The Cambridge History of the Gothic: Volume 1, Gothic in the Long Eighteenth Century
Volume 1: Gothic in the Long Eighteenth Century
The Cambridge History of the Gothic Series

This first volume of The Cambridge History of the Gothic provides a rigorous account of the Gothic in Western civilisation, from the Goths' sacking of Rome in 410 AD through to its manifestations in British and European culture of the long eighteenth century. Written by international cast of leading scholars, the chapters explore the interdisciplinary nature of the Gothic in the fields of history, literature, architecture and fine art. As much a cultural history of Gothic as an account of the ways in which the Gothic has participated within a number of formative historical events across time, the volume offers fresh perspectives on familiar themes while also drawing new critical attention to a range of hitherto overlooked concerns. From writers such as Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe to eighteenth-century politics and theatre, the volume provides a thorough and engaging overview of early Gothic culture in Britain and beyond.

Introduction: The Gothic in/and History Dale Townshend, Angela Wright and Catherine Spooner 1. The Goths in Ancient History David M. Gwynn; 2. The Term 'Gothic' in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1680‒1800 Nick Groom; 3. The Literary Gothic Before Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto Dale Townshend; 4. Gothic Revival Architecture Before Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill Peter N. Lindfield; 5. Horace Walpole and the Gothic Stephen Clarke; 6. Shakespeare's Gothic Transmigrations Anne Williams; 7. Reassessing the Gothic / Classical Relationship James Uden; 8. 'A World of Bad Spirits': The Terrors of Eighteenth-Century Empire Ruth Scobie; 9. In Their Blood: The Eighteenth-Century Gothic Stage Paula R. Backscheider; 10. Domestic Gothic Writing after Horace Walpole and before Ann Radcliffe Deborah Russell; 11. Early British Gothic and the American Revolution James Watt; 12. Gothic and the French Revolution, 1789–1804 Fanny Lacôte; 13. The Aesthetics of Terror and Horror: A Genealogy Eric Parisot; 14. Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis Angela Wright; 15. The Gothic Novel Beyond Radcliffe and Lewis Yael Shapira; 16. Oriental Gothic: Imperial-Commercial Nightmares from the Eighteenth Century to the Romantic Period Diego Saglia; 17. The German 'School' of Horrors: A Pharmacology of the Gothic Barry Murnane; 18. Gothic and the History of Sexuality Jolene Zigarovich; 19. Gothic Art and Gothic Culture in the Romantic Era Martin Myrone; 20. Time in the Gothic Robert Miles; Select Bibliography

Angela Wright is Professor of Romantic Literature at the University of Sheffield, and a former co-President of the International Gothic Association (IGA). Her books include Britain, France and the Gothic: The Import of Terror, 1764-1820 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Mary Shelley (University of Wales Press, 2018), and the co-edited volumes Ann Radcliffe, Romanticism and the Gothic (2014, with Dale Townshend) and Romantic Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (2015, with Dale Townshend).
Dale Townshend is Professor of Gothic Literature in the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University. He has published widely on Gothic writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His most recent monograph is Gothic Antiquity: History, Romance, and the Architectural Imagination, 1760–1840 (2019).