Customer Reviews
Sound and Thorough Introduction - By: William Burn, 01 Jun 2006 
I came to this book as part of my research for teaching Dracula to A-level students, & have found it to be an extremely useful text to have beside me while reading that & other Gothic novels.
The other reviewer of this novel (who sadly has not left their name, which is unfortunate because their thoughts are eminently sensible & insightful), observes correctly that Botting is not preoccupied with close textual analysis, but with general trendsin Gothic from its inception to the end of the twentieth Century. That said, the book by no means lacks detail, rather preferring to examine themes & discourses that the reader can then themselves apply to those texts which they have to study.
It seems that this review is becoming a reposte to that already posted, but it is necessary to answer one criticism made by that writer. They are concerned that the book lays on the critical terminology a bit thickin the Introduction, but I found this a refreshing bonus. To be treated as an intelligent reader, but not to be overwhelmed with meaningless critical posturing, was flattering, & Botting knows his subject well enough (and believes sufficientlyin its merits) to find no need for hollow rhetoric.
This is at times a challenging book, & it demands commitment & perception from its reader, & it seems squarely aimed at second or third-year undergraduates who have some groundingin the vocabulary of critical theory. Given that caveat, this is a solid & worthwhile book.
The key is patience - By: , 02 Dec 2001 I bought this book knowing that I'd need some sort of critical analysis for a gothic literature module of my degree course. I bought it on a hunch & by reading the short yet enticingly positive 'blurb'.
On first reading I simply lost a lot of the information due to the excess amounts of difficult terminology. Whilst being an introductory text to the gothic as a genre it definitely does assume a prior knowledge to some elements of history & literaturein general.
However, as my course studies developed I found this book increasingly helpfulin explaining aspects to what my course had previously covered.
The key to reading this text is definitely to take itin short doses otherwise the sheer amount of (incredibly useful) information will be overwhelming.
Whilst David Punter's 'Literature of Terror' covers more ground with respect to actual textual analysis, Botting's work more than makes up for this with in-depth analysis of 'Gothic' expanding far beyond literary confines.
Once got to grips with, this textbook proves to be essential reading & incredibly usefulin explaining difficult concepts & offers a variety of angles to analyze literary textsin the gothic genre.
