Richard Marsh, popular fiction and literary culture, 1890–1915: Rereading the fin de siècle

Victoria Margree (Editor), Daniel Orrells (Editor), Minna Vuohelainen (Editor)

Research output: Book/ReportBook - editedpeer-review

Abstract

Richard Marsh was one of the most popular and prolific authors of the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods. His bestselling The Beetle: A Mystery (1897) outsold Bram Stoker's Dracula. A prolific author within a range of genres including Gothic, crime, humour and romance, Marsh produced stories about shape-shifting monsters, morally dubious heroes, lip-reading female detectives and objects that come to life. However, while Marsh's work appealed to a public greedy for sensationalist fiction, both the cultural elite of the day and twentieth-century literary critics looked askance at his popular middlebrow fiction. In the wake of the recent rediscovery of Marsh's fiction, this essay collection builds on burgeoning scholarly interest in the author. Marsh emerges here as a fascinating writer who helped shape the genres of popular fiction and whose stories offer surprising responses to issues of criminality, gender and empire in this period of cultural transition.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationManchester
PublisherManchester University Press
Number of pages248
ISBN (Electronic)9781526124364
ISBN (Print)9781526124340
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2018

Publication series

NameInterventions: Rethinking the Nineteenth Century
PublisherManchester University Press

Keywords

  • Victorian literature
  • Victorian period
  • Edwardian literature
  • popular fiction
  • fin de siècle
  • Gothic
  • crime
  • Humour
  • First World War
  • horror fiction, horror fiction introduction

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