Delightful Horrors: Early Gothic Novels 1764-1809

In a period when the light of reason shone brightly, works emerged showing gloomy atmospheres of darkness. Throughout the eighteenth century, nocturnal visions of fear could be found in poems and paintings exalting the beauty and the sublime of mystery. The Castle of Otranto marked the beginning of the Gothic genre and was followed by innumerable works imitating its style. Delightful Horrors explores cultural, literary and iconographic influences that brought about the Gothic with a fresh and original perspective. A compelling investigation of tropes and themes of the early Gothic, this book analyses the works of Walpole, William Beckford, Matthew G. Lewis, Ann Radcliffe and their contemporaries. It is dedicated to experts and non-experts of one of the most appealing phenomena in literature.