Victorian Prose and Poetry Book

This is a brief academic introduction to the Gothic sensibility in art. It's three parts describes the various elements of the Gothic, gives excerpts from major literary works, and reviews major schools of Gothic criticism (Freudian, Marxist, and feminist).

I appreciated the brevity. The final section which might have been tendentious stuck to the factual and informative. The book is designed as a textbook, with lots of (difficult) questions for further study.

One final thing I'll mention: the excerpts include sections from seminal works such as The Monk and Frankenstein, but, among the prose writers, Jane Austen's clean, direct, laser-focused sentences stand out. It's really amazing how enjoyable really great writing is, when placed side by side with the merely very good. Keep yer eye on that Austen chick, guys; I predict she'll go far.