My "Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson: Exploring a Gothic Campus Mystery" one-month module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently "on the launchpad" for potential launch in the autumn of 2025.

Here is the official description:

"Shirley Jackson is rightly celebrated as a master of Gothic storytelling thanks to her most well-known novels such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). In recent years, however, her earlier novel Hangsaman (1951) has received new attention and critical appreciation from fans and scholars alike.

"Far ahead of its time when it was published, Jackson’s deeply personal Hangsaman is many things: a psychological study of a young woman’s coming of age; a haunting Gothic mystery; a pointed critique of gender roles, family dynamics, and higher education; a meditation on trauma and mental illness; and an ancestor of today’s dark academia storytelling. Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from a variety of sources to craft this remarkable campus novel, from folk ballads and the Tarot, myth and ritual, to a real college campus and an unsolved New England cold case of a missing sophomore student.

"In this module, we will unpack this gem of a Gothic story, following freshman Natalie Waite as she searches for her 'essential self' and discussing why Hangsaman feels freshly relevant and important to many readers today."

Here is more information on the Hangsaman module.

To help launch this module, please go here, log in, and put this module on your launchpad short-list. Thanks!

Join me in June 2025!

June is almost here! Next month I will be offering my month-long "Meet The Last Man" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University.

Mary Shelley's novel is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I can't wait to discuss it with students!

Watch the teaser here:

Watch on YouTube

More information is available here.

Watch on YouTube

Thank you to all of the podcasts that invited me on this year!

My "Looking Back on Genre History" science fiction segment ran each month on StarShipSofa.

I talked to Potterversity about my book chapter "Dark Arts and Secret Histories: Investigating Dark Academia"; to Trash Compactor and New Books Network about my book Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away; and to New Books Network about my book Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier.

I also talked about Alexis de Tocqueville with the Vital Remnants podcast and Mary Shelley (twice, once about The Last Man and once about Frankenstein) with The McConnell Center podcast.

Links to all of these podcast episodes are here.

Some of the university and conference talks I gave this year are now online.

“Missing Students & Their Fictional Afterlives: True Crime, Crime Fiction, and Dark Academia" (presented at the Popular Culture Research Network’s “Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture” conference).
View this presentation here.

Why You Should Read The Last Man by Mary Shelley

Watch on YouTube

Why You Should Read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Watch on YouTube

"A Fortnight in the Wilderness" with Alexis de Tocqueville

Watch on YouTube

I've been on a Mary Shelley roll lately! On my latest “Looking Back at Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 747), I revisit the brilliant Frankenstein. Here is the episode.

Pictured are open pages of The New Annotated Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and edited by Leslie S. Klinger. The pages show sepia-toned decorative artwork around the edges and a vintage illustration of Victor Frankenstein fleeing his awakened Creature.

Just in time for Halloween, here is my talk for the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville on “Why You Should Read Frankenstein”!

Watch on YouTube

Let's wrap up the Gothic portion of this year's countdown with a classic that was published the same year as the now-better-known Dracula: The Beetle (1897) by Richard Marsh.

Read it here.

Quote: So far, in the room itself there had not been a sound. When the clock had struck ten, as it seemed to me, years ago, there came a rustling noise, from the direction of the bed. Feet stepped upon the floor,— moving towards where I was lying. It was, of course, now broad day, and I, presently, perceived that a figure, clad in some queer coloured garment, was standing at my side, looking down at me. It stooped, then knelt. My only covering was unceremoniously thrown from off me, so that I lay there in my nakedness. Fingers prodded me then and there, as if I had been some beast ready for the butcher’s stall. A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human,— nothing fashioned in God’s image could wear such a shape as that.

The Broadview Press edition of The Beetle, with a black-and-white cover that includes a vintage photo of a mysterious woman walking away from men who are slightly out of focus. There is an ominous atmosphere in the photo, as if things aren't as they seem.

Today's text is “A Night in Monk-Hall,” an excerpt from The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall (1845) by George Lippard.

Read it here.

Quote: I was sitting upright in bed, chilled to the very heart, afraid to move an inch, almost afraid to breathe, when, far, far down through the chambers of the old mansion, I heard a faint hushed sound, like a man endeavouring to cry out when attacked by night mare, and then great God how distinct! I heard the cry of `Murder, murder, murder!’ far, far, far below me.

The University of Massachusetts Press edition of Quaker City with vintage, black-and-white Gothic cover art depicting scenes of peril.

Today's text is the short story “The Invisible Girl” (1833) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Read it here.

Quote: “What beacon is it that helps us at our need?” asked Vernon, as the men, now able to manage their oars with greater ease, found breath to answer his question.

“A fairy one, I believe,” replied the elder sailor, “yet no less a true: it burns in an old tumble-down tower, built on the top of a rock which looks over the sea. We never saw it before this summer; and now each night it is to be seen,—at least when it is looked for, for we cannot see it from our village;—and it is such an out-of-the-way place that no one has need to go near it, except through a chance like this. Some say it is burnt by witches, some say by smugglers; but this I know, two parties have been to search, and found nothing but the bare walls of the tower. All is deserted by day, and dark by night; for no light was to be seen while we were there, though it burned sprightly enough when we were out at sea.”

“I have heard say,” observed the younger sailor, “it is burnt by the ghost of a maiden who lost her sweetheart in these parts; he being wrecked, and his body found at the foot of the tower: she goes by the name among us of the ‘Invisible Girl.’”

The cover of Mary Shelley: Gothic Tales with black-and-white artwork depicting Gothic scenes. The focal point is a spectre-like young woman with black eyes.

Today's text is The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo (1819) by Uriah Derek D’Arcy.

Read it here.

Quote: When reason and sense returned, she [The Lady] found herself in the same place; and it was also the midnight hour. She was laying by the grave of Mr. PERSONNE, and her breast was stained with blood. A wide wound appeared to have been inflicted there, but was now cicatrized. Imagine if you can, her surprise; when, by a certain carniverous craving in her maw, and by putting this and that together, she found she was a—VAMPYRE!!! and gathered from her indistinct reminiscences, of the preceding night, that she had been then sucked; and that it was now her turn to eject the peaceful tenants of the grave!

With this delightful prospect of immortality before her, she began to examine the graves, for subject to satisfy her furious appetite. When she had selected one to her mind, a new marvel arrested her attention. Her first husband got up out his coffin, and with all the grace so natural to his countrymen, made her a low bow in the last fashion, and opened his arms to receive her!

Let’s keep this Gothic Halloween-fest going!

Today's text is Wieland; or, The Transformation (1798) by Charles Brockden Brown.

Read it here.

Quote: The tales of apparitions and enchantments did not possess that power over my belief which could even render them interesting. I saw nothing in them but ignorance and folly, and was a stranger even to that terror which is pleasing. But this incident was different from any that I had ever before known. Here were proofs of a sensible and intelligent existence, which could not be denied. Here was information obtained and imparted by means unquestionably super-human.

The Modern Library Classics edition of Wieland with cover art depicting hands holding something on fire.

Before we leave the subject of Northanger Abbey completely, let’s include one more work that inspired the novel (and left a lasting mark on the Gothic tradition), The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis.

Read it here.

Quote: “Be cautious not to utter a syllable!” whispered the Stranger; “Step not out of the circle, and as you love yourself, dare not to look upon my face!”

The Penguin Classics edition of The Monk by Matthew Lewis with Gothic, gruesome artwork of a demon flying off with his victim.

One more of the so-called “horrid novels” referenced in Northanger Abbey is The Orphan of the Rhine (1798) by Eleanor Sleath.

Read it here.

Quote: “Here Silence has fixed her abode, disturbed only at intervals by the howling of the wolf, or the cry of the vulture. In such a situation actions have no witnesses; these woods are no spies.”

Valancourt Books edition of The Orphan of the Rhine, with artwork depicting a young woman reading by lamplight.

Today’s creepy novel, also mentioned as “horrid” in Northanger Abbey, is The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) written by Carl Friedrich Kahlert (under pseudonym) and translated by Peter Teuthold.

Read it here.

Quote: “…a dreadful chilliness seized us, we felt the grasp of the icy fangs of horror, being in a burying vault surrounded by rotten coffins. Skulls and mouldered bones rattled beneath our feet, the grisly phantom of death stared in our faces from every side, with a grim, ghastly aspect. In the centre of the vault we beheld a black marble coffin, supported by a pedestal of stone, over it was suspended to the ceiling a lamp spreading a dismal, dying glimmering around.”

Title page from the first edition and first volume of The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest.

Some of the Gothic works deemed “horrid” by Jane Austen in 1817’s Northanger Abbey (“are you sure they are all horrid?”) are available online, so let’s shift this countdown to those dark and delicious novels. (One is The Children of the Abbey, already covered on Day 7.)

Today’s title is The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons.

Read it here.

Quote: “My Lord came here once or twice, but the ghosts made such a noise he could not stay. Several gentry have slept here at times, but no body would stay a second night, and so we have all to ourselves by day, and the ghosts, or what they be, have got all the rooms by night and then they be quiet enough.”

Vintage black-and-white illustration of Kornis Castle in Romania.

We’ve reached the last post in the portion of this countdown devoted to the creepy Gothic books beloved by the women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. Today’s entry is the controversial autobiography of Maria Monk (1836).

Read it here.

Quote: We all believed in ghosts.

Image of the frontispiece and title page of The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. The artwork depicts a nun seeming to confess to a priest.

Another dark and dreadful novel that women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts reported enjoying was Alonzo and Melissa (aka The Asylum) by Isaac Mitchell (1804/1811).

Read here (the later version attributed to Daniel Jackson, Jr.).

Quote: The person in her room then uttered a horrible groan, and gliding along by her bed, took his stand behind the curtains, near the foot. The noises below, the cry of murder, the firing of the second pistol, and the running up stairs, were all corresponding scenes to impress terror on her imagination. The pretended ghost then advanced in front of her bed, while lights were slowly introduced, which first shone faintly, until they were ushered into the room by the private door, exhibiting the person before her in all his horrific appearances. On her shrieking, and shrinking into the bed, the lights were suddenly extinguished, and the person, after commanding her to be gone in a hoarse voice, passed again to the foot of the bed, shook it violently, and made a seeming attempt to get upon it, when, perceiving her to be springing up, he fled out of the room by the secret door, cautiously shut it, and joined his companions.

Vintage black-and-white illustration of a skeleton in a cloak.

Another Gothic novel that was a favorite with women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Three Spaniards (1801) by George Walker.

Read it here.

Quote: “That unhappy phantom will ever pursue Fernando, till he shall be pacified. He ever attends him invisible, and at this moment sits at the foot of the corpse of Almira.”

The Inquisitors and the prisoners shuddered, and turned their eyes towards the spot; but they could see nothing, except the pale body of the murdered maid.

“… I will command this unhappy spirit to become visible, and say what are his particular desires, and how he shall be tranquilized in the grave; then shall Fernando enjoy that uninterrupted repose he so well merits.”

"The Inquisition In Session," Wood Engraving, American, Late 19th Century, depicting agents of the Spanish Inquisition interrogating a woman.

Another Gothic title very popular with women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Children of the Abbey (1796) by Regina Maria Roche.

Read it here.

Quote: The horrors of my mind I cannot describe; I seemed to stand alone in the world, without one friendly hand to prevent my sinking into the grave, which contained the dearest objects of my love.

Vintage black-and-white memento mori artwork of skull surrounded by symbols of death.

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