Description:
Like a number of other writers, Tony Magistrale and Michael A. Morrison are inclined to use the word gothic more or less interchangeably with horror. In their well-written introduction to this anthology of critical essays they point out differences between the gothic works of the period they're covering (1970 to about 1995) and the 18th-century gothics: the physical trappings of tunnels, staircases, enclosed spaces, if present at all, are only symbols for the psychological environment of people who fear social and/or personal disintegration; the female victim is now often the hero as well, and calls on her own resources to vanquish the monster; and the image of the monster is more human than it used to be, more of a dark reflection of ourselves. A Dark Night's Dreaming collects eight essays by well-known horror critics such as Douglas E. Winter (author of Stephen King: The Art of Darkness). The first essay is on the nature and archetypes of "horror at the end of the century" (picking up in 1980, where Stephen King's Danse Macabre leaves off). One essay each is devoted to the authors Thomas Harris, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, William Peter Blatty, and Whitley Strieber. The last essay is on the interplay between horror fiction and film. Included is an excellent 13-page bibliography of primary (emphasizing fiction in the years 1988-94) and secondary sources. Note: the dust jacket features a good color reproduction of William Blake's The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, known to readers of Thomas Harris's Red Dragon as the painting that serial killer Francis Dolarhyde is obsessed with--and which also gives the novel its title. --Fiona Webster
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