The Gothic Quest - A History of the Gothic Novel

Montague Summers

Description

“The Gothic Quest - A History of the Gothic Novel” is a 1938 treatise by Montague Summers on the subject of the Gothic novel, looking at its origins, evolution, and role in contemporary literature. Augustus Montague Summers (1880 – 1948) was an English clergyman and author most famous for his studies on vampires, witches and werewolves—all of which he believed to be very much real. He also wrote the first English translation of the infamous 15th-century witch hunter's manual, the “Malleus Maleficarum”, in 1928. Contents include: “The Romantic Feeling”, “Notes to Chapter I”, “The Publishers and the Circulating Libraries”, “Notes to Chapter II”, “Influences from Abroad”, “Notes to Chapter III”, “Historical Gothic”, “Notes to Chapters IV”, “Matthew Gregory Lewis”, etc. Other notable works by this author include: “A Popular History of Witchcraft” (1937), “Witchcraft and Black Magic” (1946), and “The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism” (1947). Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 22 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781447499084
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE GOTHIC QUEST
A HISTORY OF THE GOTHIC NOVEL
By
MONTAGUE SUMMERS

First published in 1938


This edition published by Read Books Ltd. Copyright © 2019 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library


Contents
Mont ague Summers
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I THE ROMAN TIC FEELING.
NOTES TO CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II THE PUBLISHERS ANDTHE CIRCULATI NG LIBRARIES
NOTES T O CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III INFLUENCES FROM ABROAD
NOTES TO CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV HISTO RICAL GOTHIC
NOTES T O CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V MATTHEW G REGORY LEWIS
NOTES TO CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI FRANCIS LATHOM;T. J. HORSLEY CURTIES;WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND ; AND OTHERS
NOTES T O CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII SURREALISM AND THE GOTHIC NOVEL



Illustrations
The Gothic ShrineGreen’s “Prophecy of Dunc annon,” 1824
The Spectre 1789
The ItalianContemporary water-co lour drawing
Ancient Records 1801
Le Panach e Rouge 1824
The Castle Of Saint Donats 1798
Longsword Earl Of Salisbury Vol. I, 1762
Sophia L ee Aetat. 47
Margiana; Or, Widdringto n Tower 1808
The Myster ious Warning
The Recess
The Bleeding Nu n - The Monk
The Fate Of Ambrosi o - The Monk
The Midnight BellVol. I, French e dition, 1799
William Henry Irela nd Aetat. 25
William Child Green
The Gothic Ruin - Ma nfredi, 1796



Montague Summers
Augustus Montague Summers was born in Bristol, England in 1880. He was raised as an evangelical Anglican in a wealthy family, and studied at Clifton College before reading theology at Trinity College, Oxford with the intention of becoming a Church of England priest. In 1905, he graduated with fourth-class honours, and went on to continue his religious training at the Lichfield Theological College. Summers entered his apprenticeship as a curate in the diocese of Bitton near Bristol, but rumours of an interest in Satanism and accusations of sexual misconduct with young boys led to him being cut off; a scandal which dogged him his whole life. Summers joined the growing ranks of English men of letters interested in medievalism and the occult. In 1909, he converted to Catholicism and shortly thereafter he began passing himself off as a Catholic priest, the legitimacy of which was disputed. Around this time, Summers adopted a curious attire which included a sweeping black cape and a silver- topped cane.
Summers eventually managed to make a living as a full-time writer. He was interested in the theatre of the seventeenth century, particularly that of the English Restoration, and was one of the founder members of The Phoenix, a society that performed neglected works of that era. In 1916, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Summers also produced some important studies of Gothic fiction. However, his interest in the occult never waned, and in 1928, around the time he was acquainted with Aleister Crowley, he published the first English translation of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger's Malleus Maleficarum (' The Hammer of Witches' ), a 15th century Latin text on the hunting of witches. Summers then turned to vampires, producing The Vampire: His Kith and Kin (1928) and The Vampire in Europe (1929), and then to werewolves with The Werewolf (1933). Summers' work on the occult is known for his unusual, archaic writing style, his intimate style of narration, and his purported belief in the reality of the subject s he treats.
In his day, Summers was a renowned eccentric; The Times called him “ in every way a 'character'” and “a throwback to the Middle Ages .” He died at his home in Richm ond, Surrey.




INTRODUCTION
MY love for the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe dates from my very first years. Among my earliest recollections is an edition of her Works in one rather formidable fat volume, double-columned—which offered no difficulties then—and embellished with woodcuts that were a perpetual delight, not least because of their close affinity to the plays of Webb and Pollock of which one was giving nightly performances. Bound in dull black morocco, gilt-tooled, Mrs. Radcliffe lived on the summit of the highest shelves in a sombre and shadowy but by no means large old library, where the books stood ranged in very neat rows in tall mahogany cases behind heavy glass doors. Most sections were locked and keyless, but the particular bookcase whence Mrs. Radcliffe could be reached by mounting upon a chair and stretching rather far was always left unfastened, as I suppose containing standard literature and works approved for general and uncensored perusal, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Marryat, Fenimore Cooper, Lingard, Miss Strickland, Prescott, and the more sober historians. Tom Jones , I remember, was banished to the remotest altitudes, and jailed beyond all hope of release. What a day it was—diem numera meliore lapillo, as old Persius bids—that day when I discovered how an alien key would fit the boo kcase locks!
I now recognize that I began my acquaintance with Mrs. Radcliffe—an acquaintance that was soon to warm into affection and then to love—from Limbird’s edition of 1824. A schoolboy friend—we were not in our ’teens—lent me a copy of The Bravo of Venice he had picked up on some twopenny stall. The Monk was not to follow until some years later. Next I was attracted by a title, Manfroné ; or, The One-Handed Monk , the four volumes of which I espied in a dingy little shop, and soon proudly possessed for one shilling. Thus I may be said to have been fairly started on my Gothic career. Very early too do I remember Horrid Mysteries , to which I did not make my way viâ Jane Austen, for when I came to read Northanger Abbey , how delighted I was to find the recommendation of sweet M iss Andrews.
In the mid-nineties there lived not far from my home an ancient lady,—she must then have been nearer her eightieth than her seventieth year—who yet retained all her faculties in a most surprising manner. Her house, small and thoroughly old-fashioned, and exceedingly comfortable, contained a numerous collection of books, and the bulk of these consisted of long-forgotten romances with which she was most intimately familiar, which she read occasionally even then, of which she was always ready to talk, and which she was ever willing—kind soul!—to lend. When quite young, hardly more than twenty years old, I suppose, she had been married to a gentleman very greatly her senior. As a youth he lived in London, he had written some verse, a closet drama or two (printed but never acted), and at least one fiction which appeared anonymously from the house of Newman. He had mixed in literary circles and personally known not a few of the writers whose duodecimos crowded those tight-packed shelves. His widow, whose memory remained excellent and clear, often spoke of Harriet Lee, Jane Porter, Charles Lucas, William Child Green, Robert Huish, Hannah Jones, Eleanor Sleath, some of whom she had herself met, some of whom she knew from her husband’s anecdotes and reminiscences. How often have I since wished that I had taken notes of her tea-table talk, or that her husband’s diaries and papers had bee n preserved.
I may add that she died rather suddenly, and being myself in Italy at the time, I only heard of her decease through correspondence. The estate went to distant relatives, who had little or no interest in her branch of the family. The books, accounted mere lumber, were dispersed; the letters and personal papers were al l destroyed.
Thirty-five years ago, indeed, the fiction of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was with few exceptions regarded as the veriest draff of the shelves, universally and most deservedly and for ever forgotten. It is true that W. Nicholson & Sons of Wakefield (late of Halifax) reprinted in their “Cottager’s Library” at one shilling a volume The Children of the Abbey , Mrs. Helme’s The Farmer of Inglewood Forest and St. Clair of the Isles , Charlotte Smith’s Ethelinde, or, The Recluse of the Lake , and even Fatherless Fanny , and Mrs. Ward’s The Cottage on the Cliff with its sequel The Fisher’s Daughter . But such books were literally for the peasant and the poor. Milner reprinted Manfroné , of which romance (perhaps because of the fudge attribution to Mrs. Radcliffe) there was an edition at least as late as 1870. The Children of the Abbey and The Farmer of Inglewood Forest were included by Milner both in his “Two Shilling Red Library” and “One Shilling Red and Blue Library.” St. Clair of the Isles was in the “One Shilling Red and Blue Library.” Other Gothic flotsam might be traced. I can call to mind a sixpenny edition of The Children of the Abbey in 1890. Mrs. Roche’s novel, indeed, was immensely popular, and had been issued time after time. Mrs. Helme’s two favourite romances, also, maintained their place in a sixpenny series. Now and again, moreover, there had been published a poor edition of some novel by Mrs. Radcliffe. The Monk , generally under the title Rosario , and more fully Rosario, or, The Female Monk , was circulated as a work of semipornography in surreptitious sniggering fashion, and presented on vile paper with execrable type in the cheapest flimsie st wrappers.
It may be that I shall be reminded how in 1891 was issued (Percival & Co.) “The Pocket Library of English Literature,” a collection, in separate 16mo volumes, of extracts and short pieces. Volume I, bearing the title “Tales of Mystery,” consisted of fragments from Mrs. Radcliffe, Lewis and Maturin. The experiment was not well conceived, and but poorly executed. Mrs. Radcliffe, Lewis and