The Gothic Literature and History of New England surveys the history, nature and future of the Gothic mode in the region, from the witch trials through the Black Lives Matter Movement. Texts include Cotton Mather and other Puritan divines who collected folklore of the supernatural; the Frontier Gothic of Indian captivity narratives; the canonical authors of the American Renaissance such as Melville and Hawthorne; the women's ghost story tradition and the Domestic Gothic from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Shirley Jackson; H. P. Lovecraft; Stephen King; and writers of the current generation who respond to racial and gender issues. The work brings to the surface the religious intolerance, racism and misogyny inherent in the New England Gothic, and how these nightmares continue to haunt literature and popular culture—films, television and more.
The Gothic Literature and History of New England surveys the history, nature and future of the Gothic mode in the region, from the witch trials through the Black Lives Matter Movement. Texts include Cotton Mather and other Puritan divines who collected folklore of the supernatural; the Frontier Gothic of Indian captivity narratives; the canonical authors of the American Renaissance such as Melville and Hawthorne; the women's ghost story tradition and the Domestic Gothic from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Shirley Jackson; H. P. Lovecraft; Stephen King; and writers of the current generation who respond to racial and gender issues. The work brings to the surface the religious intolerance, racism and misogyny inherent in the New England Gothic, and how these nightmares continue to haunt literature and popular culture—films, television and more.
"Elegant prose, a veritable Chinese box of puzzles, and authentic, well-rounded characters make this a standout." --Publishers Weekly STARRED review Where memories, realities, and identities blur... David Hazard wanted nothing more than to forget his renegade family and the foggy New England village "on the wrong side" of Narragansett Bay where he grew up. When sudden tragedy brings him back to Little Compton to care for his grandmother during her struggle with dementia, he discovers her fragile memories may hold the key to a bizarre mystery half a century old--and perhaps to the sudden and brutal murder right next door. Once Chief of Police Billy Dyer names her as a witness, Grandma Maggie's recollections become vital. But can they be trusted, especially in a town where everyone has a secret, including David himself? The investigation stalls. Then eccentric millionaire Marcus Rhinegold's yacht disappears into the fog, bodies begin to wash ashore, and Maggie's stories come vividly to life, setting off a chain of events both horrifying and hauntingly familiar. Puritans, gun-runners, Mafiosi, and a rogues' gallery from past and present converge in the mists of the bay, challenging Billy with layers of deception. On Christmas Eve, he enlists David in a daring move to uncover the many truths surrounding Fogland Point.
A heart-wrenching first novel about the power of place and family ties, the weight of the stories we choose to tell, and the burden of those we hide Frozen in grief after the loss of her son at sea, Edith Baines stares across the water at a schooner, under full sail yet motionless in the winter wind and surging tide of the Northern Reach. Edith seems to be hallucinating. Or is she? Edith’s boat-watch opens The Northern Reach, set in the coastal town of Wellbridge, Maine, where townspeople squeeze a living from the perilous bay or scrape by on the largesse of the summer folk and whatever they can cobble together, salvage, or grab. At the center of town life is the Baines family, land-rich, cash-poor descendants of town founders, along with the ne’er-do-well Moody clan, the Martins of Skunk Pond, and the dirt farming, bootlegging Edgecombs. Over the course of the twentieth century, the families intersect, interact, and intermarry, grappling with secrets and prejudices that span generations, opening new wounds and reckoning with old ghosts. W. S. Winslow's The Northern Reach is a breathtaking debut about the complexity of family, the cultural legacy of place, and the people and experiences that shape us.
Transatlantic approach: This project explores British and American texts in conversation together. Use of archival materials, which is relatively unusual within Gothic studies, and even in literary studies more generally. A focus on poetry, drama, and periodical writing, genres that are often ignored in the study of the Gothic. A focus on women’s work (both on the labor of women and on texts by women). A focus on local Gothic (especially in Lowell and Manchester), with a connection to larger international trends of the genre.
These stories of vampire legends and gruesome nineteenth-century practices is “a major contribution to the study of New England folk beliefs” (The Boston Globe). For nineteenth-century New Englanders, “vampires” lurked behind tuberculosis. To try to rid their houses and communities from the scourge of the wasting disease, families sometimes relied on folk practices, including exhuming and consuming the bodies of the deceased. Folklorist Michael E. Bell spent twenty years pursuing stories of the vampire in New England. While writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Henry David Thoreau, and Amy Lowell drew on portions of these stories in their writings, Bell brings the actual practices to light for the first time. He shows that the belief in vampires was widespread, and, for some families, lasted well into the twentieth century. With humor, insight, and sympathy, he uncovers story upon story of dying men, women, and children who believed they were food for the dead. “A marvelous book.” —Providence Journal Includes an updated preface covering newly discovered cases.
The Hopeless, Maine project came to life as the collective dream/nightmare of Tom and Nimue Brown. It began as a graphic novel series set on a gothic island lost in time. Since then the creative family has grown and there are many who have come to play on this strange island and now will never leave. "The moon hadn't risen, but starlight showed Annamarie the way. She saw well enough, and the island by night held no terrors for her. She had been running away to its wilder places for as long as she could remember," New England Gothic is the story of Annmarie Nightshade, an orphan who becomes a witch on the island of Hopeless, Maine. There are betrayals, heartbreak and many dangers to overcome but there are also wonders, near escapes and strange journeys. You will meet dark sorcerers, a mad inventor in a lighthouse and the strangest familiar in the history of witchcraft.
Defining the American gothic tradition both within the context of the major movements of intellectual history over the past three-hundred years, as well as within the issues critical to American culture, this comprehensive volume covers a diverse terrain of well-known American writers, from Poe to Faulkner to Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy. Charles L. Crow demonstrates how the gothic provides a forum for discussing key issues of changing American culture, explores forbidden subjects, and provides a voice for the repressed and silenced.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER “A delectable brew of gothic horror and Hollywood satire . . . [and] what makes all this so much fun is Danforth’s deliciously ghoulish voice . . . exquisite." —Ron Charles, THE WASHINGTON POST "A multi-faceted novel, equal parts gothic, sharply funny, sapphic romance, historical, and, of course, spooky.” —ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Named a Most Anticipated Book by Entertainment Weekly • Washington Post • USA Today • Time • O, The Oprah Magazine • Buzzfeed • Harper's Bazaar • Vulture • Parade • HuffPost • Refinery29 • Popsugar • E! News • Bustle • The Millions • GoodReads • Autostraddle • Lambda Literary • Literary Hub • and more! The award-winning author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post makes her adult debut with this highly imaginative and original horror-comedy centered around a cursed New England boarding school for girls—a wickedly whimsical celebration of the art of storytelling, sapphic love, and the rebellious female spirit Our story begins in 1902, at the Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it the Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, the Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way. Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer Merritt Emmons publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins. A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period-inspired illustrations, Plain Bad Heroines is a devilishly haunting, modern masterwork of metafiction that manages to combine the ghostly sensibility of Sarah Waters with the dark imagination of Marisha Pessl and the sharp humor and incisive social commentary of Curtis Sittenfeld into one laugh-out-loud funny, spellbinding, and wonderfully luxuriant read. “Full of Victorian sapphic romance, metafictional horror, biting misandrist humor, Hollywood intrigue, and multiple timeliness—all replete with evocative illustrations that are icing on a deviously delicious cake.” –O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
New England is the oldest and most influential region of America. Although it has changed much through the centuries, it remains a place that even the Colonials may still recognize. Through a collection of photos, illustrations, history, and stories, this book explores the architectural history of New England and how, although it has changed much through the centuries, it remains a place that even the Colonials might still recognize. The book begins with the influence of climate and geography on the architectural choices and follows with the basics of the well-known New England homes––the cape, the saltbox, the colonial––all of which were created to serve the very specific needs of this corner of America, the people, the land and the climate. We look at the earliest settlers, understanding the challenges they faced, and follow their descendants as they convert and adapt the traditional New England home into something still clearly New England but different, newer and, ultimately, even modern. We watch how the people and houses evolve and how they become what are still clearly identifiable as New England––and all over New England, from Connecticut’s Gold Coast to the rocky shores of Maine. Sprinkled throughout the story of this evolution are sidebars such as A New England State of Mind and I Live Here, etc… where we meet the quintessential New England personalities and characters, who speak through letters, epitaphs, remembrances, books, newspapers, and others, and hear and see in their own words and images what they make or made of this place and life in it. People who buy this book will enjoy a very visual sense of what it’s like to be a New Englander and what it’s like to live in New England––whose houses have been copied and adapted in every state, city and neighborhood of America.
