Checking In with some Extra Resources...

Sorry I’ve not been active enough on the blog here lately, I’ve been working triple-time preparing Vol. II of the reader (which will probably clock in at 350 pages, with texts by about 30 people and more images), which needs to be ready for the printer’s proof in about 10 days. Thanks to everybody for keeping the discussions going!

I’m going to respond over the weekend to the most recent posts —thanks to Terri (and Germseed) for keeping Music in the mix as we go forward, and Lily for your last post, which opens up on several really vital questions that it will take awhile for us to explore!

In the meantime, I’m going to post some links to other texts related to the current Reading, or which I wish I’d included.

Gothic Novels

Even though the novels from this period are all English, popular Gothic subculture will soon spread to France where it will be incorporated into some of the most radical cultural experiments of the time, and leave a lasting mark on the French avant-garde. I really ought to have had a sample or two in the reader. Here are some of the most influential, all of which would become bestsellers in France during the 1810s-‘20s

-Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

-Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho

-William Beckford, Vathek

-Matthew Lewis, The Monk

And check out Valencourt Press—this is one of my favourite micropresses, they seek out the last un-decayed copies of the cheaply produced pulp gothic novels of the 18^th and 19^th Centuries and publish new editions of books which for the most part haven’t been read for around 200 years.

Byron

Byron has a huge range, here are a few other of his long narrative poems:

-Don Juan: Byron’s satirical masterpiece—humorous, digressive, and technically playful.

-Cain: I’ve been wanting to read this for years—biblical vampirism can’t go too far wrong, I should imagine.

-Childe Harolde: Probably Byron’s most autobiographical poem, by which I don’t necessarily mean the most ‘true to life’ but the one through which he most forcefully moulded his own public image.

Goethe

-Werther (here’s the full text)

-Faust: Goethe’s most influential verse, a gigantic influence on all of the progressive literature of the first half of the century.

-???

Chateaubriand

-Atala (the full text)

-The Genius of Christianity: Chateaubriand’s thesis (as I understand it) on Romantic theology, how he thought Christianity must adapt to the conditions of modernity. Not surprisingly, I haven’t read it.

More next week—once I’m done editing Vol. II I can spend more time on here again!