#glimpsesofghosts

Born this day, 1717: Horace Walpole (d. 1797), the progenitor of the Gothic literary tradition. Walpole wrote in his letters that “a god, at least a ghost, was absolutely necessary to frighten us out of too much senses" (Vol. 3, 381). His ghost came to him in a dream - a giant armoured hand - and was the source of his work of fiction, the very first gothic novel, 'The Castle of Ortanto' (1764). The novel, which took just two months to write, was criticised for its flat characters and its return to barbaric (true, historical 'gothic') sensibilities. The reliance of the plot upon superstition contradicted the efforts of the Enlightenment - an intellectual movement which confined unfounded beliefs within contemporary religion. Walpole cared not for his critics; his public were captivated by his crazy tale, which influenced the direction of literature to follow. Writing from his homemade, pseudo-gothic castle, Strawberry Hill House (see stories), the tale looks back to medieval times and is set in the real, historical castle of Otranto (again, see stories). To this day, the absolute OG of the gothic canon is often overlooked. Why not celebrate his birthday by reading 'The Castle of Otranto (it's available to download free online)? If you do, let me know what you think! 📸: 1. Manfred's servants vs "the ghost's gigantic foot," Bertie Greathead. 2. The hand of the ghost, unknown. Anyone else getting major Monty Python vibes from these 2 illustrations?! . #generallygothic #gothic #glimpsesofghosts #ghost #haunting #haunted #spirits #thecastleofotranto #horacewalpole #gothicnovel #gothicfiction #progenitor #englishliterature #gothicliterature #literary #literarygenre #spookynerd #booknerd #academic #bornonthisday #bookish #bookstagram #illustration #religion #theenlightenment #giantghost #gothicghost #strawberryhillhouse #literaryhistory #politics https://www.instagram.com/p/B20Ock2A4mr/?igshid=1578apvubevio

"𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖔𝖕𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖘𝖊𝖊𝖐𝖘 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖋 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖌𝖆𝖗𝖉𝖊𝖓..." - Mary Wollestonecraft 🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯 "... but even there the same images [the fleeting shadow of the pensive wanderer] glide along the wide neglected walks - all is fearfully still." 🌳 Often appearing, in passing, during discussions of her famous daughter or her famous husband, Mary Wollestonecraft was herself a brilliant writer worthy of much adoratiSpace. Wollestonecraft lived through the Reign of Terror in C18th Paris during the French Revolution. As an English war correspondent, she captured history in print, retold here in Louisa Amelia Albani's illustrated 'Spectres of Space' - a surprise gift from the Wollestonecraft to my Shelley (née Wollestonecraft Godwin) 🖤. 🌳 As I contemplate the role of ghosts in the gothic this month, I am drawn to the idea of ghost as metaphorical representative of history. As I've claimed before, ghosts in the gothic are rarely ghosts, "real" and simple. Rather, they reflect or expose realities far scarier than any creature you could conjure, any monsters you might make believe. Inescapable history and heritage are two ways in which these ghostly horrors manifest - ancestral curses and patterns repeating down bloodlines. Just like in the ancient Greek tragedies I've recently been exploring, these are tales, and fears, as old as time [Kronos]. 🌳 With this in mind, I wonder how the words of Wollestonecraft echo through her daughter's creatures - through her 'Frankenstein' and fiction - if they can be heard at all. . #glimpsesofghosts #marywollestonecraft #maryshelley #generallygothic #gothic #bookstagram #literarytheory #darkacademia #frankenstein #gothicliterature #ghosts #frenchrevolution #reignofterror #pamphlet #feministhorror https://www.instagram.com/p/CTsi3mZgnEa/?utm_medium=tumblr

"[𝕷]𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖎𝖗 𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖊𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖌𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖌𝖔𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖆𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖋𝖎𝖊𝖑𝖉𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖆𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖇𝖗𝖔𝖔𝖐𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖆𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖇𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖌𝖊𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖆𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉..." - Washington Irving 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 September is, to me, an annually exciting month filled, as it is, with anticipation and imminent change. Leaves begin to twist and turn. Schools open their doors (and, this year, their windows too I hope!💨); education is in the air. Spookiness is set free. September is on the cusp of seasons; with a foot in summer, it faces autumn. It is a time when we seem to squirrel books away with greater urgency - gathering for the dark, long nights, or perhaps for learning. Even in adulthood, I am destined to honour the temporal construct of the academic year. This back-to-school energy has me thinking a little more acutely about why I began this project: to continue on my gothic journey & to promote equality - not elitism - in academic knowledge. To this end, I was thinking about curating a little list of ghost stories on the blog - an online library of texts available to all. 🤔: Would you be interested in a collection of classic ghost stories, all available to read online, or has it been done too often before? . #glimpsesofghosts #ghosts #gothic #generallygothic #bookish #bookstagram #darkacademia #academia #spookynerd #spooky #haunted #shortstories #ghoststories #spookyseason #spookytbr #bookblogger #bookrecommendation #horrorstory #victorianghosts #ghost #spirits #classicghoststories #history #victorianliterature #englishliterature #classicliterature #fallreads #spookyreads #classics2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/CFU7M7Pg9lZ/?igshid=1odlnernsps66

"𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖗𝖆 𝖓𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖘, 𝖔𝖋 𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊 - 𝖊𝖝𝖈𝖊𝖕𝖙 𝖜𝖍𝖊𝖓 𝖎𝖙 𝖉𝖔𝖊𝖘." - Ruth Robbins 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 As you read this, more likely than not on a device with a built-in camera that fits in your hand, it's hard to imagine a time before photography... but it existed. A time when artists were playing with light boxes and capturing shadows. A time when only the dead could afford to be photographed. A time when the living believed that their spirits returned. Early photography processes demanded the complete stillness of their subjects. The phenomenon that would come to be known as 'spirit photography' was thus discovered accidentally. It occured when the camera captured a moving person as an ethereal presence. Whilst it may seem obvious to us, photographers as we are, the ignorance of many in the Victorian era could be counted on. Opening their minds to anything, and their wallets too, the grieving became the target of charlatans. By my calculations, these tricksters make up a third of those interested in the ghostly - in Victoria's day, before her, and beyond. The remaining thirds, are those who truly believe and those who are having fun. 🤔: Which are you? Deceiever, believer, or in it for the lols? 🙃 📸: Ghost, c. 1935, in the Kodak Collection . #glimpsesofghosts #ghosts #victorianghosts #ghost #spirits #victorianengland #queenvictoria #victorianhistory #history #victorianera #englishliterature #gothic #generallygothic #bookish #bookstagram #darkacademia #academia #spookynerd #spooky #haunted #photography #historyofphotography #blackandwhitephotography #darkhistory #spiritphotography #kodak #oldphotograph https://www.instagram.com/p/CFS2sroAPtH/?igshid=16j7ef8kseiid

"𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝕳𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖓 𝖆𝖓𝖞 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖓𝖔𝖜!" - Ruth Robbins 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 Picking up where I left off last week with the haunted Prince of England, as promised, today I will explore why the Victorians were captivated by ghost stories. Professor Ruth Robbins provides one possible explanation in the rise of the periodical press. First developed in the C18th, the periodical press printed newspapers and journals, circulating both fact and fiction. Victorian periodicals were an immensely popular form of literature - they were widely available, affordable, and increasingly inclusive as literacy rates improved. As their name suggests, they were printed and distributed at regular intervals. Stories printed in this way needed to be short and punchy, or else long and filled with cliffhangers; many works of now classic Victorian fiction were first published in this way. Originating in the oral tradition, sharing ghost stories is part of our global history, and one that translates to periodical print particularly well. Ghost stories are adaptable, repetitive, replicable, cheap to create, and in no short supply. Their form was perfect for mass publication and their content for periodicals, with readers eagerly returning for the next scare! 🤔: Is sharing ghost stories a skill we still have? When was the last time you shared a tale? What was the best you've heard? . #glimpsesofghosts #ghosts #victorianghosts #ghost #victorianliterature #victorianengland #queenvictoria #victorianhistory #history #victorianera #englishliterature #gothic #generallygothic #bookish #bookstagram #darkacademia #academia #spookynerd #spooky #haunted #periodicalpress #publishing #shortstories #darkhistory #bookworm https://www.instagram.com/p/CFNNxasgo3Y/?igshid=1j5cdmmpubsud

"[𝕬] 𝖌𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖙 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞 𝖒𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖆 𝖌𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖙." - Susan Hill 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 [Continuing from above:] "That is, a human being who appears in recognisable form after death and is seen at certain particular times, in certain particular places, regularly or spasmodically or even only once, by anyone. And in many of the best ghost stories that 'anyone' is often a someone of the most unimaginative and straightforward kind, a plain man not easily frightened, who if you were to ask him, would say with a laugh that he most certainly did not believe in such things as ghosts. He - or of course she - would not see the ghost when under the influence of drugs, drink or illness, either. They must be of sound mind, in good health." So says Susan Hill, author of 'The Woman in Black' (1989). Wilkie Collins, author of 'The Woman in White' (1860) seems to agree. He argues that plot isn't always essential to effective novel-writing, but that the figures to which events (or indeed non-events) happen are paramount: "[I]t is not possible to tell a story successfully without presenting characters: their existence as recognisable realities being the sole condition on which the story can be effectively told." 🕷 For September's 👻Glimpses of Ghosts👻 I intend to complete this monochrome pair of women. 'The Woman in White' I started earlier this year but misplaced during my move. 'The Woman in Black' I have seen, but never read. I have it on good authority that both are fantastic (as are @devon_isadevon & @gothicbookworm 🖤 ). Inspired by both authors, I'll try to focus upon the characters, living or dead, rather than getting lost too entirely in events. 🤔: If you were on the receiving end of a haunting, what kind of character would you reveal yourself to be? . #glimpsesofghosts #ghoststories #gothicnovel #gothichorror #bookstagram #tbr #ghost #ghost👻 #thewomaninwhite #thewomaninblack #wilkiecollins #susanhill #bookphotography #gothic #spookynerd #autumnvibes🍁 #spookyseason #spookyreads #classicliterature #englishliterature #generallygothic #toberead #septemberreads https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7RzO2gyyi/?igshid=y0q29m1ztxqx

“𝕺𝖓𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 ‘𝖋𝖆𝖚𝖑𝖙𝖘’, 𝖜𝖍𝖎𝖈𝖍 𝕬𝖑𝖇𝖊𝖗𝖙 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖈𝖚𝖗𝖊 𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖔𝖋, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖋𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉, 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕼𝖚𝖊𝖊𝖓’𝖘 𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖇𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖙." - Sarah Ferguson 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 Under Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) the lingering image of the romanticised, quintessentially "British" was established. It was a time of great industrial, scientific, and cultural modernisation, expansion, and diversification. It was dark and grimey, and suffered from vast inequality, class distinction, poverty, wealth distribution... essentially, it suffered broadly across all human rights. With unprecedented advancement (often accompanied by economic success) on one hand, the devastating suffering on the other appears even the more archaic by contrast. This conflict of modernity and antiquity epitomises the Victorian era; it was a dichotomy in the battle for betterment. I suggest it is this very dichotomy that allowed for a resurgence in the popularity not only of the ghost story, but the ghost itself. I will cover the factors specifically contributing to the birth of the Victorian ghost story, as well as spirit photography and Spiritualism across upcoming posts, but whilst focusing on ghosts in the Victorian landscape, I thought it may help to better set the scene in historical context first. 🕷 On the pictured portrait of the Queen's own son, contemporary scientist Sir David Brewster commented: “For the purpose of amusement, the photographer may carry us even into the realms of the supernatural. His art […] enables him to give a spiritual appearance to one or more of his figures, and to exhibit them as ‘thin air’ amid the solid realities of the stereoscopic picture." - 'The Stereoscope: Its History, Theory and Construction' (1856) 🕷 📸: Portrait of Prince Arthur, Roger Fenton (1854), Wiki Commons. 🕷 #glimpsesofghosts #ghosts #spiritphotography #ghost #blackandwhitephotography #queenvictoria #victorianhistory #victoriana #history #victorianera #englishliterature #victorianliterature #gothic #generallygothic #bookish #bookstagram #darkacademia #academia #spookynerd #spooky #haunted #princearthur #darkhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CE3zmo-AfvA/?igshid=tzvqxyqbjtv8

𝕲𝖑𝖎𝖒𝖕𝖘𝖊𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝕲𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖘 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 I've noticed that the general consensus around here is that it's definitely already autumn, no matter what the meteorologists are saying... In honour of the imminent turn of the season, it's time to shun the sun, light the fire, and indulge in an extra dose of spookiness. September is about catching 👻Glimpses of Ghosts👻. I will be sharing the historical and the literary - a whole host of fantastically fictional and allegedly actual ghosts! If there are any particular narratives (any form - not just books) or cases you would like to see featured, let me know 👇below/💌DMs. I have much planned... but there's always room to learn more. Happy Haunting, spooky nerds! . #glimpsesofghosts #ghosts #ghoststories #ghost👻 #gothicfiction #gothicghosts #history #books #bookish #englishliterature #bookstagram #darkacademia #academia #spookynerd #generallygothic #gothic #autumn #fall #fallaesthetic #foreverfall #alwaysautumn #autumnvibes #autumnvibes🍁 #september #backtoschool #spookystories #spookyseason #spookyseason👻 https://www.instagram.com/p/CElwizigxEC/?igshid=1wx270m8x7w15