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The Oxford Book of the Supernatural
From the eerie visitation of Scrooge by Marley's ghost, to the three witches brewing evil on the heath in Macbeth , to the deadly lust for blood of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we have always been fascinated by things that go "bump in the night." The supernatural has chilled our hearts and has fired
our imaginations, and it has fueled the writings of our greatest authors, from Odysseus's journey to the underworld in Homer, to Faust's bargain with Mephistopheles in Goethe. The Oxford Book of the Supernatural compiles some of the very best writings on this fearsome subject, drawing from both
ancient and modern, from East and West, and from Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist traditions. Here readers will enter a foreboding realm of ghosts and vampires, werewolves and witches, dreams and telepathy, demonic possession and near-death experiences. Drawing from both factual accounts and the
finest works of literature, and including writers ranging from Homer to Hardy, Pliny to Primo Levi, and Apuleius to A.S. Byatt, Enright offers material that probes the dark corner where the supernatural and natural worlds collide, igniting our deepest anxieties and fears. At times touching,
grotesque, eerie, and frightening, The Oxford Book of the Supernatural will interest anyone who is curious about the supernatural or the occult. But whether you believe in the unearthly or not, this literate anthology will satisfy what Virginia Woolf has called "the strange human craving for the
pleasure of feeling afraid."
our imaginations, and it has fueled the writings of our greatest authors, from Odysseus's journey to the underworld in Homer, to Faust's bargain with Mephistopheles in Goethe. The Oxford Book of the Supernatural compiles some of the very best writings on this fearsome subject, drawing from both
ancient and modern, from East and West, and from Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist traditions. Here readers will enter a foreboding realm of ghosts and vampires, werewolves and witches, dreams and telepathy, demonic possession and near-death experiences. Drawing from both factual accounts and the
finest works of literature, and including writers ranging from Homer to Hardy, Pliny to Primo Levi, and Apuleius to A.S. Byatt, Enright offers material that probes the dark corner where the supernatural and natural worlds collide, igniting our deepest anxieties and fears. At times touching,
grotesque, eerie, and frightening, The Oxford Book of the Supernatural will interest anyone who is curious about the supernatural or the occult. But whether you believe in the unearthly or not, this literate anthology will satisfy what Virginia Woolf has called "the strange human craving for the
pleasure of feeling afraid."
- GenresHorrorSupernaturalGhosts
566 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 23, 2023
Exactly what it says on the tin: a survey of supernatural themes and motifs across literature, both fiction and non-fiction accounts. Included are excerpts from journals, letters, plays, poems, scientific research, conspiracy theories, classic literature, newspaper articles, etc. Themes range from ghosts, witches and familiars, mediumship (and the fraud thereof), Spiritualism, angels, conspiracies, devils/Satan, paganism, paranormal entities, good v evil, and believers v nonbelievers. This was originally published in 1994, and it would be interesting to see an update that encompasses all of the paranormal "reality TV" that seems to have exploded in the popularity in the last twenty years. Mediums certainly have a different reputation today than they did in the 1900s, for example.
The editor is a poet, and that's obvious with all of the poetry that's included. I could've done without all of the 'original English' excerpts from the Renaissance period, too - all of that phonetic spelling was hard to parse.
All in all, it was definitely worth the price I paid when this was sold at a local library sale.
The editor is a poet, and that's obvious with all of the poetry that's included. I could've done without all of the 'original English' excerpts from the Renaissance period, too - all of that phonetic spelling was hard to parse.
All in all, it was definitely worth the price I paid when this was sold at a local library sale.
December 12, 2015
A solid achievement by a working poet, this compendium of the supernatural in the literary canon and more besides is a useful reference book that covers the ground more than adequately.
Enright's terse introductions are perhaps less enlightening and more obscure than they need to be - the perils of the poet as curator - but the content is elegantly and appropriately chosen.
His entries cover pretty well everything useful on the subject with a strong orientation towards ghosts and revenants, including their relationship to love and sex and animal spirits.
There are sections on magicians and possession, witchcraft, demons and angels, the classic monster tropes, the fairy folk, precognition, dreams and telepathy, near death and spontaneous combustion.
Add to this the finely tuned sections on the supernatural and artistic creativity, on spiritualism and on the various literary and cultural responses to the supernatural and the ground is covered.
Nor is it just a list of references. It is themed within the themes so you have, for example, no fewer than nine references to the Browning-Douglas Home controversy about spiritualism which tell a sort of story.
The whole work is finely calibrated so that one short passage connects in some way to the next giving a total picture of the place of the supernatural in the English cultured mind.
And what is that place? Largely sceptical but mildly so, refusing to be hide-bound, allowing wiggle room for the possibility of the impossible and enjoying the supernatural as imaginative frisson.
A very literary work with a minimum of science and little overt encouragement (though no condemnation) of the enthusiast and the deep believer. In short, a most English literary guide.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews