerned with Gothic representations of London in the late 19th century. Establishing that a modern Gothic literary mode relocates the traditional rural Gothic to the late 19th century metropolis, this volume explores the cultural history of London in the 19th century. The subsequent discussion of the Gothic fictions of Stevenson, Wilde and Wells offers new perspectives from which to assess the impact of contemporary perceptions of London as a Gothicized space on the works of these novelists.