The Literature
of Terror
A HIS' RY OF
GOTHIC FICTIONS
‘from 1765 to the present day
David Punter
VOLUME 1
THE GOTHIC TRADITIONCHAPTER 2
The origins of Gothic fiction
Sentimentalism, Graveyard Pat, The Sublime, Smollet, Horace
Walpole, Clava Reco, Sophia Lee
The eign of Gothic fon cannot be eparte from the on
ithe novel form tele Aswe ae all now well aware the eighteenth
seitSp ashe er the te athe noe There bah of come
Screams rary oe pr shen oy,
Some of then wel develope, pares he prone romance bit
the works of Richardson and Fielding in the 1740s nevertheless
acd an enero change in pre veing ~ special, the
{Sandon fe fn in the mn of fea epcton of
rcmporay Ie Ths satement wuld ect ch speation
er comemed hore win attempting to
Se gelieaion if we me :
nee ne. pons 8 ee De
find ibe ow ream wih eset in he wetingy of he mie
Eighteenth cena riom ofcourse ins wae pire By
Se SS tare of Defoe Where the romencewrtes
of the shen tnd seenienth centres a chonen ares
fiybic or finial seins, ces in lara eri (178) ad
Tm oe (1739) cca inte mid of contemporary ne,
ad were rete to he prcsin nation of connor
Sy marin, Te quesion ofthe atom ewe Cote ad the
{De othe noe in gener elated ost of ow nan pile
Te Phew teary fom o emerge nh way and what aceon
Suc msi cng he panorama of erry production.
The panspal pot here ihe egheendncctury change in
Engl oc reir and the sce development the feat
ing public Whar te wer the midasemeenh ent al
20
iii ”
The rigs of Gai ton
usually perforce produced within the system of patronage and fr
the benefit ofa elosed aristocratic cil, increasingly tke appear
ance of a wading middle claw and the growth of urban conten
fombined w produce other potential reader. Raymond Wilts
hotes the growth inthe number of printingthowses in London, Irom
slay atthe Restoration, to sesentyive in 1724, ad to beneen 150
and 200 by 1757: OF coure, the prininghouses were concerned
with all Kinds of eilferent work, but an Wat's tenet figures on
the appearance of works of fon show us that atleast or the
1740s on, tease inthis area would have been sgn factor
in the growth of the houses “the annual preacion af works of
Ficon’s he wits, “whieh hac averaged only about seven in the
years between 1700 and 1740, sae to an average of about twenty
Inthe thee decades fllening 174, and the output vas doubled ie
the peviod from 1770 t9 18" Wat emphasises that theneguser
re only approximate, Dut the growth i nonetheless olyiou and
‘he midle