A Guide to Speculative Fiction at Gustavus Library: The Gothic

"Comprehensive and wide-ranging, this book brings together over 200 newly-commissioned essays by leading scholars writing on all aspects of the Gothic as it is currently taught and researched, along with challenging insights into the development of the genre and its impact on contemporary culture. The A-Z entries provide comprehensive coverage of relevant authors, national traditions, critical developments, and notable texts that continue to define, shape, and inform the genre. The volume's approach is truly interdisciplinary, with essays by specialist international contributors whose expertise extends beyond Gothic literature to film, music, drama, art, and architecture." - from the publisher

"The Gothic is wildly diverse. It can refer to ecclesiastical architecture, supernatural fiction, cult horror films, and a distinctive style of rock music. It has influenced political theorists and social reformers, as well as Victorian home décor and contemporary fashion. This Very Short Introduction captures the history of the Gothic from ancient times to the present. It covers the sack of Rome by the barbarian tribes, medieval architecture, popular culture in the sixteenth century (including ballads and Revenge Tragedy), political theories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the rise of the Gothic novel, the Victorian Gothic Revival, and the influence of Gothic culture on film, music, and fashion. It includes familiar Gothic novels such Frankenstein and Dracula, while also covering Gothic gardening, slasher movies, and the current Goth scene. It is the only account of the Gothic that describes the entire history of the term, presenting it in all its richly complex and perversely contradictory glory." - from the publisher

"The Gothic has become in recent years an enormously popular and respected field of study. Courses dealing wholly or partly with Gothic writing are now standard in English and cultural studies departments across the world. As well as providing a series of stimulating insights into Gothic writing, its history and genealogy, the volume also offers comprehensive coverage of criticism of the Gothic and of the various theoretical approaches it has inspired and spawned."--Jacket.

"Gothic as a form of fiction-making has played a major role in Western culture since the late eighteenth century. Here fourteen world-class experts on the Gothic provide thorough and revealing accounts of this haunting-to-horrifying type of fiction from the 1760s (the decade of The Castle of Otranto, the first so-called 'Gothic story') to the end of the twentieth century (an era haunted by filmed and computerized Gothic simulations). Along the way, these essays explore the connections of Gothic fictions to political and industrial revolutions, the realistic novel, the theater, Romantic and post-Romantic poetry, nationalism and racism from Europe to America, colonized and post-colonial populations, the rise of film and other visual technologies, the struggles between 'high' and 'popular' culture, changing psychological attitudes towards human identity, gender and sexuality, and the obscure lines between life and death, sanity and madness. The volume also includes a chronology and guides to further reading." - from the publisher

"In a wide ranging series of introductory essays written by some of the leading figures in the field, this essential guide explores the world of Gothic in all its myriad forms throughout the mid-eighteenth Century to the internet age.

The Routledge Companion to Gothic includes discussion on:

the history of Gothic
gothic throughout the English-speaking world i.e. London and USA as well as the postcolonial landscapes of Australia, Canada and the Indian subcontinent
key themes and concepts ranging from hauntings and the uncanny; Gothic femininities and queer Gothic
gothic in the modern world, from youth to graphic novels and films.
With ideas for further reading, this book is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date guides on the diverse and murky world of the gothic in literature, film and culture." - from the publisher

"A genre of supernatural fiction was among the more improbable products of the Age of Enlightenment, but produced a string of bestsellers. E.J. Clery's original and historically sensitive account charts the troubled entry of the supernatural into fiction, and examines the reasons for its growing popularity in the late eighteenth century. Beginning with the notorious case of the Cock Lane ghost, a performing poltergeist who became a major attraction in the London of 1762, and with Garrick's spell-binding performance as the ghost-seeing Hamlet, it moves on to look at the Gothic novels of Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, M.G. Lewis and others, in unexpected new lights. The central insight emerging from the rich resources of Clery's research concerns the connection between fictions of the supernatural and the growth of consumerism.Not only are ghost stories successful commodities in the rapidly commercialising book market, they are also considered here as reflections on the disruptive effects of this socio-economic transformation. In providing a newly detailed context for the rise of supernatural fiction, Clery's work will change our view of its dramatic role - as much commercial as creative - in the movement from Enlightenment to Romanticism." - from the publisher

"Exploring the psychological and political implications of Gothic fiction, Valdine Clemens focuses on some major works in the tradition: The Castle of Otranto, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, The Shining, and Alien. She applies both psychoanalytic theory and sociohistorical contexts to offer a fresh approach to Gothic fiction, presenting new insights both about how such novels "work" and about their cultural concerns." "Clemens argues that by stimulating a sense of primordial fear in readers, Gothic horror dramatically calls attention to collective and attitudinal problems that have been unrecognized or repressed in the society at large. Gothic fiction does more, however, than simply reflect social anxieties; it actually facilitates social change. That is, in frightening us out of our collective "wits," Gothic fiction actually shocks us into using them in more viable ways."--Jacket.

"From creepy picture books to Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and countless vampire series for young adult readers, fear has become a dominant mode of entertainment for young readers. The last two decades have seen an enormous growth in the critical study of two very different genres, the Gothic and children’s literature. The Gothic, concerned with the perverse and the forbidden, with adult sexuality and religious or metaphysical doubts and heresies, seems to represent everything that children’s literature, as a genre, was designed to keep out. Indeed, this does seem to be very much the way that children’s literature was marketed in the late eighteenth century, at exactly the same time that the Gothic was really taking off, written by the same women novelists who were responsible for the promotion of a safe and segregated children’s literature. This collection examines the early intersection of the Gothic and children’s literature and the contemporary manifestations of the gothic impulse, revealing that Gothic elements can, in fact, be traced in children’s literature for as long as children have been reading."

"The Castle of Otranto (1764) is the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential works of Gothic fiction. It inaugurated a literary genre that will be forever associated with the effects that Walpole pioneered. Professing to be a translation of a mysterious Italian tale from the darkest Middle Ages, the novel tells of Manfred, prince of Otranto, whose fear of an ancient prophecy sets him on a course of destruction. After the grotesque death of his only son, Conrad, on his wedding day, Manfred determines to marry the bride to be. The virgin Isabella flees through a castle riddled with secret passages. Chilling coincidences, ghostly visitations, arcane revelations, and violent combat combine in a heady mix that is both chilling and terrifying." - from the publisher

"First published in 1776, the nine gothic tales in this collection are Japan's finest and most celebrated examples of the literature of the occult. They subtly merge the world of reason with the realm of the uncanny and exemplify the period's fascination with the strange and the grotesque. They were also the inspiration for Mizoguchi Kenji's brilliant 1953 film Ugetsu. The title Ugetsu monogatari (literally "rain-moon tales") alludes to the belief that mysterious beings appear on cloudy, rainy nights and in mornings with a lingering moon. In "Shiramine," the vengeful ghost of the former emperor Sutoku reassumes the role of king; in "The Chrysanthemum Vow," a faithful revenant fulfills a promise; "The Kibitsu Cauldron" tells a tale of spirit possession; and in "The Carp of My Dreams," a man straddles the boundaries between human and animal and between the waking world and the world of dreams. The remaining stories feature demons, fiends, goblins, strange dreams, and other manifestations beyond all logic and common sense. The eerie beauty of this masterpiece owes to Akinari's masterful combination of words and phrases from Japanese classics with creatures from Chinese and Japanese fiction and lore. Along with The Tale of Genji and The Tales of the Heike, Tales of Moonlight and Rain has become a timeless work of great significance.." - from the publisher

"For all his notoriety, the Marquis de Sade must head the list of writers who are more talked about than read. In this new, representative selection Margaret Crosland encourages us to take a fresh look at his work. Sade spent more than half his life in prison, but for which he would have had scant cause to take his revenge on society through evocations of sexual cruelty. Excluded from normal life, he developed an extremist vision of the world through stories, dialogues and historical novels. Included here are extracts from his major fiction: some of the devastating fantasies in Les Cent Vingt Journees de Sodome as well as episodes from Justine and from the compulsively vicious Juliette.Yet, in addition to his so-called 'obscene' writing, Sade wrote with equal fervour about idealized people and democratic societies. He was indeed a passionate philosopher, a man typical in his own way of his times but eager to pass on to later centuries his incandescent ideas about human behaviour. Following her Introduction, Margaret Crosland provides astute commentaries on her selections, and finally a Chronology and Bibliography." - from the publisher

"Matilda Weimar flees her lecherous and incestuous uncle and seeks refuge in the ancient Castle of Wolfenbach. Among the castle's abandoned chambers, Matilda will discover the horrifying mystery of the missing Countess of Wolfenbach. But when her uncle tracks her down, can she escape his despicable intentions? One of the seven "horrid novels" named in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, The Castle of Wolfenbach is perhaps the most important of the early Gothic novels, predating both The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk." - publisher description of the Valancourt edition

"Ann Radcliffe's orphaned heroine Emily St. Aubert finds herself imprisoned in her evil guardian Count Montoni's gloomy medieval fortress in the remote Apennines. Terror is the order of the day inside the walls of Udolpho, as Emily struggles against Montoni's rapacious schemes and the threat of her own psychological disintegration. A best-seller in its day and a potent influence on Sade, Poe, and other purveyors of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Gothic horror, The Mysteries of Udolpho remains one of the most important works in the history of European fiction." - from the publisher

"In William Godwin's dark psychological novel of paranoia and persecution, the eponymous hero is a guileless young servant who enters the employment of Ferdinando Falkland, a cosmopolitan and benevolent country gentleman. Falkland is subject to fits of unexplained melancholy, and Caleb becomes convinced that he harbors a dark secret. His discovery of the truth leads to false accusations against him, and a vengeful pursuit as suspenseful as any thriller. The novel is also a powerful political allegory, inspired by the events of the decade following the French Revolution. This is the first paperback edition to reproduce the first edition (1794), restoring the original, highly topical novel written during the political crisis of 1793-4 when the British government clamped down on the burgeoning reform movement."

"The Monk is the most sensational of Gothic novels. The main plot concerns Ambrosio, an abbot of irreproachable holiness, who is seduced by a woman (or perhaps a demon) disguised as a novice, and who goes on to sell his soul to the Devil. An extravagant blend of sex, death, politics, Satanism, and poetry, the work greatly appealed to the Marquis de Sade." - publisher description of Broadview Press edition

"Running through at least eighty editions in the 18th and 19th centuries, Regina Maria Roche’s The Children of the Abbey (1796) was one of the biggest successes of its time, rivalling and perhaps even outselling Ann Radcliffe’s seminal Gothic The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). The heroine of Roche’s novel, Amanda Fitzalan, and her brother Oscar, are unfortunate siblings defrauded of their rightful inheritance, Dunreath Abbey, by a will forged by a wicked relative. Beset on all sides by danger, including the schemes of the haughty Marquis and Marchioness of Rosline and the sinister intentions of the villainous libertine Belgrave, can Amanda reclaim what is rightfully hers and win the love of the dashing Lord Mortimer? With a sprawling cast of characters and an intricate plot that moves from Wales to Ireland to England to Scotland, Roche’s classic novel is reprinted here for the first time in over a century." - publisher description for Valancourt Classics edition

"Called a “remarkable story” by John Greenleaf Whittier and described by John Keats as “very powerful,” Wieland, Charles Brockden Brown’s disturbing 1798 tale of terror, is a masterpiece involving spontaneous combustion, disembodied voices, religious mania, and a gruesome murder based on a real-life incident." - publisher description of Modern Library Classics edition

"The Abbess: A Romance is a gothic novel by William Henry Ireland first published in 1799. The text was modelled upon Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796). The eponymous central character, Mother Vittoria Bracciano, is similar to that of "Monk" Lewis's Ambrosio, as she is likewise motivated by dark and powerful forces. The novel is one of the most voluptuous and salacious gothic novels in terms of its graphic scenes of sex, Roman Catholic religious fervour and torture." - from Wikipedia

"Thady Quirk is the ever-present steward to four generations of a dying dynasty in Castle Racrent, hilariously flattering and encouraging his hapless masters on their road to ruin. Ingeniously drawing on an actual chronicle of Maria Edgeworth's family experiences, the narrative subtly emerges as a devastating commentary on the Anglo Irish occupation of rural Ireland. This volume also includes Ennui, a natural sequel to Castle Rackrent with its family nurse of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the lazy and gullible English earl, Lord Glenthorn, learns a shocking secret that will drive him and his nurse apart." - from the publisher

"Searing searching tales of moral crises and faith. Kleist is a sculptor of delirium. In this extraordinary and unpredictable cross-section of the work of one of the most influential free spirits of German letters, Peter Wortsman captures the breathlessness and power of Heinrich von Kleist’s transcendent prose. These tales, essays, and fragments move across inner landscapes, exploring the shaky bridges between reason and feeling and the frontiers between the human psyche and the divine. From the "The Earthquake in Chile," his damning invective against moral tyranny; to "Michael Kohlhaas," an exploration of the extreme price of justice; to "The Marquise of O . . . ," his twist on the mythic triumph of love story; to his essay "On the Gradual Formulation of Thoughts While Speaking," which tracks the movements of the unconscious decades before Freud; Kleist unrelentingly confronts the dangers of self-deception and the ultimate impossibility of existence ina world of absolutes. Wortsman’s illuminating afterword demystifies Kleist’s vexed history, explaining how the century after his death saw Kleist’s legacy transformed from that of a largely derided playwright into a literary giant who would inspire Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. The concerns of Heinrich von Kleist are timeless. The mysteries in his fiction and visionary essays still breathe." - from the publisher

Librarian's note: While Kleist was in general a writer well ahead his time, two of his more explicitly Gothic stories are "The Earthquake in Chile" (1807) and "St. Cecilia, or the Power of Music" (1810).

"Peter Schlemihl is the title character of an 1814 novella, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story), written in German by exiled French aristocrat Adelbert von Chamisso. In the story, Schlemihl sells his shadow to the Devil for a bottomless wallet (the gold sack of Fortunatus), only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned by human societies." - from Wikipedia

"Hoffmann's magnificent tales, until now, had not been newly translated since the end of the nineteenth century. They belong to the genre of German Märchen, or artificial fairy tales, in which the fantastic and the prosaic are juxtaposed to make the grotesque frighteningly real. In Hoffmann, the fantastic becomes the sinister projection of the dark world of the unconscious. The tales included here demonstrate not only the uniqueness of Hoffmann's style and his narrative skill, but also the recurrent themes characteristic of his writings: the symbolic dream, the "puppet-man" manipulated by a capricious or spiteful fate, the double, the artist's alienation from and struggle with the prosaic world, and the occurrence of the fantastic." - from the publisher

"This new critical edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was developed by leading scholars for aspiring scientists, engineers, and medical professionals. This unique framing will make this a core text in promoting and enhancing interdisciplinary dialogue on the nature, roles, and responsibilities of scientists and engineers in society. To be published in time for the 2018 bicentennial of its original publication, this edition will be produced in print and as an enhanced e-book. The e-book will contain the full text of the novel (in the public domain) plus all of the substantial scholarly material that was commissioned and developed for this new edition, including essays by leading scholars, and will be most valuable to students and teachers of ethics. Digital features will include include reader annotation, bookmarking, and multimedia content." - from the publisher

"One of the first of Jane Austen's novels to be written, and one of the last to be published, Northanger Abbey is both an amusing story of how a naive girl enters society and wins the affection of a witty young clergyman, and a high-spirited parody of the lurid gothic novels that were popular during Austen's youth. In the process it features a vivid account of social life in the late eighteenth-century Bath, and Austen's famous defence of the novel as a literary form. This edition, based on the text of the novel as published posthumously in 1818, is accompanied by explanatory notes and an appendix summarizing the plots and situations of the gothic fictions that form the basis of much of Austen's comedy. In addition there is an extensive introduction covering the context, publication, and critical history of the novel, a chronology of Austen's life, and authoritative textual apparatus."

"When a young Dublin student goes to pay his last respects to his dying uncle, he never imagines that he might chance upon a terrifying family secret. Who is the sinister old man in the portrait and why is his uncle so anxious for him to burn it? Why is the Spanish man who saves him from drowning so frightened when he hears the name Melmoth?
As he digs deeper into the mystery, an intricate and blood-chilling story begins to unfold. For the past two hundred years, the accursed Melmoth has been searching desperately for an escape from the infernal bargain he once made. Melmoth has traversed the globe leaving destruction and misery in his wake, from Inquisition-era Spain to a remote island in the Indian Ocean - and there have been recent sightings of him in County Wicklow, where our narrator is still piecing the story together. This Victorian classic has captured the imaginations of readers since 1820 and inspired numerous other gothic masterpieces, including Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Sarah Perry's novel Melmoth." - from the publisher

Nikolai Gogol was an artist who, like Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, and Sterne, "knew how to walk upside down in our valley of sorrows so as to make it to a merry place." This two-volume edition at last brings all of Gogol's fiction (except his novel Dead Souls) together in paperback. Volume 1 includes Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, the early Ukrainian folktales that first brought Gogol fame, as well as "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Diary of a Madman."

"It is good to have a complete collection of Gogol's tales in paperback. . . . Professor Kent has thoroughly revised Mrs. Garnett's conscientious and skillful translation, eliminating the Victorianisms of her style, correcting mistakes and pruderies of diction, and making the whole translation sound much more contemporary and alive. But he has avoided the whimsicality and 'curliness' in which some recent translators indulged, and he has not changed or suppressed anything material. He has also supplied helpful notes which are often the first annotation in English, and he has written an introduction which steers the correct middle course between making Gogol an irresponsible artist of the grotesque and proving him a documentary historian of backward Russia."—René Wellek, Yale University

"Edgar Allan Poe is credited with having pioneered the short story, having perfected the tale of psychological horror, and having revolutionized modern poetics. The entirety of Poe's body of imaginative work encompasses detective tales, satires, fables, fantasies, science fiction, verse dramas, and some of the most evocative poetry in the English language. This leatherbound omnibus collects all of Poe's fiction and poetry in a single volume, including "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum,." "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," the full-length novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and much more." - publisher description

Mosses from an Old Manse is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s second story collection, first published in 1846 in two volumes and featuring sketches and tales written over a span of more than twenty years, including such classics as “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Birthmark,” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Herman Melville deemed Hawthorne the American Shakespeare, and Henry James wrote that his early tales possess “the element of simple genius, the quality of imagination. That is the real charm of Hawthorne’s writing—this purity and spontaneity and naturalness of fancy.” - from publisher description of Modern Library edition

Librarian's Note: If you've only read The Scarlet Letter, you may not be ready for the spookiness and wild fantasy of Hawthorne's short fiction; but definitely check out this book and its predecessor Twice-Told Tales for some of the best Gothic fiction by an American writer in the 19th century.

"On a moonlit London night, art teacher Walter Hartwright meets a young woman – beautiful, terrified and dressed entirely white – alone on the street. Compelled to help this piteous creature, he finds himself caught up in a world of secrets, murder and madness, with an impossible mystery to solve. The odds seem stacked against him, but a sleuthing partnership with the brilliantly clever Marian Halcombe may be just enough to outwit their formidable nemesis – the menacing Count Fosco. One of the great mystery thrillers of the nineteenth century and beyond, The Woman in White is a wonderful combination of rich characterisation and cunning melodrama that ensnares the reader from the very first page."

"André Breton described Maldoror as "the expression of a revelation so complete it seems to exceed human potential." Little is known about its pseudonymous author, aside from his real name (Isidore Ducasse), birth in Uruguay (1846) and early death in Paris (1870). Lautréamont bewildered his contemporaries, but the Surrealists modeled their efforts after his black humor and poetic leaps of logic, exemplified by the oft-quoted line, "As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella." Maldoror 's shocked first publisher refused to bind the sheets of the original edition and perhaps no better invitation exists to this book, which warns the reader, "Only the few may relish this bitter fruit without danger." This is the only complete annotated collection of Lautréamont's writings available in English, in Alexis Lykiard's superior translation" - from the publisher

"Lord Henry Wotton watched curiously as Basil Hallward completed a portrait of a remarkably handsome youth. Who was he? Dorian Gray, said the painter, and Lord Henry must never meet him - for his corrupting influence could only lead the innocent boy in a life of terrible Evil... Yet the two do meet, and the consequence is one of the most gripping fantasies in English literature, a story of a picture that ages horribly while its subject - a seducer, a debaucher and a murderer - remains unravaged by Time. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) is in part a reflection of Oscar Wilde's own tragic life. Five years after its publication, Wilde stood trial for homosexuality, then a serious criminal offence. He was, by his own admission, a dandy who regarded art as a supreme value and spent his energies in search of new sensations, despite the harm done to others. So Dorian Gray seeks pleasure only - until, in reckless abandon, he commits a final, dastardly crime. The dramatic nature of Wilde's masterpiece helped make it by far his most popular work of fiction. The story has been staged, filmed, and remains today of lasting interest. This Norton Critical Edition reprints both of the published versions, the Lippencott's version of 1890, and the 1891 versions. A varied "Backgrounds" section inquires into the book's pivotal position in Wilde's life, the debate over art versus morality provoked by the novel's publication, the question of individual freedom raised both in and by the novel, and the reactions of the courts and the public to the book. "Essays in Criticism" addresses the literary and critical aspects of the novel. Included in this section are essays by Richard Ellmann, Joyce Carol Oates, and Donald L Lawler, among others." - from the publisher

"A true 20th-century classic: Faulkner’s famed harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. As I Lay Dying is one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama. Narrated in turn by each of the family members, including Addie herself as well as others, the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. “I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall.” —William Faulkner on As I Lay Dying. This edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Noel Polk."

"At the great Cornwall estate of Manderley, Maxim de Winter and his frightened new wife try to live with the haunting legacy of Maxim's first wife, the beautiful and cold Rebecca, who died in a sailing accident. The heroine and narrator marries an English aristocrat, Maxim de Winter. They are deeply in love, but the memory of Max's first wife, Rebecca, lingers on. Little by little the mystery of Rebecca's life and death is revealed. - Publisher.A young bride is brought by her new husband to his manor house in England. There she finds that the memory of her husband's first wife haunts her, and she tries to discover the secret of that mysterious woman's death." - from the publisher

"Originally published in 1934, Seven Gothic Tales, the first book by "one of the finest and most singular artists of our time" (The Atlantic), is a modern classic. Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the nineteenth-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe." -from the publisher

"The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O'Connor's monumental contribution to American fiction. There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O'Connor put together in her short lifetime--Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. O'Connor published her first story, "The Geranium," in 1946, while she was working on her master's degree at the University of Iowa. Arranged chronologically, this collection shows that her last story, "Judgement Day"--sent to her publisher shortly before her death―is a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of "The Geranium." Taken together, these stories reveal a lively, penetrating talent that has given us some of the most powerful and disturbing fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O'Connor's longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux." - from the publisher

"Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods -- until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiousity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp." "Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret." "Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem." - from the publisher

"From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Road, here is the story of Cornelius Suttree, who has forsaken a life of privilege with his prominent family to live in a dilapidated houseboat on the Tennessee River near Knoxville. Remaining on the margins of the outcast community there—a brilliantly imagined collection of eccentrics, criminals, and squatters—he rises above the physical and human squalor with detachment, humor, and dignity." - from the publisher

"The American master's first novel since Winter's Bone tells of a deadly dance hall fire and its impact over several generations. Alma DeGeer Dunahew, the mother of three young boys, works as the maid for a prominent citizen and his family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent, and, in 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of the 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? The embittered local gypsies? The preacher who railed against the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Or could it have been a colossal accident? Alma thinks she knows the answer-and that its roots lie in a dangerous love affair. Her dogged pursuit of justice makes her an outcast and causes a long-standing rift with her own son. By telling her story to her grandson, she finally gains some solace-and peace for her sister. He is advised to "Tell it. Go on and tell it"-tell the story of his family's struggles, suspicions, secrets, and triumphs." - from the publisher

"Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There's Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can't save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his "prayer log". There's Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America's highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There's the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte's orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right." - from the publisher

"Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake--until the day a woman in his care was blown away by Argent Reivich, a vengeful young postmortal. Tanner's pursuit of Reivich takes him across light-years of space to Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet of Yellowstone. But Chasm City is not what it was. The one-time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings and machines. Before the chase is done, Tanner will have to confront truths which reach back centuries, towards deep space and an atrocity history barely remembers." - from the publisher

"The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die." - from the publisher