Description

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The Gothic drama came at a critical moment in the history of the theater, of British culture, and of European politics in the shadow of France’s revolution and the fall of Napoleon. It offered playwrights a medium to express the prevailing ideological tensions of romanticism and revolution, and also responded to a growing and changing theater audience.

In a wide-ranging introduction, Cox explores Gothic drama’s links with romanticism and its relation to other social and ideological shifts of the day. The texts are presented so as to reflect the dual life of dramatic works—on the stage and on the page. The plays are annotated and accompanied by biographic and bibliographic sketches.

Includes The Kentish Barons, by Francis North; Julia of Louvain; or, Monkish Cruelty, by J.C. Cross; The Castle Spectre, by Matthew G. Lewis; The Captive, by Matthew G. Lewis; De Monfort, by Joanna Baillie; Bertram; or, The Castle of St. Aldobrand, by C.R. Maturin; and Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein, by R.B. Peake.

About the Author

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Jeffrey N. Cox is an associate professor of English at Texas A&M University, where he serves on the Steering Committee of the Interdisciplinary Group for Historical Literary Study. His work on the drama of the romantic period includes In the Shadows of Romance: Romantic Tragic Drama in Germany, England, and France; he is currently working on the literary circle around Hunt, Shelley, and Keats.

Praise For…

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“Good texts, notes, and a meaty introduction constitutes this ‘must-have’ item for students of British drama and literary gothicism, in whose development drama was important. Cox’s command of the bibliography relevant to his subject is impressive, and his book will stand as a milestone of content, good scholarship, and clear style.”—Choice

“Professor Cox explores the full spectrum of the Gothic drama of revolt—political, social, and metaphysical. This volume acquaints us with that world of grand and mysterious intrigue and unravels the tangled threads of accepted, conventional and dogmatic histories of the theater.”—The Byron Journal