Gothic Silk

A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping History’s Nightmares This is the first major full-length study of Victorian Gothic fiction. Combining original readings of familiar texts with a rich store of historical sources, A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction is an historicist survey of nineteenth-century Gothic writing - from Dickens to Stoker, Wilkie Collins to Conan Doyle, through European travelogues, sexological textbooks, ecclesiastic histories and pamphlets on the perils of self-abuse. Critics have thus far tended to concentrate on specific angles of Gothic writing (gender or race), or the belief that the Gothic ‘returned’ at the so-called fin de siecle. Robert Mighall, by contrast, demonstrates how the Gothic mode was active throughout the Victorian period, and provides historical explanations for its development from late eighteenth century, through the ‘Urban Gothic’ fictions of the mid-Victorian period, the ‘Suburban Gothic’ of the Sensation vogue, through to the somatic horrors of Stevenson, Machen, Stoker, and Doyle at the century’s close. Mighall challenges the psychological approach to Gothic fiction which currently prevails, demonstrating the importance of geographical, historical, and discursive factors that have been largely neglected by critics, and employing a variety of original sources to demonstrate the contexts of Gothic fiction and explain its development in the Victorian period.
Customer Review: Coulda been a contender
I was drawn to this author’s full-length work of lit crit by his critical apparatus to the Penguin “Picture of Dorian Gray”, which was one of the most useful introduction and notes I’ve come across: lucid, insightful and showed me things I wouldn’t have noted myself. So it was with high expectations I ordered and read this volume.

And, happily, it met these expectations in part. The opening chapters avoid theoretical academese and offer a viable way of reading Victorian Gothic fiction. However, the longer the book goes on, the more repetitive it becomes and offers sentences such as:

“Whilst it has been suggested that appropriate location still played a part in staging this return as Gothic scenario, by establishing the modernity of the context into which the atavistic past intrudes, the taxonomical focus on “development” as a measure of contemporaneity meant that as an individual could “embody” the past, then atavism could potentially crop up anywhere”. (p.153)

You see my point.

The latter chapters alternate falling into this technospeak, and the arguments become simultaneously less cogently argued and more diffuse. Ultimately I found myself skimming the very end as I finally lost patience with the book.

Mr. Mighall stands at the decision point whether to pursue a writing career based on the lucid persona of the Penguin introductions (his Dr. Jekyll, so to speak) or the obfuscation and diffuse arguments of his Academic writings (his Mr. Hyde). Once down one path, it can easily overwhelm the other. He is well too aware of the dangers of leading a double life.

gothic writing, late eighteenth century, mapping history, gothic fiction, conan doyle, academese, gothic mode, critical apparatus, victorian period, lit crit, psychological approach, wilkie collins, self abuse, historical sources, fin de siecle, picture of dorian gray, stoker, high expectations, fictions, perils
gothic writing, late eighteenth century, mapping history, gothic fiction, conan doyle, academese, gothic mode, critical apparatus, victorian period, lit crit, psychological approach, wilkie collins, self abuse, historical sources, fin de siecle, picture of dorian gray, stoker, high expectations, fictions, perils