Publisher Description

From the imaginations of Gothic short-story writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley and H.P. Lovecraft came one of the most complex of villains - the mad scientist. Promethean Horrors presents some of the greatest mad scientists ever created, as each cautionary tale explores the consequences of pushing nature too far. These savants take many forms: there are malcontents who strive to create poisonous humans; technologists obsessed with genetic splicing; mesmerists interested in the way consciousness operates after death and inventors who believe in a hidden reality. United by an unhealthy obsession with wanting to reach beyond their circumstances, these mad scientists are marked by their magical capacity to alter the present, a gift that always comes at a price. . .

Author Biography

Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University and a member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies. He is the editor of Horror: A Literary History (2016), The Gothic Tales of H. P. Lovecraft (2018) and The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson (2019), all published by the British Library.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. The Sandman--E. T. A. Hoffmann--1816 2. The Mortal Immortal: A Tale--Mary Shelley--1833 3. Rappaccini's Daughter--Nathaniel Hawthorne--1844 4. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar--Edgar Allan Poe--1845 5. The Secret of the Scaffold--Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam--1883 6. The Body Snatcher--Robert Louis Stevenson--1884 7. The Blue Laboratory--L. T. Meade--1897 8. The Five Senses--E. Nesbit--1909 9. From Beyond--H. P. Lovecraft--1934 10. The Fly--George Langelaan--1957

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