Showing results for "Gothic" in Literary History & Criticism

Jane Merrick is a wealthy, elderly, difficult invalid woman who is preparing for her approaching death. In her youth, she inherited her money and estate from her fiancé, Thomas Bradley, who died before their wedding took place. With no children of her own, she calls for her three teenaged nieces to visit her, so she can decide who will inherit her estate. They are Louise Merrick, Elizabeth De Graf, and Patsy Doyle, children of Jane's younger brother and sisters. Each of the three cousins is a different type. (Summary by Wikipedia)

The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commodity, digging through the populist veneer to reveal what the prince of darkness says about us all.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu...was in his own particular vein one of the best story-tellers of the nineteenth century; and the present volume contains a collection of forgotten tales by him, and of tales not previously known to be his. He stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories. That is my deliberate verdict, after reading all the supernatural tales I have been able to get hold of. Nobody sets the scene better than he, nobody touches in the effective detail more deftly. Ghost stories and tales of mystery are what this volume contains, and, in order to lure the reader on, I ...

A collection of LibriVox volunteers’ favourite chapters. Some were chosen for being the key chapter in a great novel, others for the wonderful clarity with which great ideas are expressed, and still others because the reader did a wonderful job. Whatever the reason they were chosen, we hope they will give you as much pleasure as they did us. (Summary by David Barnes)

A Phantom Lover is a supernatural novella by Vernon Lee (pseudonym of Violet Paget) first published in 1886. Set in a Kentish manor house, the story concerns a portrait painter commissioned by a squire, William Oke, to produce portraits of him and his wife, the eccentric Mrs. Alice Oke, who bears a striking resemblance to a woman in a mysterious, seventeenth century painting. (Summary by Anthony Leslie)

This is a classic (gothic) horror story, and one of the earliest examples of science fiction. The main characters are Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, the daemon. Shelley called the scientist a "pale student of unhallowed arts" and his creation a "hideous phantasm of a man." This story is not only delightfully frightful, but arguably represents one of the clearest criticisms of science during a time when, like the daemon, it was leaving its own infancy and, like Dr. Frankenstein, testing its ethical boundaries. As Shelley said, "Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the ...

The author was raised as an American Indian and describes what it was like to be an Indian boy (the first 7 chapters) and an Indian Girl (the last 7 chapters). This is very different from the slanted way the white man tried to picture them as 'savages' and 'brutes.'Quote: Dear Children:—You will like to know that the man who wrote these true stories is himself one of the people he describes so pleasantly and so lovingly for you. He hopes that when you have finished this book, the Indians will seem to you very real and very friendly. He is not willing that all your knowledge of the race that ...

The accounts of old-time child life gathered for this book are wholly unconscious and full of honesty and simplicity, not only from the attitude of the child, but from that of his parents, guardians, and friends. The records have been made from affectionate interest, not from scientific interest; no profound search has been made for motives or significance, but the proof they give of tenderness and affection in the family are beautiful to read and to know. - Summary taken from Foreword of book.

This is the twelfth collection of our "coffee break" series, involving public domain works that are between 3 and 15 minutes in length. These are great for study breaks, commutes, workouts, or any time you'd like to hear a whole story and only have a few minutes to devote to listening. The theme for this collection is "The Performing Arts", with works about theatre, music, dance, and film! Summary by Rosie.

A story of psychological horror, The Return explores ideas of identity, love, and alienation. Arthur grapples with the reactions of his family and community, and his own sanity, when he experiences a sudden and mysterious "transformation". ( Summary by Corinna Schultz )

The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question...

One May Day, Robin Hood and his Merry Men sit in Sherwood Forest, waiting for a traveller to share their dinner. Enter a distraught Knight with his fair daughter Marian, who owe money to the Sheriff of Nottingham, and have not the means by which to pay it. Meanwhile the greedy Sheriff is visited by the Baron of the Black Castle, who plots to silence the famous outlaw once and for all! This version of the Robin Hood legend was written, and now recorded, as a play, entertaining for children and adults alike. (Summary by Rachel) Voice Cast: Robin Hood: Kristin Gjerløw Scarlet: Beth Thomas Little...

A portrait of Americas many social groups with the chief interest centered on a university professor and his family - Summary by Publishers Weekly September 5 1925

Wrong thinking produces inharmony in our body, which in turn produces sickness. Our bodies sometimes are instantly re-harmonized while in the Silence. In the Silence our minds become passive, open, free and loving, at which time the Infinite Master of harmony touches the mental chords of our being and we are well. - Summary by David Van Bush

This volume is the result of an avalanche of letters that, reached the author, Annie Fellows Johnston, complaining that she skipped in the Little Colonel series. To entreaties she has responded with this charming, wholesome volume, in which she fills in the skipped places. Mary Ware is a lovable little girl, not a very little one either, because she is old enough to go to boarding-school, and her ingenuity is evidenced by her sleeping calmly under a raised umbrella because a troublesome roommate adjusted the electric light so it shone on her pillow. Likewise it proves that she is ...

The Listener' First, it was a strange array of cats, then an increasingly mysterious, and then terrifying increase in...happenstances and...appearances... 'Number Thirteen' Unlucky for some this room is...on a visit to a Denmark with an ancient presence... 'The Horla' Yes, I believed, that an invisible being lived beneath my roof. How weak our head is, and how quickly it is terrified and goes astray, we immediately imagine terrible mysteries and supernatural powers. 'The Beast with Five Fingers' With murderous vengeance, the beast pursues the two friends. Will secrecy, intense surveillance and...

Considering that Billy Pringle, or Fine Billy, as his good-natured friends called him, was only an underbred chap, he was as good an imitation of a Swell as ever we saw. He had all the airy dreaminess of a hereditary high flyer, while his big talk and off-hand manner strengthened the delusion. It was only when you came to close quarters with him and found that though he talked in pounds he acted in pence, and marked his fine dictionary words and laboured expletives, that you came to the conclusion that he was “painfully gentlemanly.” So few people, however, agree upon what a gentleman is, ...

A regime on how to keep a healthy mind in a healthy body, consisting of a yogic way of eating, fresh air and light exercise. - Summary by Rapunzelina

This is volume 3 of 3. -- Originally published as a penny dreadful from 1845 until 1847, when it first appeared in book form, Varney the Vampyre is a forerunner to vampire stories such as Dracula, which it heavily influenced.Flora Bannersworth is attacked in her own room in the middle of the night, and although her attacker is seemingly shot dead, the body is nowhere to be found. The discovery of two small bite marks on Flora's neck leads Mr Marchdale, an old friend of the family, to the conclusion that she was bitten by a vampire. While Flora recovers, her brother Henry and Mr Marchdale begin...

Lewis Cornaro, also called Alvise or Luigi, was an Italian nobleman who lived during the 15th and 16th centuries. Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life collects his four key writings on the importance of diet in sustaining health and long life. In it, he describes his youth of indulgent living, which lead to a great decline in his health and near death in middle age. Acting on doctors' advice, he then completely changed his habits, strictly limiting both eating and drinking. He explains how this change saved his life, gave him the strength to fight off illnesses, overcome physical injuries,...