One of these is devoted to the Tale of Terror in America,
where in the hands of Hawthorne and Poe its treatment became a
fine art. In the chapters dealing with the more recent forms of
the tale of terror and wonder, the scope of the subject becomes
so wide that it is impossible to attempt an exhaustive survey.
The present work is the outcome of studies begun during my tenure
of the William Noble Fellowship in the University of Liverpool,
1916-18. It is a pleasure to express here my thanks to Professor
R.H. Case and to Dr. John Sampson for valuable help and criticism
at various stages of the work. Parts of the MS. have also been
read by Professor C.H. Herford of the University of Manchester
and by Professor Oliver Elton of the University of Liverpool. To
Messrs. Constable's reader I am also indebted for several helpful
suggestions.--E.B.
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL,
December, 1920.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTORY.
The antiquity of the tale of terror; the element of fear in
myths, heroic legends, ballads and folk-tales; terror in the
romances of the middle ages, in Elizabethan times and in the
seventeenth century; the credulity of the age of reason; the
renascence of terror and wonder in poetry; the "attempt to blend
the marvellous of old story with the natural of modern novels.
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