Gothic Machine

Gothic Machine is a ground-breaking exploration of relations between Gothic literature, pre-cinematic media such as magic lanterns, phantasmagoria and dioramas and the first films 1670-1910. Starting with the earliest projections of horror images, continuing through the development of Gothic fiction and drama and closing with the first Frankenstein film, this study is a fascinating and pioneering evaluation of relations between these different media. As early as 1800, the Marquis de Sade identified Gothic novels such as The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho as ‘phantasmagoria’. This work explores the reasons why and, amongst the other mysteries broached en route is the reason that our first view of Dracula on English soil is described by Bram Stoker as a ‘diorama’. That doyen of tales of terror, Sheridan Le Fanu is revealed to be a literary magic lanternist, as is Robert Louis Stevenson. Symbolist visions of spectral automated chanteuses and demonic panoramas are discussed as are the darkest fantasies of J-K Huysmans and the earliest film-makers. This study, which moves between detailed study of the work of specific showmen and artists in relation to media histories and, elsewhere, much wider and more general surveys of cultural expression of these processes, is driven by historicist thought throughout. The author’s argument is audacious and bold, challenging critical orthodoxies on spectrality and the envisioning of ghosts. As the cultural detective who re-discovered the setting of E.G. Robertson’s convent Phantasmagoria, Dr. Jones is in a unique position to explore the performative aspects of this famous spectacle. The author explores five key periods in Germany, Britain, France and America over the designated span. Finally, the widely-ranging discussion crosses the line between pre-cinematic shows and cinema proper revealing how the new technology itself became a haunted, Gothic medium.

Gothic Machine is an interesting piece of scholarship precisely because it refuses that type of chronological and even sequential structure. Instead, it prefers to relish on the interconnections between different forms of media and how their languages may coalesce and expand our meaning and understanding of them. Aside from being a very thorough introduction to the role of visual technology and optical illusion up until the release of the first Frankenstein adaptation (J. Searle Dawley, 1910), Jones' book manages to achieve what only good academic volumes do: it creates an awareness of the pressing need to consider what had, until now, only been invoked as part of a niche area of study. Xavier Aldana Reyes, University of Lancaster This well-researched and well-written book makes a major contribution to the history of the magic lantern and its relationship to literature. Gothic Machine combines the author's first-hand familiarity with the magic lanterns and phantasmagoria and a deep knowledge of Gothic literature - It is impossible in a short summary to do justice to the richness of the scholarship in this book. The depth of scholarship - makes it a must read for anyone with serious interest in the history and culture of the magic lantern in relation to literature.