Seven Gothic Dramas 1789-1825

Rating:
Summary: THE VERY BEST IN GOTHIC HORROR . . .
Review: This is an indispensable collection for anyone who is interested in Romanticism and its origins, or in the roots of horror literature. Jeffrey Cox brings together an admirable selection of the most exciting and influential examples of the "Gothic Horror Dramas" that took the English stage by storm at the end of the 18th Century. Readers whose acquaintance with the Gothic Horror genre extends no further than the sublime but restrained novels of Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe will find this collection a shocking revelation. These plays, which are otherwise unavailable except in expensive and out-of-print editions, are thrilling and genuinely horrific in ways that far surpass contemporary novels, and can still be read for pure, guilty pleasure, as well as for scholarly/historical interest. Most importantly, anyone who has ever wondered how the sublime but still unmistakably evil villain of the Gothic Horror Novels becomes transformed into that towering icon of English Romanticism, the Byronic Hero, will find the answer in the three indisputable masterpieces in this collection: "The Castle Spectre" by M.G. Lewis, "De Monfort" by Joanna Baillie, and "Bertram" by C.R. Maturin. In these works, the Gothic Villain gradually acquires sympathetic attributes (such as an oppressive sense of guilt for his outrages) without sacrificing his titanic stature, until ultimately (as in the case of "Bertram," the finest work in the collection), he achieves the status of a dark hero, with Nietzschean overtones. Cox also provides a useful introduction to these unjustifiably neglected works.