![]() The second half of "The Purloined Letter" consists of Dupin's explanation, to his chronicler, of how he obtained the letter. Dupin invites him to write the check when this is done, Dupin hands the Prefect the letter without any further comment. This time, he says that he will pay fifty thousand francs to anyone who can obtain the letter for him. A month later, Monsieur G - returns, having found nothing. Dupin's advice is that they thoroughly re-search the house. The Prefect has searched Minister D - 's home thoroughly, even taking the furniture apart he and his men have found nothing. The problem is to retrieve the letter, since the writer and the victim, as well as Minister D -, have important posts in the government the demands he is making are becoming dangerous politically. The thief is known (Minister D - ) and the method is known (substitution viewed by the victim, who dared not protest). In the first part, Monsieur G -, Prefect of Police in Paris, visits Dupin with a problem: A letter has been stolen and is being used to blackmail the person from whom it was stolen. "The Purloined Letter" emphasizes several devices from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and adds several others. Finally, more than with most of his stories, this one is told with utmost economy. This is partially due to the fact that there are no gothic elements, such as the gruesome descriptions of dead bodies, as there was in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." But more important, this is the story that employs most effectively the principle of ratiocination this story brilliantly illustrates the concept of the intuitive intellect at work as it solves a problem logically. Shelley, Bram Stoker, the Sublime, the Uncanny, Vampires, Werewolves, Oscar Wilde, and Zerrissenheit.Of all of Poe's stories of ratiocination (or detective stories), "The Purloined Letter" is considered his finest. Lovecraft, Madness, Herman Melville, Monstrosity, Occultism, Orientalism, Post-Colonial Gothic, Anne Radcliffe, Anne Rice, Romanticism, Sado-Masochism, Mary and P. Among the many topics and literary figures discussed are: American Gothic, Ambrose Bierce, the Bronte Sisters, Angela Carter, the Demonic, Female Gothic, the Frenetique School, Ghost Stories, Gothic Film, the Graveyard School, Horror, Imagination, Washington Irving, Henry James, H.P. From the Demonic to the Uncanny, the Bronte sisters to Melville, this volume plots the characteristics of Gothic's vastly different schools and manifestations, offering a comprehensive guide of Gothic writing and culture. But what exactly does "Gothic" mean? How does it differ from "terror" or "horror," and where do its parameters lie? Through a wide and eclectic range of brief essays written by leading scholars, The Handbook to Gothic Literature provides a virtual encyclopedia of things Gothic. The book ends with a conclusion outlining possible future developments within scholarship on the Gothic.Key Features* Provides a single, comprehensive and accessible introduction to Gothic literature* Offers a coherent account of the historical development of the Gothic in arange of literary and national contexts* Introduces the ways in which critical theories of class, gender, race andnational identity have been applied to Gothic texts*Includes an outline of essential resources and a guide to further readingįrom Anne Rice's best-selling novels to our recurrent interest in vampires and the occult, the Gothic has an unyielding hold on our imagination. Each chapter concludes with a close reading of a specific text - Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Draculaand The Silence of the Lambs- to illustrate the ways in which contextual discussion informs critical analysis. The discussion examines how the Gothic has developed in different national contexts and in different forms, including novels, novellas, poems, and films. ![]() This introductory study provides a thorough grounding in both the history of Gothic literature and the way in which Gothic texts have been (and can be) critically read.The book opens with a chronology and an introduction to the principaltexts and key critical terms, followed by four chapters: The GothicHeyday 1760-1820 Gothic 1820-1865 Gothic Proximities 1865-1900 and theTwentieth Century. ![]()
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