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Horror: A Literary History
Horror is unlike any other literary genre. It seeks to provoke uniquely strong reactions, such as fear, shock, dread or disgust, and yet remains very popular. Horror is most readily associated with the film industry, but horrific short stories and novels have been wildly loved by readers for well over two centuries. Despite its persistent popularity, until now there has been no up-to-date history of horror fiction for the general reader. This book offers a chronological overview of the genre in fiction and explores its development and mutations over the past 250 years. It also challenges the common misjudgement that horror fiction is necessarily frivolous or dispensable. Leading experts on Gothic and horror literature introduce readers to classics of the genre as well as exciting texts they may not have encountered before. The topics examined horror’s roots in the Gothic romance and antebellum American fiction; the penny dreadful and sensation novels of Victorian England; fin-de-siècle ghost stories; decadent fiction and the weird; the familial horrors of the Cold War era; the publishing boom of the 1980s; the establishment of contemporary horror auteurs; and the post-millennial zombie trend.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published August 29, 2016
26 people are currently reading
879 people want to read
About the author
Xavier Aldana Reyes
10 books36 followersXavier is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, and a founder member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
November 14, 2019
Much like the first volume published by the British Library, Science Fiction: A Literary History, this book is a survey of a specific literary genre, through a series of articles written by a group of academics. This overview focuses specifically on English and American literature (so you will not find a single word on Maupassant, Leroux, Borges or Cortázar, for instance).
This “literary history” starts in the second half of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, with the dawn of the Gothic genre and early English ghost stories, specifically Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto and Mathew Lewis’ The Monk. Nevertheless, the first significant milestone is, of course, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). Roughly during the same period, the horror genre also comes into existence in America, mainly with Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and the towering figure of Edgar Allan Poe (see Poetry and Tales).
The genre flourishes further in Britain, during the Victorian period and the first decades of the 20th century. First, with authors such as Dickens (Bleak House, A Christmas Carol) or George Eliot (Middlemarch), which include some horror elements here and there within their novels, and more specifically with a host of “penny dreadfuls”. Later on, Stevenson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Bran Stoker (Dracula), Arthur Machen (The White People) and H. G. Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau) in Britain, and obviously H. P. Lovecraft (see Tales) in America, push the envelope further still.
After the Second World War, a new generation comes in a develops new flavours in the genre. For instance, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend elaborates on the vampire stories; Ira Levin’s Rosemary's Baby establishes the theme of the evil child; Robert Bloch’s Psycho initiates the trend of the psycho-killer. But the significant commercial upturn for horror literature happens during the 1980s, with authors such as the extremely prolific Stephen King (Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, Cujo, Christine, It, etc.) or the slightly more parsimonious Thomas Ligotti (Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe) or Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire).
However, the genre is still thriving today — mainly through the zombie theme and the “new weird”. King is still active, and a new generation of writers is coming forth: John Ajvide Lindquist, (Let the Right One In), Laird Barron (The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All), Max Brooks (World War Z), Jeff VanderMeer (Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy) to name a few.
It is quite apparent, from this exploration of the horror genre that there is considerable overlap with the genre of science fiction, either because the same authors tend to alternate from one to the other, or because the tropes of both genres are tightly interwoven within the very same stories, both in literature and in film. Case in point, the Alien franchise = interstellar travel + bloodthirsty monsters.
This “literary history” starts in the second half of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, with the dawn of the Gothic genre and early English ghost stories, specifically Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto and Mathew Lewis’ The Monk. Nevertheless, the first significant milestone is, of course, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). Roughly during the same period, the horror genre also comes into existence in America, mainly with Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and the towering figure of Edgar Allan Poe (see Poetry and Tales).
The genre flourishes further in Britain, during the Victorian period and the first decades of the 20th century. First, with authors such as Dickens (Bleak House, A Christmas Carol) or George Eliot (Middlemarch), which include some horror elements here and there within their novels, and more specifically with a host of “penny dreadfuls”. Later on, Stevenson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Bran Stoker (Dracula), Arthur Machen (The White People) and H. G. Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau) in Britain, and obviously H. P. Lovecraft (see Tales) in America, push the envelope further still.
After the Second World War, a new generation comes in a develops new flavours in the genre. For instance, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend elaborates on the vampire stories; Ira Levin’s Rosemary's Baby establishes the theme of the evil child; Robert Bloch’s Psycho initiates the trend of the psycho-killer. But the significant commercial upturn for horror literature happens during the 1980s, with authors such as the extremely prolific Stephen King (Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, Cujo, Christine, It, etc.) or the slightly more parsimonious Thomas Ligotti (Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe) or Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire).
However, the genre is still thriving today — mainly through the zombie theme and the “new weird”. King is still active, and a new generation of writers is coming forth: John Ajvide Lindquist, (Let the Right One In), Laird Barron (The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All), Max Brooks (World War Z), Jeff VanderMeer (Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy) to name a few.
It is quite apparent, from this exploration of the horror genre that there is considerable overlap with the genre of science fiction, either because the same authors tend to alternate from one to the other, or because the tropes of both genres are tightly interwoven within the very same stories, both in literature and in film. Case in point, the Alien franchise = interstellar travel + bloodthirsty monsters.
January 31, 2023
A great read - really added a lot of books to my wish list!
January 19, 2020
This is the sort of book which, if you were reading it as part of your research for an essay, would make you say, 'Thank God it's such a light and easy read. So interesting!' But if you were reading it for pleasure you would say, 'Hmm, it's a bit dry and academic, though.'
For my money, the best literary criticism is written by amateurs, in the literal sense of one who loves, people who glow with enthusiasm and can't stop rhapsodising about the beloved, as if in the early days of a great romance. Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them is one of the best for people who love books.
This is not that kind of book. This is a very serviceable introduction to horror in the anglosphere. It will lead you sedately, in an orderly fashion, through 18th century Gothics, to lurid Victorian penny dreadfuls and biohorror, American weird, 20th century short stories and pulps, the slow emergence of horror, science fiction, and fantasy as distinct genres, to the great big boom of the 1980s and into the modern day.
There's a fairly handy list of recommended reading at the end of each chapter.
For my money, the best literary criticism is written by amateurs, in the literal sense of one who loves, people who glow with enthusiasm and can't stop rhapsodising about the beloved, as if in the early days of a great romance. Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them is one of the best for people who love books.
This is not that kind of book. This is a very serviceable introduction to horror in the anglosphere. It will lead you sedately, in an orderly fashion, through 18th century Gothics, to lurid Victorian penny dreadfuls and biohorror, American weird, 20th century short stories and pulps, the slow emergence of horror, science fiction, and fantasy as distinct genres, to the great big boom of the 1980s and into the modern day.
There's a fairly handy list of recommended reading at the end of each chapter.
July 19, 2020
While reading the British Library's A literary history of science fiction I discovered that there was a sister edition that charted the history of horror as well.
As you can imagine I set out to read that as well and here is it.
Now this book follows the tried and tested format - a number of eminent authors and scholars are given a chapter to chart the history and notable high points of the genre through specific time periods
The book charts the genre from its humble beginnings where it was treated as a sub-genre and a very poorly thought of one at that - referred to often as horrible romance to its resurgence and height of popularity to its not acknowledged and sable genre in its own right.
The book does cover off a number of other aspects including the literary connection to the screen (both big and little) as well as other formats the have come to the fore as well such as graphic novels and comics.
AS you can imagine squeezing such a subject in to a single book is no mean feat and there will no doubt be omissions that some will not agree with but the book for me is a great starting point for further reading and is a worthy recognition of a style and subject that has often been overlooked to outright dismissed
As you can imagine I set out to read that as well and here is it.
Now this book follows the tried and tested format - a number of eminent authors and scholars are given a chapter to chart the history and notable high points of the genre through specific time periods
The book charts the genre from its humble beginnings where it was treated as a sub-genre and a very poorly thought of one at that - referred to often as horrible romance to its resurgence and height of popularity to its not acknowledged and sable genre in its own right.
The book does cover off a number of other aspects including the literary connection to the screen (both big and little) as well as other formats the have come to the fore as well such as graphic novels and comics.
AS you can imagine squeezing such a subject in to a single book is no mean feat and there will no doubt be omissions that some will not agree with but the book for me is a great starting point for further reading and is a worthy recognition of a style and subject that has often been overlooked to outright dismissed
September 1, 2023
Rating: 4 stars.
A strong introduction to the history of Horror literature, at least in the UK and the US. Each chapter is written by a different writer and covers a different period in the development of the genre, starting in the 18th century. The editor's intention was for the book to be informative without being too academically opaque to the average reader, and I'd say it succeeds at that.
I had to read the first chapter on the Gothic for, what else, my university Gothic course, and enjoyed it enough to read through the entire volume. It continued to be a good, informative read, though, due to space constraints and its limited scope, it perhaps was not as comprehensive as it could have been.
It was interesting reading the last chapter, 2000-2016, to see how things have already changed so much in less than a decade—zombies are a big topic that rapidly fell off in popularity after the book was published, for example. But maybe that 2016 cut off was accidentally apt, given the cultural changes that followed the disruptive events of late 2016 through the pandemic. I suppose only time will tell.
A strong introduction to the history of Horror literature, at least in the UK and the US. Each chapter is written by a different writer and covers a different period in the development of the genre, starting in the 18th century. The editor's intention was for the book to be informative without being too academically opaque to the average reader, and I'd say it succeeds at that.
I had to read the first chapter on the Gothic for, what else, my university Gothic course, and enjoyed it enough to read through the entire volume. It continued to be a good, informative read, though, due to space constraints and its limited scope, it perhaps was not as comprehensive as it could have been.
It was interesting reading the last chapter, 2000-2016, to see how things have already changed so much in less than a decade—zombies are a big topic that rapidly fell off in popularity after the book was published, for example. But maybe that 2016 cut off was accidentally apt, given the cultural changes that followed the disruptive events of late 2016 through the pandemic. I suppose only time will tell.
March 28, 2023
This book is definitely a must if you're a fan of the horror genre. I really enjoyed reading this (and now I must acquire my own copy because I returned the one I read to the library but this book is definitely one for consulting and future reference).
January 10, 2021
A more approproate title for the book would be "Horror: A (mostly) white male Literary History" (some white women are mentioned more or less in passing) but within that rather limited scope I did find most of the essays pretty interesting.
November 23, 2016
It's really a great review of all the horror books ever written and my biggest satisfaction is that I've already read almost the 80% of all the books cited in this essay and I'm sooooo proud..... Now I have to start reading Joe Hill for good.
Davvero un bel riepilogo con analisi di tutti i piú famosi libri horror scritti dal 1500 (piú o meno) in poi e la mia piú grande soddisfazione é che ne ho letti almeno l'80% e sono molto orgogliona. Comunque é ora di affrontare la bibliografia di Joe Hill.
Davvero un bel riepilogo con analisi di tutti i piú famosi libri horror scritti dal 1500 (piú o meno) in poi e la mia piú grande soddisfazione é che ne ho letti almeno l'80% e sono molto orgogliona. Comunque é ora di affrontare la bibliografia di Joe Hill.
February 12, 2025
Ker gre za zbornik, kakovost prispevkov nekoliko niha, ampak za nek osnovni pregled, očrt razvoja žanra in njegovih najbolj znanih predstavnikov, je knjiga čisto dovolj. Mogoče manjka malo več zgodovinske perspektive (razvoja žanra), malo več literarno-teoretične perspektive (določnice in podžanri) in še več zunaj-angleško govoreče literature (in globalnega konteksta), predvsem pa boljša razdelava očitnih povezav in soodvisnosti s filmom (upal bi si trditi, da je to žanr, kjer se literatura in film že od začetka najbolj prepletata in vplivata drug na drugega). Peto in šesto poglavje, o grozljivkah od štiridesetih do sedemdesetih in od sedemdesetih do devetdesetih, ki sta ju napisala Bernice M. Murphy oziroma Steffen Hantke, sta iz tega vidika po mojem najbolje razdelani.
August 8, 2024
Great historical overview of the Horror genre... I only wished it would have given more in depth information/interpretation of certain tropes, such as haunted houses etc. just like the sub-chapters regarding "creepy-kid trope" and the focus on psycho-killers, which were really interesting.
October 26, 2019
More properly titled Horror: A Limited Literary History, this collection of seven essays edited by Xavier Aldana Reyes covers the development of horror as a literary genre from the 18th century until today - but only in Britain and America.
Opening with an introduction by Reyes which outlines the collection's working definition of horror, the potential social and psychological underpinnings of horror, and the general organization of the book's examination of the form, this History then gets down to the promised business of its title, starting with an essay by Dale Townshend on the development of the Gothic in Britain. From there it hops the pond for Agnieszka Monnet's examination of how that Gothic tradition translated itself into American fiction, then settles into a series of mostly chronological essays covering the rise of 19th and 20th century horror, what the genre looked like after the decline of Universal monster movie horror, the peak of the genre's popularity toward the close of the 20th century, and what fear looks like in the new millennium.
As with any collection, the whole is sometimes greater than the sum of its parts, though the weakest link here is Reyes' introduction, which spends an amusingly large amount of time promising how generally accessible the book will be while being itself a fairly excellent example of inaccessibly academic writing. Overall, though, I found the essays well-written, though my preference for Mahawaite's essay on horror in the 19th century and Luckhurst's piece on the transition from Victorian Gothic to modern horror (which, interestingly enough, is structured around Arthur Machen's career) is probably more due to my particular area of interest rather than any particular quality of their writing.
As previously mentioned, this collection narrowly focuses on horror in Britain and America, which the editor describes as a necessary limiter given international horror's roots in specific historical and cultural conditions which would require more explanation that this volume has room for. I don't know about you, but that seems a bit too pat an answer, particularly when paired with the book's strange omission of any discussion of how YA fiction aimed at young women helped keep the genre alive in the 1990s, or how Reyes manages to have an entire discussion on the New Weird that doesn't once mention that the most interesting work in that genre is being done by people of color who are reclaiming and subverting the work of Howard "The P actually stands for Problematic" Lovecraft.
As a general introductory survey, Horror definitely does what it says on the tin, and deserves particular praise for the inclusion at the end of every chapter of not just bibliographic resources but a suggested reading list for further study. Still, those of us who've read a bit on the genre and are looking for something a bit more in-depth might be forgiven for wishing the editorial staff had just said "Fuck it" and given us the more-inclusive, thousand page deep-dive version of this relatively limited literary history.
Opening with an introduction by Reyes which outlines the collection's working definition of horror, the potential social and psychological underpinnings of horror, and the general organization of the book's examination of the form, this History then gets down to the promised business of its title, starting with an essay by Dale Townshend on the development of the Gothic in Britain. From there it hops the pond for Agnieszka Monnet's examination of how that Gothic tradition translated itself into American fiction, then settles into a series of mostly chronological essays covering the rise of 19th and 20th century horror, what the genre looked like after the decline of Universal monster movie horror, the peak of the genre's popularity toward the close of the 20th century, and what fear looks like in the new millennium.
As with any collection, the whole is sometimes greater than the sum of its parts, though the weakest link here is Reyes' introduction, which spends an amusingly large amount of time promising how generally accessible the book will be while being itself a fairly excellent example of inaccessibly academic writing. Overall, though, I found the essays well-written, though my preference for Mahawaite's essay on horror in the 19th century and Luckhurst's piece on the transition from Victorian Gothic to modern horror (which, interestingly enough, is structured around Arthur Machen's career) is probably more due to my particular area of interest rather than any particular quality of their writing.
As previously mentioned, this collection narrowly focuses on horror in Britain and America, which the editor describes as a necessary limiter given international horror's roots in specific historical and cultural conditions which would require more explanation that this volume has room for. I don't know about you, but that seems a bit too pat an answer, particularly when paired with the book's strange omission of any discussion of how YA fiction aimed at young women helped keep the genre alive in the 1990s, or how Reyes manages to have an entire discussion on the New Weird that doesn't once mention that the most interesting work in that genre is being done by people of color who are reclaiming and subverting the work of Howard "The P actually stands for Problematic" Lovecraft.
As a general introductory survey, Horror definitely does what it says on the tin, and deserves particular praise for the inclusion at the end of every chapter of not just bibliographic resources but a suggested reading list for further study. Still, those of us who've read a bit on the genre and are looking for something a bit more in-depth might be forgiven for wishing the editorial staff had just said "Fuck it" and given us the more-inclusive, thousand page deep-dive version of this relatively limited literary history.
July 7, 2018
For someone who has not read much more than a few Gothic novels and one or two contemporary horror novels, this book was incredibly informative about the scope and history of this genre. Currently, I am a Literary Studies MA student and am used to jargon-infused volumes on literary matters, so it was refreshing to find this much more approachable text at my university library. My only (very minor) gripe with this book is that it does not look as thoroughly into the roots of American horror fiction as I would have liked it to. For example, one of the authors covers Poe with broad strokes, but sort of skips around the turn of the century to arrive at Lovecraft's doorstep without any mention of Ambrose Bierce or R.W. Chambers, who are two significant influences on Lovecraft's work and psychological horror at large. As someone who is working on a thesis about Bierce, it felt sort of disheartening to not see him credited as a major influence on Lovecraft nor on the journalistic tact with which contemporary horror fiction is composed. But, I can set aside my fanatic interest in Bitter Bierce and give Horror: A Literary History a superb rating because it most definitely helped supplement my knowledge in this area and is by far a more accurate representation of this field of genre study than Continuum's volume written by Gina Wisker. (I guess we cannot always trust a scholarly publishing house to fact-check its authors...) Anyway, I highly recommend Horror: A Literary History for readers who are not as familiar with this genre as they would like to be--who want to broaden their knowledge of the history and societal function of horror fiction through the generations of mostly American and English authors.
May 3, 2020
the several page long list of academic text recommendations at the end of this more than made up for the issues i had
October 6, 2022
Although this gives an interesting perspective on the transition from the Gothic to horror as the genre we know today, it could have benefitted from a non-academic reader to edit the extremely long passive sentences, and the fact it blatantly ignores any real discussion of race (and fails to explicitly name any authors of colour in its citations), as well as failing to consider why the horror genre has greater female representation now than the 80s, means it often misses the wood for the trees.
November 17, 2021
Se trata de una colección de ensayos sobre la historia de la literatura de horror en lengua inglesa, desde sus orígenes hasta los inicios del nuevo milenio. Cada ensayo está escrito por un autor diferente, todos coordinados por el experto Xavier Aldana Reyes. Cada aproximación es única, aunque tienen el eje cronológico en común.
Algunos capítulos se centran en el análisis de las obras clásicas, mientras que otros prefieren relacionarlas con las tendencias culturales más amplias en la época. Por ejemplo, los primeros capítulos contienen interesantísimas exploraciones sobre el concepto de "el horror" y sus distinciones de "el terror" en otros rubros de la literatura; en particular, el primer ensayo nos muestra cómo muchos de los elementos que configuraron la literatura gótica en el siglo XVIII tienen sus antecedentes directos en el teatro de Shakespeare y la poesía de Milton.
Esta obra se complementa con otro volumen, "Gothic Cinema", también de Aldana Reyes, dedicado al séptimo arte. A manera de nota al pie, me gustaría hacer énfasis en cómo ambos demuestran que el desarrollo del horror como género debe tantísimo a las mujeres y personas lgbt+. Los fans de este género no debemos olvidarlo.
Algunos capítulos se centran en el análisis de las obras clásicas, mientras que otros prefieren relacionarlas con las tendencias culturales más amplias en la época. Por ejemplo, los primeros capítulos contienen interesantísimas exploraciones sobre el concepto de "el horror" y sus distinciones de "el terror" en otros rubros de la literatura; en particular, el primer ensayo nos muestra cómo muchos de los elementos que configuraron la literatura gótica en el siglo XVIII tienen sus antecedentes directos en el teatro de Shakespeare y la poesía de Milton.
Esta obra se complementa con otro volumen, "Gothic Cinema", también de Aldana Reyes, dedicado al séptimo arte. A manera de nota al pie, me gustaría hacer énfasis en cómo ambos demuestran que el desarrollo del horror como género debe tantísimo a las mujeres y personas lgbt+. Los fans de este género no debemos olvidarlo.
December 8, 2024
I find myself really quite frustrated with this book because it's covering two of my most loved subjects but the volume just lacked so much for me personally
It can't be denied how much work went into it, a lot of people put work and research into making this book and to go the lengths of such work and research means you must feel passionate about the subject matter...so why did the book feel so dry?
I admit I nearly balked while in the introduction because of the sterile and acedemic manner it was written in and both my brows raised into my hairline reading a particular section that by the time I reached the end of the book I was still thinking about it and went back so I could type it up here:
'Although the chapters themselves have been kept jargon free and low on ancillary critical material in order to best serve the purpose of a general survey'
I would disagree with this statement (also pretty funny to say this book is going to be accessible to the general reader then use the term LOW ON ANCILLARY CRITICAL MATERIAL). The intro and chapters that cover the 18th, 19th and early 20th century are littered constantly with phrases and words that I wouldn't consider accessible in the slightest to the casual reader or student that picked up the book out of interest rather than someone deep in academic research.
I would say once we hit the 50's onwards for reasons I don't exactly know, this noose of academic jargon loosens considerably but there is still the odd sentence or specific word I was like 'Well SOMEONE got a thesaurus for Christmas'.
Near the end of the book in one of the final chapters I found an example of this that just kicked down the walls of pretence labelled with 'accessible' and 'academic jargon free' so violently that I had to note it down for you to see:
'The current cult of Lovecraft may, of course, be connected to a recuperation of genre fiction in the twentieth century, following the deconstructive disruptions of the canon of poststructuralism and the various challenges that the Leavisite understanding of literature has received since the 1970's.'
Me, reading this and as I was doing throughout the duration of this book:
"I....like when...the horror-HAVE YOU EVER-...uh....ascared?"
Some of the authors are a lot more egregious in the behaviour of leeching the fun out of what they are presenting than others by bogging down their information and findings with specific uses of language and phrasing. I found this deeply unfortunate because in all honesty, it was anything from the turn of the century backwards I was interested in knowing about and that was where it was more difficult to parse through the 'jargon', to glean meaning in a more simple manner.
Due to the aforementioned inaccessibility of the prose that kept coming up (and of course the near constant source citing) I thought oh maybe this is just a book moreso for students and academics to reference, use as a tool and cite rather than a book to casually enjoy? BUT THEN! Moreso in the second half the book, the authors gave their opinions so there was a complete lack of academic non bias so...I mean, there is also the fact in the intro itself it was said hey this is accessible and jargon free my dudes so I don't know.
Maybe there was a disconnect between what some of the authors considered a perfectly simple and casual reference or word due to being an academic who is more often than not only conversing with people who are also academics.
I apologise, I am but a humble and simple boglin and it took me the rereading of a good number of sentences epsecially during the first part of the book to glean meaning. The cat running on the wheel in my head had to go a few laps before I could pull the simplistic understanding from the literary rocks that were being thrown at my head.
I did learn some interesting litle bits, little flutters of info and crumbs of intrigue. Some thoughts on horror and terror, the basis of who, what,why. Not enough though. Due to the magnitude of covering hundreds of years there was only surface level pokings and proddings of things I wish we could have dug into more.
There was so much personal opinion and recommendation for the 70s onwards but I wasn't particularly interested in specific persons, it was much more the history and what influenced horror and why. I felt this was only briefly touched upon in the coverage of the 20th century (I appreciated the deeper dive into this for the earlier chapters and learned some interesting things but still wanted more!) and found it bizarre that for a book about the history of literary horror not a word was spoken about WW1 and only the effecrs of post WW2.
I wish I could have liked it a lot more than I did. I appreciate the new things I learned and for the notes I wrote down of some authors to check out from the enormous amount of those mentioned and referenced but for me, not an academic or student, just a lover of horror and history I feel frustrated more than anything else.
(It would have been nice to have a BIT of a peep at world horror history. Just a peep. Especially as an English person who has no ancestry connections outside of the UK, I am sadly unversed in the mythology, cultures and history around the world! We could have cut down some of the recommendations or being told about the works of specific authors from the 80s-present day to expand a little more on how horror is a malleable thing that shapes itself to the times and what influenced it. More history, less mini author biographies and personal opinions on their works.)
It can't be denied how much work went into it, a lot of people put work and research into making this book and to go the lengths of such work and research means you must feel passionate about the subject matter...so why did the book feel so dry?
I admit I nearly balked while in the introduction because of the sterile and acedemic manner it was written in and both my brows raised into my hairline reading a particular section that by the time I reached the end of the book I was still thinking about it and went back so I could type it up here:
'Although the chapters themselves have been kept jargon free and low on ancillary critical material in order to best serve the purpose of a general survey'
I would disagree with this statement (also pretty funny to say this book is going to be accessible to the general reader then use the term LOW ON ANCILLARY CRITICAL MATERIAL). The intro and chapters that cover the 18th, 19th and early 20th century are littered constantly with phrases and words that I wouldn't consider accessible in the slightest to the casual reader or student that picked up the book out of interest rather than someone deep in academic research.
I would say once we hit the 50's onwards for reasons I don't exactly know, this noose of academic jargon loosens considerably but there is still the odd sentence or specific word I was like 'Well SOMEONE got a thesaurus for Christmas'.
Near the end of the book in one of the final chapters I found an example of this that just kicked down the walls of pretence labelled with 'accessible' and 'academic jargon free' so violently that I had to note it down for you to see:
'The current cult of Lovecraft may, of course, be connected to a recuperation of genre fiction in the twentieth century, following the deconstructive disruptions of the canon of poststructuralism and the various challenges that the Leavisite understanding of literature has received since the 1970's.'
Me, reading this and as I was doing throughout the duration of this book:
"I....like when...the horror-HAVE YOU EVER-...uh....ascared?"
Some of the authors are a lot more egregious in the behaviour of leeching the fun out of what they are presenting than others by bogging down their information and findings with specific uses of language and phrasing. I found this deeply unfortunate because in all honesty, it was anything from the turn of the century backwards I was interested in knowing about and that was where it was more difficult to parse through the 'jargon', to glean meaning in a more simple manner.
Due to the aforementioned inaccessibility of the prose that kept coming up (and of course the near constant source citing) I thought oh maybe this is just a book moreso for students and academics to reference, use as a tool and cite rather than a book to casually enjoy? BUT THEN! Moreso in the second half the book, the authors gave their opinions so there was a complete lack of academic non bias so...I mean, there is also the fact in the intro itself it was said hey this is accessible and jargon free my dudes so I don't know.
Maybe there was a disconnect between what some of the authors considered a perfectly simple and casual reference or word due to being an academic who is more often than not only conversing with people who are also academics.
I apologise, I am but a humble and simple boglin and it took me the rereading of a good number of sentences epsecially during the first part of the book to glean meaning. The cat running on the wheel in my head had to go a few laps before I could pull the simplistic understanding from the literary rocks that were being thrown at my head.
I did learn some interesting litle bits, little flutters of info and crumbs of intrigue. Some thoughts on horror and terror, the basis of who, what,why. Not enough though. Due to the magnitude of covering hundreds of years there was only surface level pokings and proddings of things I wish we could have dug into more.
There was so much personal opinion and recommendation for the 70s onwards but I wasn't particularly interested in specific persons, it was much more the history and what influenced horror and why. I felt this was only briefly touched upon in the coverage of the 20th century (I appreciated the deeper dive into this for the earlier chapters and learned some interesting things but still wanted more!) and found it bizarre that for a book about the history of literary horror not a word was spoken about WW1 and only the effecrs of post WW2.
I wish I could have liked it a lot more than I did. I appreciate the new things I learned and for the notes I wrote down of some authors to check out from the enormous amount of those mentioned and referenced but for me, not an academic or student, just a lover of horror and history I feel frustrated more than anything else.
(It would have been nice to have a BIT of a peep at world horror history. Just a peep. Especially as an English person who has no ancestry connections outside of the UK, I am sadly unversed in the mythology, cultures and history around the world! We could have cut down some of the recommendations or being told about the works of specific authors from the 80s-present day to expand a little more on how horror is a malleable thing that shapes itself to the times and what influenced it. More history, less mini author biographies and personal opinions on their works.)
June 11, 2025
I thought this book was a great overview of the general history of literary horror. It was simple and not overly complicated, making it an easy read. This book is a great starting off point for doing research or personal study into this topic as there are suggested readings that are listed at the end of every chapter. This makes it so one can bounce off into any specific piece of horror literary history at their own pace.
Personally, I got a few more books added to my ‘to read’ list because of this book. But on top of that, it gave me interesting perspective on how the view of horror has changed over the years, mostly formed by environmental factors of each decade. It definitely has given me ideas for what directions I could go into in my own horror writing.
The prose is a bit dry, because of this I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone who isn’t heavily invested in horror as a genre. I liked it, but that is because I like anything that talks about horror in-depth. Also, the Authors talked about within the book are pretty narrow in scope. Be aware that this text only covers UK and US horror authors (it tells you so in the first chapter) and if you want an exploration into non-western horror you are probably going to have to go elsewhere.
Personally, I got a few more books added to my ‘to read’ list because of this book. But on top of that, it gave me interesting perspective on how the view of horror has changed over the years, mostly formed by environmental factors of each decade. It definitely has given me ideas for what directions I could go into in my own horror writing.
The prose is a bit dry, because of this I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone who isn’t heavily invested in horror as a genre. I liked it, but that is because I like anything that talks about horror in-depth. Also, the Authors talked about within the book are pretty narrow in scope. Be aware that this text only covers UK and US horror authors (it tells you so in the first chapter) and if you want an exploration into non-western horror you are probably going to have to go elsewhere.
May 17, 2022
This was a pretty thorough (for its size) run-through of the history of horror lit, from pre-Frankenstein to today. Each chapter is written by a different expert, but they all refer to each other, so it feels like a continuous history instead of re-used bits from here and there. It also focuses on women horror writers, of which there have been far more than most other histories would have you believe. It doesn't spend a lot of time on non-English horror, but it says that there were long periods of time when it was almost specifically an American/British thing. I don't know about all that, but at least they give an excuse and don't just ignore all other countries.
It can get a bit scholarly at times, but it's a quick read and very informative. I definitely found some books that I'm interested in reading now.
It can get a bit scholarly at times, but it's a quick read and very informative. I definitely found some books that I'm interested in reading now.
September 15, 2023
A fascinating study on the history of horror in literature. The book was beautifully presented, each chapter had concise information about each topic, it was easy to digest and enjoyable to read. I'm shocked that such a broad topic could be covered in such a small amount of pages! It even touched upon Splatterpunk and other subgenres of horror literature. My only gripe is that a lot of modern cult horror books were not touched upon, such as I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, Womb, Tender Is The Flesh, Hex, and Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - just to name a select few important modern horror novels. House Of Leaves was briefly mentioned, but I would have liked more information. I know it's not possible to include everything though, so that's why I'm going to continue to give it a high rating.
July 3, 2022
Fun exploration of the origins, growth and currency of the horror novel! This provides a solid insight into the trends, influences and key authors of the genre (I particularly appreciated the sub-genre explorations throughout). Found several new authors to read from this as well.
That being said however, there was plenty more to be explored in this as the only horror trends properly examined are from Britain and the United States, with only hints of German and South African horror, to say nothing truly global.
That being said however, there was plenty more to be explored in this as the only horror trends properly examined are from Britain and the United States, with only hints of German and South African horror, to say nothing truly global.
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May 9, 2021Tracing the development of horror in literature from its earliest manifestation before the concept existed to the early twenty-first century and the current resurgence of the weird and growth of zombie literature this book provides an informed overview.
With the extensive bibliography, both of the key short stories and novels in the development of the genre as well as critical works, there is much to inspire the reader.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in horror.
With the extensive bibliography, both of the key short stories and novels in the development of the genre as well as critical works, there is much to inspire the reader.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in horror.
February 1, 2024
An excellent overview of the history of horror literature. Each chapter could easily fill a book by itself if expanded, but as a concise summary of the genre it does an excellent job of presenting a mostly chronological retelling of the rise of horror fiction, contextualised with contemporary parallels showcasing the shifting attitudes to the genre and how sociological, economical, and geopolitical factors shaped how horror was viewed and created.
December 15, 2025
This is a very interesting book and really easy to read, it reflects on horror and its history and evolution through essays by different academics on the subject. It focuses mainly on English and American horror and it's quite light and approachable even for someone who might not know much about this theme. As with good horror in general, it tells a lot about the concerns and tensions of society (in this case western society) through the last centuries, which is always so fascinating.
July 27, 2022
Short, and sort of left me with a weird unshakable feeling that there is more. That I am not just reading cliffnotes, but cliffnotes of cliffnotes.
Despite all that, it presents a (not the!) coherent interpretation of the literary history. There are very handy reading lists at the end of each chapter. Genre afficionados will love this book.
Despite all that, it presents a (not the!) coherent interpretation of the literary history. There are very handy reading lists at the end of each chapter. Genre afficionados will love this book.
January 3, 2025
Really informative book on the history of the horror genre. Discovered some writers that I'm very interested in picking up in the future. The only flaw I would say is the American/Anglo-centric focus, but the book is self-aware and explains why that is the case. It would have been interesting if horror from other areas was discussed.
October 28, 2022
An interesting collection of essays charting the history of horror books, but there's some glaring areas for me that could've been considered more, e.g. young adult horror and its impact, more nuance around marginalisation and horror writing.
April 23, 2020
An educational journey spanning three centuries. We witness its evolution from eighteenth century gothic to present day splatterpunk. This book has opened up my reading list.
July 21, 2021
A quick and enjoyable trip through the history of horror lit.
February 27, 2022
A well-executed scholarly work. While I read this for a specific project (and just for fun because that’s who I am), I found some interesting insights that will help me with other work.
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