The first time I had a sense of what a 19th-century phantasmagoria would really have been like was the Gothic Nightmares show at Tate Britain in 2006, which included not only Fuseli’s iconic Nightmare, but a special darkened room with a slide show projected on the walls, and suitably ghastly sound effects. That experience stayed with me, and whenContinue reading “The Shock and Horror Picture Show: Étienne-Gaspard Robertson and the 19th-century phantasmagoria”
Tag Archives: Dracula
Waking the (un)dead: Myths, monsters, and remaking a classic text
When I published what was then called Murder at Mansfield Park in 2010 I did an interview about it on BBC radio, and I remember the almost breathless awe in the interviewer’s voice as she said, “This is your first novel, and you’re trying to write like Jane Austen?” Amazing though it may sound, that was theContinue reading “Waking the (un)dead: Myths, monsters, and remaking a classic text”
The Gothic novel, then and now
One thing you can say about Gothic –whether you’re a reader or a writer – it’s the gift that keeps on giving – from Hammer to The Hunger to the seemingly endless series Frankenstein remakes. And of course we have the vampire vibe that refuses to die – not just Twilight and True Blood, butContinue reading “The Gothic novel, then and now”
The Charles Maddox series 