Gothic death 1740-1914 explores the representations of death and dying
in Gothic narratives published between the mid-eighteenth century and
the beginning of the First World War. The book investigates how
eighteenth century Graveyard Poetry and the tradition of the elegy
produced a version of death that underpinned ideas about empathy and
models of textual composition. Later accounts of melancholy, as in the
work of Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, emphasise the literary
construction of death. The shift from writing death to interpreting the
signs of death is explored in relation to the work of Poe, Emily Brontë
and George Eliot. A chapter on Dickens examines the significance of
graves and capital punishment during the period. A chapter on Haggard,
Stoker and Wilde explores conjunctions between love and death and a
final chapter on Machen and Stoker explores how scientific ideas of the
period help to contextualise a specifically fin de siècle model of
death.
This book will be of interest to academics and students working on
literature on the Gothic and more generally on the literary culture of
the period.