GOTHIC FICTION - Rare Printed Works from the Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Fiction at t... GOTHIC FICTION: Rare Printed Works from the Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Fiction at the Alderman Library, University of Virginia Part 1: Matthew Lewis and Gothic Horror - Beckford to Lewis Part 2: Matthew Lewis and Gothic Horror - MacKenzie to Zschokke Part 3: Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her Imitators - Boaden to Meeke Part 4: Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her Imitators - Pickard to Wilkinson Part 5: Domestic and Sentimental Gothic - Bennett to Lamb Part 6: Domestic and Sentimental Gothic - Lathom to Warner Contents listing PUBLISHER'S NOTE INTRODUCTION BY PETER OTTO GOTHIC SATIRES, HISTORIES AND CHAP-BOOKS BY ALISON MILBANK CONTENTS OF REELS - Part 1 CONTENTS OF REELS - Part 2 CONTENTS OF REELS - Part 3 CONTENTS OF REELS - Part 4 CONTENTS OF REELS - Part 5 CONTENTS OF REELS - Part 6 BIOGRAPHIES BY MARIE-MULVEY ROBERTS A GOTHIC CHRONOLOGY COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES IN Parts 1-6 Gothic Fiction - Publisher's Note Part 1: Matthew Lewis and Gothic Horror - Beckford to Lewis Part 2: Matthew Lewis and Gothic Horror - MacKenzie to Zschokke Part 3: Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her Imitators - Boaden to Meeke Part 4: Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her Imitators - Pickard to Wilkinson Part 5: Domestic and Sentimental Gothic - Bennett to Lamb Part 6: Domestic and Sentimental Gothic - Lathom to Warner PUBLISHER'S NOTE Gothic Fiction has exerted a powerful influence over popular culture. From Walpole’s Prince Manfred to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and from Ann Radcliffe to Anne Rice, tales of terror have been eagerly embraced by the public. But while such tales have been popular, they have also been marginalised by critics. Current challenges to the hierarchies of literary value suggest that Gothic Fiction deserves a more central position. To fuel this debate and to serve the increasing number of Gothic courses now springing up we offer access to one of the most important libraries of Gothic Literature in the world - the Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Fiction at the University of Virginia. Peter Otto describes the origins of this collection in the essay which follows. It is fitting that it should involve a quest for the unknown (Sadleir’s search for the Northanger novels) driven by mania. The aim of this microfilm project is to make available a broad range of Gothic Fiction, placing a special emphasis on material that is extremely rare or difficult to consult. To bring this within the compass of most libraries, this has been divided into a number of thematic groupings: Gothic Horror: Lewis and his followers Parts 1-2 Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her imitators Parts 3-4 Domestic and Sentimental Gothic Parts 5-6 Gothic History, Satire and Chap-books Parts 7-8 Each part comprises c20-50 titles including key canonical works in first and variant editions as well as many lesser known works. This guide describes the first six parts of this collection. Taken together these six parts offer 171 individual works in a total of 504 volumes. This reveals the multi-volume nature of the genre with many triple- and quadruple-decker novels (and some reaching to five or six volumes). Some 75 authors are represented from Beckford to Zschokke, as well as 16 anonymous works. Nearly all of the works are presented in first editions, offering scholars the opportunity to see how these works were originally presented to their readership. In the case of The Monk, variant editions are provided so that scholars can see how this was revised. Many of the volumes bear marks of ownership ranging from the bookplates of noble families to details concerning the circulating library of which they were a part. All original advertising matter (usually at the end of each volume) has been included. In the case of The Mystery of the Black Tower (1796) by John Palmer, junior, there is also a list of subscribers featuring inter alia the names of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons. Gothic novels make up the majority of the first six parts. In addition to such well-known works as The Castle of Otranto, An Arabian Tale [Vathek], The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Italian, and Frankenstein there is a host of works by lesser known authors. Scholars will now be able to look at early Gothic writings by Susannah Gunning, M Harley, Charlotte Smith, John Moore, Clara Reeve and others, and they will be able to read through three or more works by authors such as T J Horsley Curties, Catherine Cuthbertson, Charlotte Dacre, Isabella (Kelly) Hedgeland, Elizabeth Helme, Francis Lathom, Charles Maturin, Mary Meeke, Eliza Parsons, Regina Maria Roche, Louisa Stanhope, George Walker and Mrs R P M Yorke. Gothic drama is also well represented by a number of titles ranging from James Boaden’s Fontainville Forest, and Matthew Lewis’ The Wood Daemon, to Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer. The entire Gothic armoury is deployed in these tales. There are ruined abbeys, tall towers, haunted castles, impenetrable forests and crepuscular landscapes. There are orphans, lone women, mysterious husbands, widows and heirs. There are secret brotherhoods, orders of monks, banditti and nuns. And of course there are witches, ghosts, vampires, man-made monsters and wild creatures. With the provision of such a wide range of novels and plays it will be possible to see how these elements are put to use by different writers. Scholars will be able to examine the evolution of the genre and to assess the relative weight given to landscape, the sublime, character formation, psychological attitudes, melodrama and irony within these works. They will also be able to explore the relationship of Gothic Fiction to Romanticism, and to the great political and economic upheaval of the period in which it was produced. Gothic Fiction is also a rich domain for Gender Studies. Why were so many of the leading authors of the genre and their readership women? What do the depictions of assaults, imprisonment, and tyrannical fathers tell us about morality and social structure? This guide is made up of six distinct elements: The introductory essay by Peter Otto describes the nature of the collection and elaborates on the themes that are explored in this project. Alison Milbank’s essay looks at three specific sub-genres (satires, histories and chap-books) which will form the basis of Parts 7 and 8. The Contents of Reels provide a complete list of titles, with shelfmark, author, date and place of publication. The Biographies of Gothic Novelists by Marie Mulvey-Roberts introduces the writers featured in this project. The Gothic Chronology provides an overall context. Gothic Fiction - Publisher's Note The Listings by Author and Title serve as indices to Parts 1-6. <back Gothic Fiction - Introduction Part 1: Matthew Lewis and Gothic Horror - Beckford to Lewis Part 2: Matthew Lewis and Gothic Horror - MacKenzie to Zschokke Part 3: Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her Imitators - Boaden to Meeke Part 4: Gothic Terror: Radcliffe and her Imitators - Pickard to Wilkinson Part 5: Domestic and Sentimental Gothic - Bennett to Lamb Part 6: Domestic and Sentimental Gothic - Lathom to Warner INTRODUCTION BY PETER OTTO 1 - The Sadleir-Black Collection 2 - The Microfilm Collection 3 - Gothic Origins 4 - Gothic Revolutions 5 - The Northanger Novels 6 - Radcliffe and her Imitators 7 - Lewis and her Followers 8 - Terror and Horror Gothic 9 - Gothic Echoes / Gothic Labyrinths <back Gothic Fiction - Introduction Introduction By Peter Otto 1 The Sadleir-Black Collection It was not long before the lust for Gothic Romance took complete possession of me. Some instinct – for which I can only be thankful – told me not to stray into 'Sensibility', 'Pastoral', or 'Epistolary' novels of the period 1770-1820, but to stick to Gothic Novels and Tales of Terror. Michael Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction It seems appropriate that the Sadleir-Black collection of Gothic fictions, a genre peppered with illicit passions, should be described by its progenitor as the fruit of lust. Michael Sadleir (1888-1957), the person who cultivated this passion, was a noted bibliographer, book collector, publisher and creative writer. Educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, Sadleir joined the office of the publishers Constable and Company in 1912, becoming Director in 1920. He published seven reasonably successful novels; important biographical studies of Trollope, Edward and Rosina Bulwer, and Lady Blessington; and a number of ground-breaking bibliographical works, most significantly Excursions in Victorian Bibliography (1922) and XIX Century Fiction (1951). According to Sadleir, the roots of his "mania" for Gothic Romance lay in his "youthful enthusiasm" for Baudelaire and Mallarmé. These writers were "profound admirers of Edgar Allan Poe". Following in their footsteps, Sadleir read Poe's gothic stories and so was led to "the work of Charles Brockden Brown; and from Brown to the English, German and French romances of the 'Terror' school". As Gothic novels commonly testify, passions, even those with such a plausible pedigree, never operate in isolation. The attempt to possess a desired object is inevitably shaped and constrained by chance, means and predisposition. Sadleir, for example, was "more interested in hunting 'difficult' and unusual books than in the acquisition of famous and therefore expensive ones". "This ingrained characteristic of [his] collecting mania” was, he admits, "virtually forced on me ... by limitations of finance". At the same time, "intensive collection of any author or movement" was for Sadleir always carried out with "the intention of ultimately writing the material collected into biography, bibliography or fiction". Nevertheless, it was a remarkable stroke of luck that enabled Sadleir's Gothic collection to become a reality, while also helping to determine the form it would ultimately take. “In the autumn of 1922", while "poking about on the uppermost floor" of Bumpus' bookshop in London, Sadleir "came across a little run of books", five titles in all, that included a first edition of Regina Maria Roche's The Children of the Abbey (London: Minerva, 1796) and Horrid Mysteries.