Clik here to view.
Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of the Classic...
Many of Poe’s tales can be seen as re-workings of previous works: “MS.” becomes “Maelström,” “Metzengerstein” becomes “Hop-Frog,” “Shadow” becomes “Masque,” “Tell-Tale Heart” becomes “Imp of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher: A Two-Minute Summary and...
Magnum opus to Poe’s canon, “The Fall of the House of Usher” single-handedly could have ensured his reputation. While others may contend for the title of “Greatest” in the catalogue, the influence of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of...
Arguably the most famous of Poe’s murder tales (and comfortably short for casual readers of literary fiction) “The Tell-Tale Heart” has become a cultural metaphor for the exposure of evil deeds. And...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis...
Unlike “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Imp of the Perverse,” and “The Black Cat,” Poe’s final two murder tales – “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Hop-Frog” – were revenge fantasies. The previous three murder...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Critical Interpretations, a Literary Analysis, and...
I was six years old when I walked into a bookstore in Holland, Michigan with my family and met Dr. Jekyll for the first time. We had recently watched The Great Mouse Detective and I saw the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bram Stoker's The Burial of the Rats: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of...
Part “Three Skeleton Key,” part “The Most Dangerous Game,” “The Burial of the Rats” has the distinctive flavor of an Edwardian gentleman’s magazine thriller, and it features all the necessary tropes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The White-Knuckle Thrillers and Darwinian Horror Stories of H. G. Wells (An...
The canon of science fiction follows a very direct descent. From Thomas More to Johannes Kepler, Francis Godwin, and Cyrano de Bergerac, thence to Swift, off to Mary Shelley, handed to Hoffmann, then...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Analysis, Interpretations, and Inspirations of H. G. Wells' The Invisible...
When H. G. Wells first published “The Invisible Man” in 1897, the title alone ensured its success. Invisibility fascinates, attracts, and terrifies. It’s allure rests in the ability to escape notice...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Savagely Brutal, Bitterly Mournful Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce...
“GHOST, n. The outward sign of an inward fear” — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s DictionaryHe was the successor of Edgar Allan Poe and a harbinger of H. P. Lovecraft, penning some of the most shocking,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ambrose Bierce's The Boarded Window: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of the...
Perhaps Bierce’s most anthologized horror story, “The Boarded Window” has remained a staple of American Gothicism since its publication, though with little commentary. As with so many of his stories,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Of Dreams that Wave Before the Half-Shut Eye: A Sleepy Hollow Ghost Story for...
Raw from her parents’ recent deaths and a crushing divorce, an anthropology professor is now faced with losing her chance at tenure and decides to spend her fall break in Sleepy Hollow, New York in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Hound of the Baskervilles: Analyses, Interpretations, and Inspirations --...
As we all know, Arthur Conan Doyle was the most significant contributor to the detective story genre – what Verne and Wells were to science fiction, or what Tolkein and Lewis were to fantasy. And yet –...
View ArticleClik here to view.
E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Stranger Child: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of...
One of Hoffmann’s most common motifs – the hallmark of his fiction – is the theme of parallelism. His fantasies are unlike typical fairy tales in that they don’t depict wondrous things happening in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Christmas Carol: Inspirations, Interpretations, and a Deep Analysis -- A...
Arguably Dickens’ most famous work, there is something inescapably archetypal about “A Christmas Carol.” Its heavyweight power to charm, chill, and awe has made it one of the most adapted pieces of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Lost Reflection: A New Year's Eve Adventure -- A...
In 1810 Hoffmann began teaching music to Julia Mark, the teenaged cousin of one of his close friends. Hoffmann met her when she was twelve – about a year after the death of his infant daughter, and not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Edgar Allan Poe's Hop-Frog: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of the Classic...
Poe’s final tale of horror was inspired by two actual events: the first was the social scandal aroused by a spurned woman, and the other was a ghastly event of Medieval French history called the Ball...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rhoda Broughton's Nothing But the Truth: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of...
In the cold February of 1868, Sheridan Le Fanu's Welsh niece, Rhoda Broughton, published her first ghost story: "The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth" -- a chilling episode based on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rhoda Broughton's Behold, It Was a Dream: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis...
Like her first ghost story, “Nothing But the Truth,” the following tale is an example of Rhoda Broughton’s brilliant ability to infuse the dreadful into the domestic. Another story built on a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Elizabeth Gaskell's The Old Nurse's Story: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis...
Elizabeth Gaskell – like Broughton and Oliphant – wrote ghost stories with a critical (and notably feminist) perspective of British society. Her fiction explored the unstable nature (and looming doom)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Green Tea: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of the...
With the sole exception of “Carmilla,” “Green Tea” reigns as J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s most widely celebrated and well-known supernatural tale. I know of many people who, when asked if they know anything...
View Article