The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey is a gothic novel first published in 1797 in one octavo volume by the sensationalist Minerva Press of London. [1] It proved particularly popular with the new circulating libraries of the day. A gothic tale of horror, rather than suspense, it centres on the physical and grotesque, rather than on metaphysical terror.
The novel tells the story of Laura, a foundling refugee from revolutionary France, her attempted seduction at the hands of Lord Oakendale and her explorations of the haunted Cumberland abbey of the title which lead her to stumble upon a den of resurrection men and body snatchers. It is unusually graphic in its depiction of death and decay, even by the standards of the day, in terms of its descriptions of the gruesome. The book is similar in some respects to Eliza Parsons' The Castle of Wolfenbach although it does not have the same emotional subtlety of that work.
The title page of the novel simply says it is "by the author of Elizabeth," referring to another novel published by the Minerva Press in 1797. Both Elizabeth and The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey are attributed to a "Mrs. Carver" in the Minerva Library's 1814 catalogue. [1] "Mrs. Carver" is possibly a pseudonym for Anthony Carlisle, a well known surgeon, later knighted. The name of Carver would thus be a play on the name of his occupation. In fact, the name Carlisle is mentioned in the book itself, by a guard who tells the main characters "that they frequently procured bodies after word interned at or near Carlisle." [2]
After first being published in London in 1797, it was reprinted in the United States in 1799 (in New York) and again in 1812 (in Frankford, Pennsylvania). [1] A modern edition was published in 2006 by Zittaw Press in the United States. [3]
Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by the English author Jane Austen. Although the title page is dated 1818 and was published posthumously in 1817 with Persuasion, Northanger Abbey was completed in 1803, making it the first of Austen's novels to be completed in full. From a fondness of Gothic novels and an active imagination distorting her worldview, the story follows Catherine Morland, the naïve young protagonist, as she develops to better understand herself and the world around her.
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she omitted, deciding certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851–1853), North and South (1854–1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864–1866), all of which were adapted for television by the BBC.
Ann Radcliffe was an English novelist, a pioneer of Gothic fiction, and a minor poet. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for Gothic fiction in the 1790s. Radcliffe was the most popular writer of her day and almost universally admired; contemporary critics called her the "mighty enchantress" and the Shakespeare of romance-writers, and her popularity continued through the 19th century. Interest in Radcliffe and her work has revived in the early 21st century, with the publication of three biographies.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1797.
Elizabeth Meeke was a prolific English author, translator and children's writer, and the stepsister of Frances Burney. She wrote about 30 novels, published by the Minerva Press in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Minerva Press was a publishing house, notable for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction, active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was established by William Lane at No 33 Leadenhall Street, London, when he moved his circulating library there in about 1790.
Michael Sadleir, born Michael Thomas Harvey Sadler, was a British publisher, novelist, book collector, and bibliographer.
Sir Anthony Carlisle FRCS, FRS was an English surgeon.
Isabella Kelly, née Fordyce, also Isabella Hedgeland (1759–1857) was a Scottish novelist and poet. Her novels have been said to resemble those of Ann Radcliffe.
Martha Harley was the successful author of six Gothic novels.
Elizabeth Thomas [née Wolferstan] (1771–1855), novelist and poet, is an ambiguous figure. Details of her early life are missing, and her authorship of some of the works attributed to her has been contested due to the use of pseudonyms.
Francis Lathom was a British gothic novelist and playwright.
Bungay Castle is a gothic novel by Elizabeth Bonhôte, first published in 1797. It is set loosely in the thirteenth century around the First Barons' War, and follows the fortunes of the fictional De Morney family at the real Bungay Castle in Suffolk. Bonhôte's husband purchased the ruins of this castle in 1791. The novel was published by William Lane's Minerva Press. The core themes of the novel are conservative and pro-monarchic.
Wolfstein; or, The Mysterious Bandit is an 1822 chapbook based on Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1811 Gothic horror novel St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian.
Mary Charlton, Gothic novelist and translator, was a "leading light" at the Minerva Press.
Medora Gordon Byron has long been accepted as the pseudonym of "Miss Byron," a Romantic-era author of either five or eight novels, though recent scholarship has complicated that identification.
Elizabeth Hervey (1748–1820) was the author of seven novels, six of which were published and one of which exists "in a carefully-bound manuscript."
Mary Julia Young was a prolific novelist, poet, translator, and biographer, active in the Romantic period, who published the bulk of her works with market-driven publishers James Fletcher Hughes and William Lane of the Minerva Press. She is of particular interest as an example of a professional woman writer in "a market of mass novel production."
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