Edith Birkhead (1889–1951)
Author of The Tale of Terror: A Study of the Gothic Romance
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Alice's bio was moved to her entry.
Works by Edith Birkhead
Associated Works
The Midnight Inkwell: Sinister Short Stories by Classic Women Writers (2023) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1889-11-28
- Date of death
- 1951-06-14
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- Lecturer in English Literature
literary critic
Noble Fellow, University of Liverpool
essayist
biographer - Organizations
- University of Bristol
University of Liverpool - Relationships
- Birkhead, Alice (sister)
- Short biography
- Edith Birkhead was a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol and a Noble Fellow at the University of Liverpool. She wrote a pioneering work on Gothic literature, The Tale of Terror: A Study of the Gothic Romance, published in 1921. This work described the public's fascination with supernatural fiction in English literature from Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764, to Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer in 1820, to modern times. She included authors from Europe as well as the USA, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
Her other published works included the chapter Sentiment and Sensibility in the Eighteenth Century Novel, included in the volume Essays and Studies of the English Association (1925), and Christina Rossetti and Her Poetry (1930). - Nationality
- UK
- Disambiguation notice
- Alice's bio was moved to her entry.
- Associated Place (for map)
- UK
Members
Reviews
The Tale of Terror: A Study of the Gothic Romance by Edith Birkhead is considered to be an important work on Gothic literature. Edith Birkhead was a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol and a Noble Fellow at the University of Liverpool.
This book, published in 1921, follows the development of the trend of writing Gothic stories, books of “horrid tales” or “tales of terror”. The book starts with Walpole's The Castle of Otronto (1764) and ends with a discussion on show more the Tales of Terror by American authors.
The book is divided in to twelve different chapters. I found the following discussions interesting, The Beginnings of Gothic Romance (Chapter 2 ), The Novel of Suspense: Mrs. Radcliffe (Chapter 3 ), The Oriental Tale of Terror: Beckford (Chapter 5 ), Satires on the Novel of Terror (Chapter 7 ) and American Tales of Terror (Chapter 11 ).
Birkhead obviously loved Gothic fiction. I presume she had read almost all of the books she speaks of in here. It seems as if she tried to cram in the summary and criticism of all of the books she had read in to this one book. The work is a bit too extensive. Each and every passage of each and every chapter is filled with so many references that I had a very hard time keeping up with it all.
Having said all that the book is rather informative. Although at times I felt overwhelmed by the barrage of information, it did help add quite a few new books to my TBR pile.
In all, this is a pretty comprehensive study on the beginning and progress of the Gothic Romance and also on the growth of supernatural fiction in English literature. I think, the lovers of classic books especially the admirers of the Gothic genre will quite enjoy reading it. show less
This book, published in 1921, follows the development of the trend of writing Gothic stories, books of “horrid tales” or “tales of terror”. The book starts with Walpole's The Castle of Otronto (1764) and ends with a discussion on show more the Tales of Terror by American authors.
The book is divided in to twelve different chapters. I found the following discussions interesting, The Beginnings of Gothic Romance (Chapter 2 ), The Novel of Suspense: Mrs. Radcliffe (Chapter 3 ), The Oriental Tale of Terror: Beckford (Chapter 5 ), Satires on the Novel of Terror (Chapter 7 ) and American Tales of Terror (Chapter 11 ).
Birkhead obviously loved Gothic fiction. I presume she had read almost all of the books she speaks of in here. It seems as if she tried to cram in the summary and criticism of all of the books she had read in to this one book. The work is a bit too extensive. Each and every passage of each and every chapter is filled with so many references that I had a very hard time keeping up with it all.
Having said all that the book is rather informative. Although at times I felt overwhelmed by the barrage of information, it did help add quite a few new books to my TBR pile.
In all, this is a pretty comprehensive study on the beginning and progress of the Gothic Romance and also on the growth of supernatural fiction in English literature. I think, the lovers of classic books especially the admirers of the Gothic genre will quite enjoy reading it. show less
A good overview of Gothic fiction, if a little long in places.
Lists
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 4
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 42
- Popularity
- #357,756
- Rating
- 3.1
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 16