Romantic Readings
A List of Gothic Works of
Literature Read by the Canonical Romantic Writers
Last Revised 14 April 2008.
The Nature and Purpose of the List
With
the ongoing reappraisal of the relationship between the Gothic and the
Romantic, it seems desirable to have a list of Gothic works read by the major
writers of the period 1780-1830. At times this reappraisal has ignored an
important warning voice issued some years ago by F. L. Hart, who, in the wake
of the controversy generated by Robert Hume's PMLA article "Gothic
Versus Romantic," complained of too much "generic
essentiallizing" in regards to such a diverse and multifarious literary
phenomena as the Gothic. Too often the term "Gothic" appears as a
catch-all term pitted against or aligned with some aspect of the Romantic,
without attention to specific works or to the evolving nature of the genre.
Thus, a "who read what list" can provide some historical grounding
for these investigations. I've begun with the Gothic readings of the canonical
British Romantic writers: Blake,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, the Shelleys, and Keats and will add others (De
Quincey is next up) as the list develops. The indexes of Gothic texts read by
the Romantics are very much a work in progress and make no claim to be the
complete record of those readings.
Hopefully the list will spark
some lively debate about our understanding of just what constitutes the
Gothic--always a wonderfully vexatious issue—and (at this stage) the
significance of the major poets' reading of specific Gothic literary works. An
electronic text is the perfect medium for such a resource and for such a debate
because it allows for, indeed encourages, corrections, additions, and all kinds
of revisions. For the Gothic novel I've begun with such standard references as
Summers' A Gothic Bibliography, Frank's Guides to the Gothic,
Spector's The English Gothic, McNutt's The Eighteenth Century Gothic
Novel, and Tracy's The Gothic Novel: 1790-1830 for a working canon
from which to compile lists of those works of fiction read by the poets. At
this stage in its compilation, I have included very few works of Gothic
drama--primarily Lewis's smash-hit the Castle Spectre and Maturins's
plays; more work needs to be done in this area for sure. But while I have tried
to remain fairly conservative in my selection of what constitutes the Gothic
for this "first pass," I have included some works that cannot easily
be categorized as Gothic but which seem to me important for an understanding of
the issue (for example Collin's influential "Ode to Fear, "
Schiller's The Robbers, and Bürger's ballads). For errata, additions,
deletions, revisions and comments of all kinds, contact me through e-mail. I'll make and credit
revisions as they come along.
For each entry I have supplied
some evidence for making the claim of the poet's having read the work. This
evidence ranges from the reliable to the conjectural, and for especially dicey
attributions I have employed a (?) designation. Some of the entries include
links, and more will be added as our discipline's electronic resources grow.
One final note that might
suggest the kind of challenge faced in the compilation of this list: I was
puzzled to find no evidence of any of the poets' having read novels of two of
the most popular and formative writers of Gothic fiction, Clara Reeve and
Charlotte Smith. As names left somewhat marginalized by the main literary
traditions, I'm left wondering if the biographies, bibliographies, and other
sources consulted have overlooked them--or if the poets did. Hopefully, we'll
see as this list develops.
THE READING
BLAKE’S GOTHIC READINGS
WORDSWORTH'S GOTHIC READINGS
COLERIDGE'S GOTHIC READINGS
BYRON'S GOTHIC READINGS
MARY SHELLEY'S GOTHIC READINGS
PERCY SHELLEY'S GOTHIC READINGS
KEATS' GOTHIC READINGS
COMMENTS ABOUT THE
LIST
- "This is an excellent
website. Together with Jack Voller's pages, the Gothic now has its own
grand grotto in cyberspace." --Frederick Frank, Editor of Guide to
the Gothic: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism
- "This is great! I am just
about to begin a seminar on the Gothic novel, and because we live on the
quarter system, I haven't even tried to tie the novels in with so-called
"high" Romanticism (except by adding FRANKENSTEIN to the
syllabus and an hour or so on Wordsworth when I do "the
sublime") because there just isn't time: the entire focus of my
course is on the novels themselves and on theorizing "Gothic."
This will be very helpful in pointing my students toward the poets'
relation to all they are reading. Thanks!"--
- "i just wanted to tell you
how immensely helpful your site has been to me. i am an english major and
just finished a class in the gothic/fantastic novel. the information
provided on your site about the poets helped me make some really
meaningful connections, both in my papers and presentations,and also in my
own mind. thank you so much!"-- holly young
This page is
maintained by Douglass Thomson, Professor of English at Georgia Southern
University. Send comments and queries to dhthom@georgiasouthern.edu