PHANTASMAGORIA. The Weird Fiction, Poetry, and Criticism of Sir Walter Scott. Edited by S.T. Joshi
New York: Hippocampus Press, 2021. Octavo, original pictorial wrappers (trade paperback format). 274 pp. Issued as a volume in the publisher's "Classics of Gothic Horror" series. "First Edition" and correct number code on copyright page, but the "Lightning Source" colophon on the terminal leaf identifies this as a print-on-demand paperback. A fine copy. Item #314596
¶ This volume includes stories, poetry, and essays by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), the Scottish novelist who worked extensively in the Gothic vein. Aside from writing such celebrated stories as “The Tapestried Chamber” and “Wandering Willie’s Tale,” Scott translated spectral poems by Goethe (“The Erl-King”) and G. A. Bürger (“William and Helen,” “The Wild Huntsman”), as well as writing weird poems based on Scottish legendry.
Perhaps most significant of all, Scott emerged as one of the earliest and most penetrating critics of the Gothic movement. His reviews of Maturin’s Fatal Revenge and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are included here, as well as a long essay on the weird work of E. T. A. Hoffmann and several chapters on Gothic writers from his Lives of the Novelists (1825). Altogether, Scott’s prose and poetic work represents a landmark in the development of Gothic horror.
Table of Contents:
Introduction, by S. T. Joshi
Short Stories
Phantasmagoria
The Story of an Apparition
Wandering Willie’s Tale
The Tapestried Chamber or The Lady in the Sacque
My Aunt Margaret’s Mirror
Poems
William and Helen
The Wild Huntsman
The Fire-King
The Erl-King
The Eve of St. John
Glenfinlas; or, Lord Ronald’s Coronach
Essays and Reviews
[Review of Maturin’s Fatal Revenge]
Remarks on Frankenstein
Horace Walpole
Clara Reeve
Ann Radcliffe
On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition
Appendix: Narrative of a Fatal Event
Bibliography.
Price (CAD): $30.00