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Always Halloween and Never Thanksgiving

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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 30

Today’s text is “The Goblins" from Asbury Park Press on 10/31/1913. Read the article here. Quote: Who said that elves were banished? That goblins were no more? That sprites and fays had vanished From all their haunts of yore? Not so. They surely flourish As in their golden prime, And Hallowe’en they cherish As their most joyous time. ALT The Goblins artwork depicting trick-or-treaters on Halloween
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eldritchhobbit

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New Star Trek Interview!

It was a joy to join my co-editor Emily Strand to talk about our new book Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier with the New Books Network podcast! Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis, “Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier” (Vernon Press, 2023) - New Books Network
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 8

Another Gothic novel that was a favorite with women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Three Spaniards (1801) by George Walker. Read it here. Quote: “That unhappy phantom will ever pursue Fernando, till he shall be pacified. He ever attends him invisible, and at this moment sits at the foot of the corpse of Almira.” The Inquisitors and the prisoners shuddered, and turned their eyes towards the spot; but they could see nothing, except the pale body of the murdered maid. “… I will command this unhappy spirit to become visible, and say what are his particular desires, and how he shall be tranquilized in the grave; then shall Fernando enjoy that uninterrupted repose he so well merits.” ALT
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 15

Let’s keep this Gothic Halloween-fest going! Today’s text is Wieland; or, The Transformation (1798) by Charles Brockden Brown. Read it here. Quote: The tales of apparitions and enchantments did not possess that power over my belief which could even render them interesting. I saw nothing in them but ignorance and folly, and was a stranger even to that terror which is pleasing. But this incident was different from any that I had ever before known. Here were proofs of a sensible and intelligent existence, which could not be denied. Here was information obtained and imparted by means unquestionably super-human. ALT
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 17

Today’s text is the short story “The Invisible Girl” (1833) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Read it here. Quote: “What beacon is it that helps us at our need?” asked Vernon, as the men, now able to manage their oars with greater ease, found breath to answer his question. “A fairy one, I believe,” replied the elder sailor, “yet no less a true: it burns in an old tumble-down tower, built on the top of a rock which looks over the sea. We never saw it before this summer; and now each night it is to be seen,—at least when it is looked for, for we cannot see it from our village;—and it is such an out-of-the-way place that no one has need to go near it, except through a chance like this. Some say it is burnt by witches, some say by smugglers; but this I know, two parties have been to search, and found nothing but the bare walls of the tower. All is deserted by day, and dark by night; for no light was to be seen while we were there, though it burned sprightly enough when we were out at sea.” “I have heard say,” observed the younger sailor, “it is burnt by the ghost of a maiden who lost her sweetheart in these parts; he being wrecked, and his body found at the foot of the tower: she goes by the name among us of the ‘Invisible Girl.’” ALT
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 10

We’ve reached the last post in the portion of this countdown devoted to the creepy Gothic books beloved by the women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. Today’s entry is the controversial autobiography of Maria Monk (1836). Read it here. Quote: We all believed in ghosts. ALT
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 7

Another Gothic title very popular with women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Children of the Abbey (1796) by Regina Maria Roche. Read it here. Quote: The horrors of my mind I cannot describe; I seemed to stand alone in the world, without one friendly hand to prevent my sinking into the grave, which contained the dearest objects of my love. ALT
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 14

Before we leave the subject of Northanger Abbey completely, let’s include one more work that inspired the novel (and left a lasting mark on the Gothic tradition), The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis. Read it here. Quote: “Be cautious not to utter a syllable!” whispered the Stranger; “Step not out of the circle, and as you love yourself, dare not to look upon my face!” ALT
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Revisiting Frankenstein

I’ve been on a Mary Shelley roll lately! On my latest “Looking Back at Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 747), I revisit the brilliant Frankenstein. Here is the episode. ALT ALT
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Halloween Countdown 2024, Day 11

Some of the Gothic works deemed “horrid” by Jane Austen in 1818’s Northanger Abbey (“are you sure they are all horrid?”) are available online, so let’s shift this countdown to those dark and delicious novels. (One is The Children of the Abbey, already covered on Day 7.) Today’s title is The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons.  Read it here. Quote: “My Lord came here once or twice, but the ghosts made such a noise he could not stay. Several gentry have slept here at times, but no body would stay a second night, and so we have all to ourselves by day, and the ghosts, or what they be, have got all the rooms by night and then they be quiet enough.”
ALT
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