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The Sookie Stackhouse companion (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood)
By Charlaine Harris. 2011
Features the novella Small-Town Wedding, in which Sookie and her boss Sam, a shape-shifter, attend nuptials in Sam's Texas hometown.…
Includes trivia and fan questions, recipes, and a guide to Sookie's world of vampires, werewolves, and fairies. 2011Haunted Selves, Haunting Places in English Literature and Culture: 1800–Present
By Julian Wolfreys. 2018
Haunted Selves, Haunting Places in English Literature and Culture offers a series of readings of poetry, the novel and other…
forms of art and cultural expression, to explore the relationship between subject and landscape, self and place. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach grounded in close reading, the text places Jacques Derrida’s work on spectrality in dialogue with particular aspects of phenomenology. The volume explores writing and culture from the 1880s to the present day, proceeding through four sections examining related questions of identity, memory, the landscape, and our modern relationship to the past. Julian Wolfreys presents a theoretically informed understanding of the efficacy of literature and culture in connecting us to the past in an affective and engaged manner.New Directions in Supernatural Horror Literature: The Critical Influence of H. P. Lovecraft
By Sean Moreland. 2018
This collection of essays examines the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft’s most important critical work, Supernatural Horror in Literature. Each chapter…
illuminates a crucial aspect of Lovecraft’s criticism, from its aesthetic, philosophical and literary sources, to its psychobiological underpinnings, to its pervasive influence on the conception and course of horror and weird literature through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. These essays investigate the meaning of cosmic horror before and after Lovecraft, explore his critical relevance to contemporary social science, feminist and queer readings of his work, and ultimately reveal Lovecraft’s importance for contemporary speculative philosophy, film and literature.The Palgrave Handbook to Horror Literature
By Kevin Corstorphine, Laura R. Kremmel. 2018
This handbook examines the use of horror in storytelling, from oral traditions through folklore and fairy tales to contemporary horror…
fiction. Divided into sections that explore the origins and evolution of horror fiction, the recurrent themes that can be seen in horror, and ways of understanding horror through literary and cultural theory, the text analyses why horror is so compelling, and how we should interpret its presence in literature. Chapters explore historical horror aspects including ancient mythology, medieval writing, drama, chapbooks, the Gothic novel, and literary Modernism and trace themes such as vampires, children and animals in horror, deep dark forests, labyrinths, disability, and imperialism. Considering horror via postmodern theory, evolutionary psychology, postcolonial theory, and New Materialism, this handbook investigates issues of gender and sexuality, race, censorship and morality, environmental studies, and literary versus popular fiction.This book investigates the relationship between the fascinating and misunderstood penny blood, early Victorian popular fiction for the working class,…
and Victorian anatomy. In 1832, the controversial Anatomy Act sanctioned the use of the body of the pauper for teaching dissection to medical students, deeply affecting the Victorian poor. The ensuing decade, such famous penny bloods as Manuscripts from the Diary of a Physician, Varney the Vampyre, Sweeney Todd, and The Mysteries of London addressed issues of medical ethics, social power, and bodily agency. Challenging traditional views of penny bloods as a lowlier, un-readable genre, this book rereads these four narratives in the light of the 1832 Anatomy Act, putting them in dialogue with different popular artistic forms and literary genres, as well as with the spaces of death and dissection in Victorian London, exploring their role as channels for circulating discourses about anatomy and ethics among the Victorian poor.British Women’s Short Supernatural Fiction, 1860–1930: Our Own Ghostliness
By Victoria Margree. 2019
This book explores women’s short supernatural fiction between the emergence of first wave feminism and the post-suffrage period, arguing that…
while literary ghosts enabled an interrogation of women’s changing circumstances, ghosts could have both subversive and conservative implications. Haunted house narratives by Charlotte Riddell and Margaret Oliphant become troubled by uncanny reminders of the origins of middle-class wealth in domestic and foreign exploitation. Corpse-like revenants are deployed in Female Gothic tales by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Edith Nesbit to interrogate masculine aestheticisation of female death. In the culturally-hybrid supernaturalism of Alice Perrin, the ‘Marriage Question’ migrates to colonial India, and psychoanalytically-informed stories by May Sinclair, Eleanor Scott and Violet Hunt explore just how far gender relations have really progressed in the post-First World War period. Study of the woman’s short story productively problematises literary histories about the “golden age” of the ghost story, and about the transition from Victorianism to modernism.The Gothic in Contemporary British Trauma Fiction
By Ashlee Joyce. 2019
This book examines the intersection of trauma and the Gothic in six contemporary British novels: Martin Amis’s London Fields, Margaret…
Drabble’s The Gates of Ivory, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Pat Barker’s Regeneration and Double Vision, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. In these works, the Gothic functions both as an expression of societal violence at the turn of the twenty-first century and as a response to the related crisis of representation brought about by the contemporary individual’s highly mediated and spectatorial relationship to this violence. By locating these six novels within the Gothic tradition, this work argues that each text, to borrow a term from Jacques Derrida, “participates” in the Gothic in ways that both uphold the paradigm of “unspeakability” that has come to dominate much trauma fiction, as well as push its boundaries to complicate how we think of the ethical relationship between witnessing and writing trauma.Neo-Victorian Madness: Rediagnosing Nineteenth-Century Mental Illness in Literature and Other Media
By Brenda Ayres, Sarah E. Maier. 2020
Neo-Victorian Madness: Rediagnosing Nineteenth-Century Mental Illness in Literature and Other Media investigates contemporary fiction, cinema and television shows set in…
the Victorian period that depict mad murderers, lunatic doctors, social dis/ease and madhouses as if many Victorians were “mad.” Such portraits demand a “rediagnosing” of mental illness that was often reduced to only female hysteria or a general malaise in nineteenth-century renditions. This collection of essays explores questions of neo-Victorian representations of moral insanity, mental illness, disturbed psyches or non-normative imaginings as well as considers the important issues of legal righteousness, social responsibility or methods of restraint and corrupt incarcerations. The chapters investigate the self-conscious re-visions, legacies and lessons of nineteenth-century discourses of madness and/or those persons presumed mad rediagnosed by present-day (neo-Victorian) representations informed by post-nineteenth-century psychological insights.American Women's Regionalist Fiction: Mapping the Gothic (Palgrave Gothic)
By Monika Elbert, Rita Bode. 2021
American Women’s Regionalist Fiction: Mapping the Gothic seeks to redress the monolithic vision of American Gothic by analyzing the various sectional…
or regional attempts to Gothicize what is most claustrophobic or peculiar about local history. Since women writers were often relegated to inferior status, it is especially compelling to look at women from the Gothic perspective. The regionalist Gothic develops along the line of difference and not unity—thus emphasizing regional peculiarities or a sense of superiority in terms of regional history, natural landscapes, immigrant customs, folk tales, or idiosyncratic ways. The essays study the uncanny or the haunting quality of “the commonplace,” as Hawthorne would have it in his introduction to The House of the Seven Gables, in regionalist Gothic fiction by a wide range of women writers between ca. 1850 and 1930. This collection seeks to examine how/if the regionalist perspective is small, limited, and stultifying and leads to Gothic moments, or whether the intersection between local and national leads to a clash that is jarring and Gothic in nature.Betty: The International Bestseller
By Tiffany McDaniel. 2020
'Breahtaking'Vogue'So engrossing! Betty is a page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story steeped in Cherokee history, told in undulating prose that settles right…
into you'Naoise Dolan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Exciting Times 'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Everthing Under'I loved Betty: I fell for its strong characters and was moved by the story it portrayed' Fiona Mozley, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Elmet 'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words. 'Not a story you will soon forget' Karen Joy Fowler, Booker Prize shortlisted author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves 'Shot through with moonshine, Bible verses, and folklore, Betty is about the cruelty we inflict on one another, the beauty we still manage to find, and the stories we tell in order to survive' Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow ChildSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA NEW BLOOD DAGGER ***Don't miss the utterly gripping new thriller from Egan Hughes - LEAVE THE…
LIGHTS ON is out now*** 'This one really pulled me in' JANE CORRY 'Tense, thrilling and full of twists and turns' ANGELA MARSONS 'A summer must-read' WOMAN'S WEEKLY 'A masterclass in storytelling' THE COURIER 'Addictive, I was gripped from the opening chapter' JO SPAIN 'Plunges the reader in and leaves them gasping for air' RACHEL EDWARDS 'Utterly addictive' CRIME MONTHLY 'Gripping' HELLO __________________You love him. You trust him.YOU CAN'T ESCAPE HIM. Mia thinks she has escaped her controlling ex-husband, Rob. She's found herself a new home, a new boyfriend and a new life.But when the police arrive to tell her that Rob has been found dead on his boat, things quickly fall apart. Mia is terrified she'll be suspected, however the police are keeping all options open. They know Mia had reason to hate her ex-husband, but she's not the only one. Plenty of people wanted Rob Creavy dead, not least his new wife, Rachel. What they don't know is that Mia has a secret, one she's desperate to protect.But someone else knows. Someone with very dark secrets of their own . . . A claustrophobic, twisty psychological thriller about love, trauma and revenge - perfect for fans of, THE HOLIDAY, SOMETHING IN THE WATER and THE WOMAN IN CABIN TEN.___________________WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY 'One of my favourite thrillers of the year' ***** 'Clear your schedule. Once you start reading, you won't be able to stop' ***** 'All the twists and turns kept me guessing until the very last page' ***** 'The ending is incredibly hard to predict' ***** 'Wow, is all I can say for this book' ***** 'An incredible novel that drew me in and didn't let me go' 'What a thrilling read' ***** 'Dark, twisted and utterly unpredictable. A must-read!' *****Bay of Rainbows
By Dana James. 2014
When Polly meets racing yacht designer Nathan Bryce for the first time, she realises immediately that what the papers say…
about him is all too true. He's handsome, fascinating and utterly ruthless. Falsely accused of drug smuggling, then released into Nathan’s custody, Polly cannot follow her first instinct to run. Her only chance of proving her innocence is to work as crew and cook on their voyage to Greece. But will she be able to resist the magnetic force of his attraction once they are alone in the Mediterranean? Can Nathan bring himself to trust her?Bay of Rainbows
By Dana James. 2014
When Polly meets racing yacht designer Nathan Bryce for the first time, she realises immediately that what the papers say…
about him is all too true. He's handsome, fascinating and utterly ruthless. Falsely accused of drug smuggling, then released into Nathan’s custody, Polly cannot follow her first instinct to run. Her only chance of proving her innocence is to work as crew and cook on their voyage to Greece. But will she be able to resist the magnetic force of his attraction once they are alone in the Mediterranean? Can Nathan bring himself to trust her?Ruin: A dramatically powerful, unputdownable love story
By Samantha Towle. 2018
From Samantha Towle, the New York Times bestselling author of Wardrobe Malfunction and Breaking Hollywood, comes a dramatically powerful and…
passionate new contemporary romance.And the new heavyweight champion of the world is... Those are the words that Zeus Kincaid has been waiting to hear since he first put on a pair of boxing gloves. He just didn't think they would come with a tragedy that would change how he viewed the sport forever. Cameron Reed was in her second year at Juilliard when her childhood sweetheart, Zeus Kincaid, walked away from her. A few months later, Cam realized that she would never fulfill her dream of dancing for the New York City Ballet. Now working as a dancer in an upscale club in Manhattan, Cam is brought face-to-face with the man she once loved. And it's her turn to walk away from him. After five years of missing Cam, Zeus isn't prepared to let her go again. But when he finds himself standing on her doorstep the next morning, things don't go quite as he expected... 'You'll be smitten with everything about this entertaining, steamy and feel-good romance' USA Today's Happy Ever After on Breaking HollywoodSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA NEW BLOOD DAGGER ***Don't miss the utterly gripping new thriller from Egan Hughes - LEAVE THE…
LIGHTS ON is out now*** 'This one really pulled me in' JANE CORRY 'Tense, thrilling and full of twists and turns' ANGELA MARSONS 'A summer must-read' WOMAN'S WEEKLY 'A masterclass in storytelling' THE COURIER 'Addictive, I was gripped from the opening chapter' JO SPAIN 'Plunges the reader in and leaves them gasping for air' RACHEL EDWARDS 'Utterly addictive' CRIME MONTHLY 'Gripping' HELLO __________________You love him. You trust him.YOU CAN'T ESCAPE HIM. Mia thinks she has escaped her controlling ex-husband, Rob. She's found herself a new home, a new boyfriend and a new life.But when the police arrive to tell her that Rob has been found dead on his boat, things quickly fall apart. Mia is terrified she'll be suspected, however the police are keeping all options open. They know Mia had reason to hate her ex-husband, but she's not the only one. Plenty of people wanted Rob Creavy dead, not least his new wife, Rachel. What they don't know is that Mia has a secret, one she's desperate to protect.But someone else knows. Someone with very dark secrets of their own . . . A claustrophobic, twisty psychological thriller about love, trauma and revenge - perfect for fans of, THE HOLIDAY, SOMETHING IN THE WATER and THE WOMAN IN CABIN TEN.___________________WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY 'One of my favourite thrillers of the year' ***** 'Clear your schedule. Once you start reading, you won't be able to stop' ***** 'All the twists and turns kept me guessing until the very last page' ***** 'The ending is incredibly hard to predict' ***** 'Wow, is all I can say for this book' ***** 'An incredible novel that drew me in and didn't let me go' 'What a thrilling read' ***** 'Dark, twisted and utterly unpredictable. A must-read!' *****Embryology and the Rise of the Gothic Novel (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine)
By Diana Pérez Edelman. 2021
This book argues that embryology and the reproductive sciences played a key role in the rise of the Gothic novel…
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Diana Pérez Edelman dissects Horace Walpole’s use of embryological concepts in the development of his Gothic imagination and provides an overview of the conflict between preformation and epigenesis in the scientific community. The book then explores the ways in which Gothic literature can be read as epigenetic in its focus on internally sourced modes of identity, monstrosity, and endless narration. The chapters analyze Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto; Ann Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance, The Italian, and The Mysteries of Udolpho; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Charles Robert Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer; and James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner, arguing that these touchstones of the Gothic register why the Gothic emerged at that time and why it continues today: the mysteries of reproduction remain unsolved.Performativity of Villainy and Evil in Anglophone Literature and Media
By Nizar Zouidi. 2021
Performativity of Villainy and Evil in Anglophone Literature and Media studies the performative nature of evil characters, acts and emotions…
across intersecting genres, disciplines and historical eras. This collection brings together scholars and artists with different institutional standings, cultural backgrounds and (inter)disciplinary interests with the aim of energizing the ongoing discussion of the generic and thematic issues related to the representation of villainy and evil in literature and media. The volume covers medieval literature to contemporary literature and also examines important aspects of evil in literature such as social and political identity, the gothic and systemic evil practices. In addition to literature, the book considers examples of villainy in film, TV and media, revealing that performance, performative control and maneuverability are the common characteristics of villains across the different literary and filmic genres and eras studied in the volume.Haunted Nature: Entanglements of the Human and the Nonhuman (Palgrave Gothic)
By Sladja Blazan. 2021
This volume is a study of human entanglements with Nature as seen through the mode of haunting. As an interruption…
of the present by the past, haunting can express contemporary anxieties concerning our involvement in the transformation of natural environments and their ecosystems, and our complicity in their collapse. It can also express a much-needed sense of continuity and relationality. The complexity of the question—who and what gets to be called human with respect to the nonhuman—is reflected in these collected chapters, which, in their analysis of cinematic and literary representations of sentient Nature within the traditional gothic trope of haunting, bring together history, race, postcolonialism, and feminism with ecocriticism and media studies. Given the growing demand for narratives expressing our troubled relationship with Nature, it is imperative to analyze this contested ground.A Vindication of the Redhead: The Typology of Red Hair Throughout the Literary and Visual Arts
By Brenda Ayres, Sarah E. Maier. 2021
A Vindication of the Redhead investigates red hair in literature, art, television, and film throughout Eastern and Western cultures. This…
study examines red hair as a signifier, perpetuated through stereotypes, myths, legends, and literary and visual representations. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier provide a history of attitudes held by hegemonic populations toward red-haired individuals, groups, and genders from antiquity to the present. Ayres and Maier explore such diverse topics as Judeo-Christian narratives of red hair, redheads in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, red hair and gender identity, famous literary redheads such as Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking, contemporary and Neo-Victorian representations of redheads from the Black Widow to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and more. This book illuminates the symbolic significance and related ideologies of red hair constructed in mythic, religious, literary, and visual cultural discourse.Weird Fiction: A Genre Study
By Michael Cisco. 2021
Weird Fiction: A Genre Study presents a comprehensive, contemporary analysis of the genre of weird fiction by identifying the concepts…
that influence and produce it. Focusing on the sources of narrative content—how the content is produced and what makes something weird—Michael Cisco engages with theories from Deleuze and Guattari to explain how genres work and to understand the relationship between identity and the ordinary. Cisco also uses these theories to examine the supernatural not merely as a horde of tropes, but as a recognition of the infinity of experience in defiance of limiting norms. The book also traces the sociopolitical implications of weird fiction, studying the differentiation of major and minor literatures. Through an articulated theoretical model and close textual analysis, readers will learn not only what weird fiction is, but how and why it is produced.