Perils of the Night: A Feminist Study of Nineteenth-Century Gothic

by Eugenia C. Delamotte

This book argues that the source of Gothic terror is anxiety about the boundaries of the a double fear of separateness and unity that has had a special significance for women writers and readers. Exploring the psychological, religious, and epistemological context of this anxiety, DeLamotte argues that the Gothic vision focuses simultaneously on the private demons of the psyche and the social realities that helped to shape them. Her analysis includes works of English and American authors, among them Henry James, Mary Shelley, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, and a number of often neglected popular women Gothicists.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gothic, Literary Criticism, Womens, Feminism, Theory

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Abbie O'Hara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explains the gothic novel and its constructions well, but not thoroughly. It’s of the expectation that the reader already has a solid understanding of the genre and this work then seeks to challenge such an assumption. A book to read later in a research process on gothic lit.