This is an anthology of Gothic Literature, set within the context of contemporary criticism and readers' responses. It includes selections from the major practitioners and many of their followers, as well as contemporary reviews, private letters and diaries, chapbooks, and contemporary anecdotes about dramatic performances and the design of theatre sets. The selections provide representative samples of the major genres - historical gothic, the Radcliffe school of terror, the Lewis school of horror, tragic melodrama, comic parody, supernatural poetry and ballads, book reviews and literary criticism and anti-Gothic polemic.