EXCERPTS FROM LIFE

Sinister Histories Is The First Book To Offer A Detailed Exploration Of The GothicS Response To Enlightenment Historiography. It Uncovers Hitherto Neglected Relationships Between Fiction And Prominent Works Of Eighteenth-Century History Locating The Gothic Novel In A Range Of New Interdisciplinary Contexts. Drawing On Ideas From Literary Studies History Politics And Philosophy The Book Demonstrates The Extent To Which Historical Works Influenced And Shaped The Development Of Gothic Fiction From The 1760S To The Early Nineteenth Century. In Moving From Canonical Historians And Novelists Such As David Hume Edmund Burke And Ann Radcliffe To Less Familiar Figures Such As Paul M. Rapin De Thoyras Clara Reeve And Sophia Lee This Innovative Study Shows That While Enlightenment Historians Emphasised The Organic And The Teleological Gothic Writers Looked Instead At Events And Characters Which Challenged Such Orderly Methods. Through A Series Of Detailed Readings Of Texts From The Castle Of Otranto (1764) To Maria Or The Wrongs Of Woman (1798) Sinister Histories Offers An Alternative Account Of The GothicS Development And A Sustained Revaluation Of The Creative Legacies Of The French Revolution. This Book Will Appeal To Students And Scholars With Interests In The Gothic The Eighteenth Century Historiography The Enlightenment Romanticism And Gender Studies.