"Satisfy your craving for extraordinary authors and exceptional fiction- Meet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature's strangest tales, from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond.
Meet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature's strangest tales,from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond.
Frankenstein was just the beginning- horror stories and other weird fiction wouldn't exist without the women who created it. From Gothic ghost stories to psychological horror to science fiction, women have been primary architects of speculative literature of all sorts. And their own life stories are as intriguing as their fiction.
Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, who was rumored to keep her late husband's heart in her desk drawer. But have you heard of Margaret ""Mad Madge"" Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier (and liked to wear topless gowns to the theater)? If you know the astounding work of Shirley Jackson, whose novel The Haunting of Hill House was reinvented as a Netflix series, then try the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget, who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era. You'll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V. C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Colter, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today's vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). Curated reading lists point you to their most spine-chilling tales.
Part biography, part reader's guide, the engaging write-ups and detailed reading lists will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spooky novels, novellas, and stories."
By:
Lisa Kröger,
Melanie Anderson
Imprint: QUIRK BOOKS
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 133mm,
Weight: 368g
ISBN: 9781683691389
ISBN 10: 1683691385
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 17 September 2019
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction PART ONE: THE FOUNDING MOTHERS Margaret Cavendish: Mad Madge Ann Radcliffe: Terror over Horror Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: The Original Goth Girl Regina Maria Roche: Scandalizing Jane Austen Mary Anne Radcliffe: Purveyor of Guts and Gore Charlotte Dacre: Exhibitor of Murder and Harlotry PART TWO: HAUNTING TALES Elizabeth Gaskell: Ghosts Are Real Charlotte Riddell: Born Storyteller Amelia Edwards: The Most Learned Woman Paula E. Hopkins: The Most Productive Writer Vernon Lee: Ghostwriter à la Garçonne Margaret Oliphant: Voice for the Dead Edith Wharton: The Spine-Tingler PART THREE: CULT OF THE OCCULT Marjorie Bowen: Scribe of the Supernatural L. T. Meade: Maker of Female Masterminds Alice Askew: Casualty of War Margery Lawrence: Speaker to the Spirits Dion Fortune: Britian’s Psychic Defender PART FOUR: THE WOMEN WHO WROTE THE PULPS Margaret St. Clair: Exploring Our Depths Catherine Lucille Moore: Space Vamp Queen Mary Elizabeth Counselman: Deep South Storyteller Gertrude Barrows Bennett: Seer of the Unseen Everil Worrell: Night Writer Eli Colter: Keeping the Wild West Weird PART FIVE: HAUNTING THE HOME Dorothy Macardle: Chronicler of Pain and Loss Shirley Jackson: The Queen of Horror Daphne du Maurier: The Dame of Dread Toni Morrison: Haunted by History Elizabeth Engstrom: Monstrosity in the Mundane PART SIX: PAPERBACK HORROR Joanne Fischmann: Recipes for Fear Ruby Jean Jensen: Where Evil Meets Innocence V. C. Andrews: Nightmares in the Attic Kathe Koja: Kafka of the Weird Lisa Tuttle: Adversary for the Devil Tanith Lee: Rewriting Snow White PART SEVEN: THE NEW GOTHS Anne Rice: Queen of the Damned Helen Oyeyemi: Teller of Feminist Fairy Tales Susan Hill: Modern Gothic Ghost Maker Sarah Waters: Welcome to the Dark SОance Angela Carter: Teller of Bloody Fables Jewelle Gomez: Afrofuturist Horrorist PART EIGHT: THE FUTURE OF HORROR AND SPECULATIVE FICTION The New Weird: Lovecraft Revisited and Revised The New Vampire: Polishing the Fangs The New Haunted House: Home, Deadly Home The New Apocalypse: This Is the End (Again) The New Serial Killer: Sharper Weapons, Sharper Victims Glossary Notes Suggested Reading Index Acknowledgments
Lisa Kr gerholds a PhD in English. Her short fiction has appeared inCemetery Dancemagazine andLost Highways- Dark Fictions from the Road(Crystal Lake Publishing, 2018). She's an adjunct instructor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast. She co-hosts the Know Fear Podcast (knowfearcast.com). Melanie R. Andersonis an assistant professor of English at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. Her bookSpectrality in the Novels of Toni Morrison(Tennessee Press, 2013) was a winner of the 2014 South Central MLA Book Prize. She co-hosts the Know Fear Podcast (knowfearcast.com).
Reviews for Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction
Inspired not only in the way it explores what the off-kilter, the monstrous and the half-known has meant to women for centuries but also in how it illuminates the often unusual lives of the women who crafted these dark worlds. --BookPage Your necronomicon for all women writing horror. --Book Riot The curatorial quality of a literary anthology, the historical rigor of an academic text, and the pleasure of a picture book. --Tor.com A great gift for anyone fascinated with genre writing. --SFX Magazine Straddling the divide between highly useful reference and compulsively readable stories about the writing lives of the women of horror, this book will keep you up all night (one way or another). --Booklist, starred review It's like if you've ever spent a night hopping from Wikipedia entry to Wikipedia entry...because you're just devouring entry after entry...It's so entertaining. --BookRiot Presented in a breezy, conversational style that makes it easy to gobble up whole sections at a time...Anyone from casual fans to horror historians will benefit from reading this important book. --Cemetery Dance This biographical index will reawaken readers' admiration for established virtuosos of literary terror and inspire curiosity in lesser-known specialists in fictitious fear. --Publishers Weekly An engrossing, eye-opening encyclopedia on the pioneering women who went against convention and broke down barriers to mold the horror fiction genre, thereby inspiring generations of writers and even filmmakers with their works. --Geeks of Doom A fantastic dive into the literary world's spookiest stories and gives an impressive insight into the women behind such ghastly tales, all while laying out the history of horror. --But Why Tho?, 5 star review Unique, fascinating, informative...an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university library. --Midwest Book Review
