The Materials and Methods of American Horror Fiction in the Nineteenth Century

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1952 The aM terials and Methods of American Horror Fiction in the Nineteenth Century. Winfred S. Emmons Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Emmons, Winfred S., "The aM terials and Methods of American Horror Fiction in the Nineteenth Century." (1952). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 8027. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/8027 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE MATERIALS ARP METHODS OF AMERICAN HORROR FICTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTORY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In The Department of English by Winfred S* Emmons, Jr. B. A., Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, 1947 M. A., University of Virginia, 1949 June, 1958 UMI Number: DP69405 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI Dissortation Publishing UMI DP69405 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code uest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 MANUSCRIPT THESES Unpublished theses submitted for the master’s and doctor’s degrees and deposited in the Louisiana State University Library are available for inspection. Use of any thesis is limited by the rights of the author. Bibliographical references may be noted, but passages may not be copied unless the author has given permission. Credit must be given in subsequent written or published work. A library which borrows this thesis for use by its clientele is expected to make sure that the borrower is aware of the above restrictions. LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author1 s thanks first go to his wife, Ethel Moore Emmons, who has endured the rigors attendant on a student1 s wife for six years and who typed this dissertation for him# He also appreciates deeply the aid and encouragement of Dr* Arlin Turner, who seemed to share the authorf s enthusiasm for his topic and who directed the study in such a manner as to promote intellectual growth as well as to produce a completed manuscript* Thanhs are also due to Dr* H* B. Woolf and Dr* John H* Wildman for reading the study and for their valuable suggestions* Mr* Mefiftillen and his entire staff of the Circulation Department and Mrs# Campbell of the Louisiana Room have been as helpful as possible In making the resources of this library available to the author; Mrs* Dyson and Miss Walling of the Reference Department have been equally helpful in securing books from other libraries, and the author wishes to express his appreciation to these as well* Finally, to Dr, Thomas A* Kirby and the entire graduate faculty of the Department of English, goes the author* s gratitude for creating an atmosphere in which it is good to work* 3 7 ^ . 7 6 L9>3oJL ii \°>5£ c.2. 355424 V TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT* • *••»••»«•*••***«*»• lv CHAPTER I Introduction* • #•••••#•««»#**** 1 CHAPTER XI Physical Horror ***•**•••«**«*«* BO CHAPTER XXI Science and Pseudo-Science* *••**.«•«• 46 CHAPTER 17 The Evil Genius **••*.*•••«••*** 74 CHAPTER 7 The Use of Setting* «•••••••*•••** 100 CHAPTER 71 The Sensor* ••••••••»•*••#•«•• 141 CHAPTER VII Abnormal Psychology •*••*••*•*•••* 179 CHAPTER VIII The Other World *»•*•***•»«•*•»• 207 CHAPTER IX Witchcraft and the Dark Worship • *»*•*«« 290 CHAPTER X Fear of the lialevolent Dead ##•**«***• 261 CHAPTER XI Minor Themes* • ••#*i******«**»# 270 CHAPTER XIX The Object of Fear* **••»*•••«••«• 239 CHAPTER XIII R^snme^ «••*••••«•*•••••••*• 931 BIBLIOGRAPHY................ * ......... * * * * 347 VITA* * ........* .................... ♦ • . 958 iii ABSTRACT The field of horror literature has been covered more than once; Miss Edith Birkhead’s The Tale of Terror is recognized as an authority on the Gothic novel, Miss Dorothy Scarborough* s The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction is noteworthy for the number of titles it in cludes and for its synopses of stories, and Montague Summers* s The Oothle Quest presents the Oothle novel with special reference to M* 0. Lewis* In addition to these seholarly treatments, there is the brief, appreci ative study by H* P* Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature* Each of these studies has its own merit, but none of them is concerned with the development of the concept of literary horror over a period of time* Shifts from the supernatural to the psychological are noted, but a more minute analysis of theme has been lacking* In addition, no very satisfactory differenti ation of the Gothic romance from the modern horror story has been made* The initial purpose of this study was merely to determine the materials and methods employed in the production of literary horror in nineteenth cen tury American literature; a consideration of methods and materials has made it possible to set up a basis for differentiation between Gothic romance and horror story iv in terms of increasing materialism and a more exact con cept of the physical universe, both well-known contribu tions of the nineteenth century to human thought* The study began with a review of horror literature already known to the author and continued with the American authors of horror stories mentioned by Lovecraft in his book* The primary concern of this study was not with materials— the supernatural, the psychological, and the physical— but with effects* The supernatural was not considered merely because it was supernatural or the psy- ehologlcal solely because it was psychological$ each was considered only as It was treated to produce horror or allied emotions in the reader, or as it seemed to be so treated* The best horror stories were found in the col* lected works of the main authors dealt with in this study; others, whose merit ranges from reasonably good to beneath contempt, were discovered in files of Harper»s Magazine* Graham*s Magazine, The Knickerbocker« and The Southern Literary Messenger* Obviously, no pretense is made at coBgilete coverage of the periodicals, but enough were con sulted to give a representative picture of editorial and public tastes in horror fiction and fiction approaching horror* Through the time of Edgar Allan Poe, the American horror story was a blend of psychological aberration with v atrocious physical descriptions of various aspects of death; Gothic supernaturalism hung on rather strongly till about 1860* After Poe, the bogie was reintroduoed by Pitz-Jemes Q9Brien and with the revived ghost it went through a process of development in effect which culmi nated in the closing years of the century in "No# 852 Rue M* le Prince" of Ralph Adams Cram and The Turn of the Screw of Henry James* The change in materials was paralleled by a change in methods; the early aloofness of the author from his material was corrected by Poe* who brought his readers much closer to his literary horror then any author had previously done; this success was achieved by means of acute analysis of sensations in Poe9s curiously autobiographical central characters# The greatest change, however, involves not materials and methods but philosophical framework; it is on the basis of a shift from the optimistic concept of the uni verse in the early years of the nineteenth century to a pessimistic concept in the later years that the modern horror story is primarily to be distinguished from the Gothic tale# The optimistic tradition tended to center about the science-fiction story, while the pessimistic point of view found its outlet in the horror story, which tended to be laid against an evil or at least an indif ferent universe# vi CHAPTER I XHTR03JUCTI0N I It is sot likely that any definition of the horror story will meet universal approval, for each writer and eaoh reader must regard horror In the light of hie own peculiar complex of personality and ©x peri ©no®. Material whioh evokes horror in one person may achieve much less profound effects in another. Hence, a completely satis factory definition of the horror story in terms of material is Impossible; but it is the effect that is important, and in the final analysis, it is in terms of effect that the horror story must be defined. This final analysis, un fortunately, must be made by eaoh person in his own way, and is useless for a study such as this one* It is therefore necessary to return to material as the prime basis for definition, even though opinions must remain divided as to the effect achieved by a given body of material. Such disagreements, as a matter of fact, may be stated in terms of degree rather than as total oppositions. Most persons familiar with American literature would agree on certain authors generally classified as writers of horror fiction, though they would disagree as to the rank of these authors in terms of effect and which of their stories achieve the greatest horror. 1 In a sense this entire study may be considered a definition of the horror story, stated in terms of examples chosen largely from nine authors; Charles Brockdan Brown, Sdgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fitz-«Fames O fBrlen, Ambrose Bieroe, Robert W« Chambers, Mary £• Wilkins Freeman, Ralph Adams Cram, and F.

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