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Distributed for University of Wales Press

American Gothic Art and Architecture in the Age of Romantic Literature

2015 winner of the Henry-Russell Hitchcock Award from the Victorian Society of America

This volume analyzes the effects of British gothic novels and historical romances on American art and architecture in the romantic era. Through the work and writings of such figures as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Jefferson, and many more, Kerry Dean Carso reveals a surprisingly extensive symbiotic relationship between the arts in America and gothic literature in Britain—while also offering new insight into a relatively understudied era in American architecture.

256 pages | 16 color plates, 25 halftones | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | © 2015

Gothic Literary Studies

Architecture: European Architecture


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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

List of illustrations

Introduction

1 Gothic Monticello: Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Narratives

2 ‘Banditti Mania’: The Gothic Haunting of Washington Allston

3 ‘Arranging the Trap Doors’: The Gothic Revival Castles of Alexander Jackson Davis

4 Old Dwellings Transmogrified: The Homes of James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving

5 Gothic Castles in the Landscape: Thomas Cole, Sir Walter Scott and the Hudson River

School of Painting

6 The Theatrical Spectacle of Medieval Revival: Edwin Forrest’s Fonthill Castle

Conclusion ‘Clap It Into a Romance’: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Gothic Houses

Notes

Bibliography

Awards

Victorian Society in America: Henry Russell Hitchcock Award
Won

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