“Back to School” doesn’t look quite the same this year. Whether you’re attending virtually, in person, hybrid, or still waiting on your school administrators to figure that out, things are sure to be rather chaotic as we try to navigate this new reality of educating during a pandemic. I figured I would try to reintroduce a little normalcy to this fall season by bringing back my old tradition of putting together a mini-syllabus of classic Gothic works for the start of the school year. In my initial Back to School Reading List, I highlighted a few Gothic novels you’re most likely to come across in class. I followed that post up with a Short Story Edition, Drama Edition, and Poetry Edition of the reading list. Today, I’m returning to novels to spotlight a few more classics that didn’t make it into the initial post: Continue reading Back to School Reading List, Part 2
Tag: gothic novels
The Underestimated Importance of Minerva Press
How did one publishing house change the course of the Gothic novel and, in fact, of novels in general? And why haven’t you heard of it? This week, I’d like to give you a brief history lesson on one of England’s most influential—and yet least talked about—publishers, Minerva Press. Founded by William Lane in 1780, though it didn’t adopt the name “Minerva” until 1790, Minerva Press was the largest publisher of fiction for three decades around the turn of the 19th century. And its specialty? The Gothic novel. Minerva press churned out Gothics by the dozens, usually written by female authors. Yet few of these works ever make it into literary discourse, and the press itself is usually dismissed as a low-brow publisher of cheap nonsense. Only in recent years have scholars really started to examine the influence of this remarkable press and question whether that reputation might be undeserved.
Continue reading The Underestimated Importance of Minerva Press