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This examination of 32 ghost stories by 21 Victorian women writers defines a new genre, Feminist Gothic, that utilizes the Gothic structure and its uncanny atmosphere of ambiguity to deploy competing narratives that seek to undermine patriarchy by simultaneously upholding and subverting its dominant myths. While a surface reading of these tales often interprets the outer, public, overt voice as one of patriarchal appeasement, a second reading uncovers an inner, private, covert voice that undermines the first. By focusing exclusively on women's stories and examining Victorian ghost stories by lesser-known women writers alongside those more widely disseminated and discussed, this study aims to establish a definition of Feminist Gothic that transcends the binaries of horror/terror, physical/psychological, and intrusive/liminal. It also explores the issues that haunt the Victorian female literary imagination and techniques women writers employ to incarnate and exorcise those revenants. Aimed at scholars of feminist literary criticism, Victorian literature, and the Gothic genre, this study combines close readings of primary sources with current scholarship, arranged thematically in chapters that examine women's issues, including marriage, children, and property ownership.
Contents
Introduction: Haunted Narratives: Liminality, Narrative Reliability, and Resolution
1 Haunted Love: Drowned Women and Revenge Fantasies
"The Cold Embrace" (1860) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
"A Terrible Vengeance" (1889) by Charlotte Riddell
Weeping Ferry (1898) by Margaret L. Woods
2 Haunted Memories: Pretty Boys and the Ones That Got Away
"The Last House in C— Street" (1856) by Dinah Maria Mulock
"Poor Pretty Bobby" (1873) by Rhoda Broughton
"Thorleigh Moat: A Grandmother's Tale" (1876) by A. E. Barker
"The Story of the Rippling Train" (1888) by Mary Louisa Molesworth
"Uncle Abraham's Romance" (1893) by Edith Nesbit
3 Haunted Marriage: Mesmerism, Deception, and the Runaway Wife
"The Man with the Nose" (1873) by Rhoda Broughton
"In the Séance Room" (1893) by Lettice Galbraith
"From the Dead" (1893) by Edith Nesbit
4 Haunted Children: Legitimacy, Inheritance, and the Sins of the Fathers
"The Old Nurse's Story" (1852) by Elizabeth Gaskell
"Walnut Tree-House" (1882) by Charlotte Riddell
"The Open Door" (1882) by Margaret Oliphant
5 Haunted Families: Legacy and the Baggage of the Past
"The Secret Chamber" (1876) by Margaret Oliphant
"The Weird of the Walfords" (1895) by Louisa Baldwin
"The Undying Fire" (1895) by Mrs. St. Loe Strachey (Amy Strachey)
"The Ghost of the Sedan-Chair" (1896) by Marie Corelli
6 Haunted Rentals: Uncanny Familial Spaces
"The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth" (1868) by Rhoda Broughton
"Chantry Manor House: A Ghost Story" (1876) by Mrs. Hartley
"To Let" (1893) by B. M. Croker
7 Haunted Travel: Terror on the Road
"The Phantom Coach" (1864) by Amelia B. Edwards
"Under the Cloak" (1873) by Rhoda Broughton
"At the Dip of the Road" (1896) by Mary Louisa Molesworth
8 Haunted Others: The Racialized Ghost
Monsieur Maurice (1873) by Amelia B. Edwards
"The Story of Salome" (1873) by Amelia B. Edwards
"Old Mrs. Jones" (1882) by Charlotte Riddell
9 Haunted Bodies: Spirit Possession and Class Mobility
The Strange Transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs (1896) by Florence Marryat
"The Legend of Madame Krasinska" (1915) by Vernon Lee
10 Haunted Music: Ghostly Echoes and Hommes Fatales
"The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly" (1886) by Rosa Mulholland
"A Wicked Voice" (1890) by Vernon Lee
"The Ensouled Violin" (1892) by Helena Blavatsky
