TY  - BOOK
N2  - "A genre of supernatural fiction was among the more improbable products of the Age of Enlightenment, but produced a string of bestsellers. E.J. Clery's original and historically sensitive account charts the troubled entry of the supernatural into fiction, and examines the reasons for its growing popularity in the late eighteenth century. Beginning with the notorious case of the Cock Lane ghost, a performing poltergeist who became a major attraction in the London of 1762, and with Garrick's spell-binding performance as the ghost-seeing Hamlet, it moves on to look at the Gothic novels of Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, M.G. Lewis and others, in unexpected new lights. The central insight emerging from the rich resources of Clery's research concerns the connection between fictions of the supernatural and the growth of consumerism. Not only are ghost stories successful commodities in the rapidly commercialising book market, they are also considered here as reflections on the disruptive effects of this socio-economic transformation. In providing a newly detailed context for the rise of supernatural fiction, Clery's work will change our view of its dramatic role - as much commercial as creative - in the movement from Enlightenment to Romanticism."--Jacket.
AB  - "A genre of supernatural fiction was among the more improbable products of the Age of Enlightenment, but produced a string of bestsellers. E.J. Clery's original and historically sensitive account charts the troubled entry of the supernatural into fiction, and examines the reasons for its growing popularity in the late eighteenth century. Beginning with the notorious case of the Cock Lane ghost, a performing poltergeist who became a major attraction in the London of 1762, and with Garrick's spell-binding performance as the ghost-seeing Hamlet, it moves on to look at the Gothic novels of Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, M.G. Lewis and others, in unexpected new lights. The central insight emerging from the rich resources of Clery's research concerns the connection between fictions of the supernatural and the growth of consumerism. Not only are ghost stories successful commodities in the rapidly commercialising book market, they are also considered here as reflections on the disruptive effects of this socio-economic transformation. In providing a newly detailed context for the rise of supernatural fiction, Clery's work will change our view of its dramatic role - as much commercial as creative - in the movement from Enlightenment to Romanticism."--Jacket.
T1  - The rise of supernatural fiction, 1762-1800 /
DA  - 1999.
CY  - Cambridge ;
CY  - New York :
AU  - Clery, E. J.
ET  - 1st pbk. ed.
VL  - 12
CN  - PR858.S85
CN  - PR858.S85
PB  - Cambridge University Press,
PP  - Cambridge ;
PP  - New York :
PY  - 1999.
N1  - Originally published in 1995.
ID  - 745647
KW  - Supernatural in literature.
KW  - Gothic revival (Literature)
KW  - Horror tales, English
KW  - Ghost stories, English
KW  - English fiction
KW  - Gothic revival (Literature)
KW  - Literature and society
KW  - Literature publishing
SN  - 9780521664585
SN  - 0521664586
SN  - 9780521453165
SN  - 052145316X
TI  - The rise of supernatural fiction, 1762-1800 /
ER  -