The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)

Product Details

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• Contingency: New
• ISBN13: 9780199561537

Description

Brimming with tales of terror, suspense, and the uncanny, this work offers a collection devoted to the best of the Gothic genre. Each story contains the common elements of the gothic talea warped sense of time, a claustrophobic setting, a link to archaic modes of thought, and the impression of a descent into disintegration. Yet taken together, they reveal the progression of the genre from stories of feudal villains amid crumbling ruins to a greater level of sophistication in which writers brought the gothic tale out of its medieval setting, and placed it in the contemporary world. Bringing together the work of such writers as Eudora Welty, Thomas Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jorge Luis Borges, The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales presents a wide array of the sinister and unsettling for all lovers of ghost stories, fantasy, and horror.

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Customer Reviews

Some Great Unfamiliar Gothic Tales
There are some great tales in this book.by such authors as-
poe,le fanu.hawthorne,g.w.cable,charlotte perkins stetson(weird psychological tale), nesbit,lovecraft,faulkner(this is not a gothic tale but pure faulknew; enjoyable),thomas hardy( Barbara of the house of grebe; loved this one), ellen glasgow (jordan's end; I do wish she had written more ghost tales) and many more fine
tales.

2010-01-08 (Asheville, NC) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Delicious Gothic
As a fan of gothic literature, I love this wonderful anthology. It begins with an introduction to classic gothic and its writers; and goes on to offer over 30 blood-chilling short stories by authors like Poe, Hardy, Hawthorne, Faulkner, and Borges. My favorite was A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner. It's exciting to have so much rich variety in one place. A bit eerie and unnerving, this volume is not for the faint-hearted. It's the perfect book to read on a stormy night! I highly recommend it.

2009-10-03 | crazy about books (Beautiful Northwest USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Best Collection of Gothic Tales
If there is one book that I would recommend regarding good Gothic fiction, it would be The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Oxford Books of Prose). This book has been my staple since a long time ago. To give you some idea of what you can find in this book, Part I., "Beginnings," contains such classics as "The Vindictive Monk of the Fatal Ring"; the next section, or Part II., "The Nineteenth Century," includes some outstanding stories by the customary Poe and Hawthorne, as well as "Jean-Ah Poquelin" by George Washington Cable and "Bloody Blanche" by Thomas Hardy. The selections from Part III, "The Twentieth Century," contain some outstanding examples like "The Outsider" by H.P. Lovecraft and the eerie "The Bloody Countess" by Alejandra Pizarnik. There are thirty-seven selections total, with a great introduction by the editor.

2007-06-06 | Dancing Ganesha (Bangalore, India) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 5

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Some I've already read elsewhere, but the new ones to me were riveting! Great gothic collection!
I wanted to combine a good gothic book with the gothic romance I intended to read and had been on my TBR pile for a while and found this collection at a bookstore. The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales has a large collection stories by authors from times that vary from Georgian period to recent years. Some are dark and sinister, others have a mystery to discover while there are those that have only the gothic atmosphere down pat. There are quite a few popular authors here -- William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Angela Carter and Joyce Carol Oates, to name a few. There are also some stories written by "Anonymous." My favorite stories are "The Lady of the House of Love," by Angela Carter, Eden Glasgow's "Jordan's End," and Ray Russell's "Sardonicus." The stories are quite dark and are some of the best in the gothic genre. I've already read some of the stories from the authors I've enjoyed over the years (like Poe and Oates), but the ones I hadn't read made this a very enjoyable read for me. I cannot recommend this unique collection enough.

2006-04-01 (MA) | Helpful Votes: 17 | Rating: 4

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What gothic really means!
Another reviewer said this collection of stories changed their lives. It changed mine as well. It elevated my understanding of gothic literature and art and made me think critically about the popular manifestations of "goth" culture. And the most shocking tale, the one about "Countess Dracula", just happens to be true. But as Angela Carter's wonderful story "The Lady of the House of Love" shows, the gothic legacy has less to do with death and brooding and more to do with a totally different view on the world and living.

2004-07-26 (New York, USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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In Frankenstein's Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing

Description

The story of Frankenstein and the monster he created is one of our most important modern myths. This study surveys the history of the myth in literature before the advent of film. First examining the range of meanings generated by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in light of images of political "monstrosity" produced by the French Revolution, Baldick goes on to trace the protean transformations of the myth in the fiction of Hoffmann, Hawthorne, Dickens, Melville, Conrad, and Lawrence, as well as in the historical and political writings of Carlyle and Marx and the science fiction of Stevenson and Wells. In conclusion, he shows that the myth's most powerful associations have centered on human relationships, the family, work, and politics.

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The Social Mission of English Criticism 1848-1932 (Oxford English Monographs)

Description

Examining the transformation of English literary criticism, this book focuses on the social objectives of the pioneer critics and educationalists who established modern English studies. Of particular concern is their view of literary culture as a civilizing influence capable of reconciling class conflict, and their desire to preserve this culture in the face of the new dangers of "mass society"--advertising, pulp fiction, and the cinema.

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The Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Description

Containing over 1,000 of the most troublesome literary terms encountered by students and general readers, this gem of a book gives clear and often witty explanations to terms such as hypertext, multi-accentuality, and postmodernism. The dictionary also provides extensive coverage of traditional drama, rhetoric, literary history, and textual criticism. It offers pronunciation guides and suggestions for further reading for many entries, and includes a new preface and terms that have become prominent in literature in the last few years, such as cyberpunk and antanaclasis. This second edition is the most up-to-date and accessible dictionary of literary terms available, popular with both students and teachers of literature at all levels.

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Customer Reviews

Good review
The book is in excellent condition. I got in just in time for my class that I need it in.

2009-03-02 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Great Student/Teacher resource
Great resource for any literature class. The terms are listed in alpha order and full, yet understandable definitions are given.

2008-04-14 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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quite useful
Although this dictionary may be quite simple, it is exactly this aspect that attracts me the most. As I teach Literature in English to non native speakers of the language, it is very good to have simple and clear definitions which help the students in their researches.

2007-06-21 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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Pretty much useless...
This book should be avoided because it really lacks too many terms and thus serves no purpose. People who want a literary terms dictionary probably only want ONE since they are specific and who in their right mind wouldn't want a COMPLETE one?!?

In the preface the author even states that he only picked the most used definitions but again I ask the question why?? Another problem Baldick has is his word selection. Anybody with any business or need to pick this book up probably won't need to look up words such as: act, argument, character, climax, closure, content, etc..

I did use this book to study for the English CSET exams parts I and II and I can recommend it for that. Seeing how little there is out there to study with, I can honestly say this book did help to some degree with my preparation for the test.

Bottom Line: After perusing vairous LT dictionaries, I have come to the conclusion that going to the bookstore is the best method for choosing what you want. You probably won't want to pick this one.

2005-11-04 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 2

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The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 10: The Modern Movement (1910-1940)

Description

The Oxford English Literary History is the new century's definitive account of a rich and diverse literary heritage that stretches back for a millennium and more.

Each of these groundbreaking volumes offers a leading scholar's considered assessment of the authors, works, cultural traditions, events, and the ideas that shaped the literary voices of their age. The series will enlighten and inspire not only everyone studying, teaching, and researching in English Literature, but all serious readers.

This exciting new volume provides a freshly inclusive account of literature in England in the period before, during, and after the First World War. Chris Baldick places the modernist achievements of Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, and James Joyce within the rich context of non-modernist writings across all major genres, allowing "high" literary art to be read against the background of "low" entertainment. Looking well beyond the modernist vanguard, Baldick highlights the survival and renewal of realist traditions in these decades of post-Victorian disillusionment. Ranging widely across psychological novels, war poems, detective stories, satires, and children's books, The Modern Movement provides a unique survey of the literature of this turbulent time.

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Customer Reviews

A model survey
If this book wasn't absorbed into a series, it could stand alone as one of the best books on literary Modernism in English Literature yet written. Readable, witty, up to date, and full of fascinating facts, it as close to a page turner a work of criticism could get.

Baldick has written more than the usual bloodless survey, clicking off checklists of titles chronologically. Instead he has created an elegant framework to give the reader a context for placing the literary output of the British Isles between 1910 and 1940. This includes the usual cast of Modernists such as Woolf, Eliot and Joyce, but finds room for FOREVER AMBER and LOST HORIZONS as well. EM Forster and GB Shaw rub shoulders with Agatha Christie and Sax Rohmer.

Baldick is not shy about giving his own critical assessments (PG Wodehouse thumbs up, DH Lawrence thumbs down) and he attemps to be inclusive without being exhaustive. He eschews theoretical jargon for compulsively readable prose. He will pique your curiosity about unfamiliar titles as well as covering the usual suspects with concise plot summaries. Plays, poetry, travel writing, memoirs and many other genres are covered and there is a concluding section on special topics including children's literature, the Great War and sexuality.

I can't see how this book could have been better...except by being longer.

2006-01-03 | charlus (New York, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Criticism and Literary Theory 1890 to the Present

Description

This text aims to provide students with a critical introduction to the major developments in literary criticism and literary theory in English since the 1890s.

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