The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction

by Dorothy Scarborough

In conclusion, it might be said that fiction offers the most popular present vehicle for expression of the undoubtedly reviving supernaturalism in English literature. And fiction is likewise the best form, that which affords the more varied chances for effectiveness. The rising tide of the unearthly in art shows itself in all literary forms, as dramatic, narrative, and lyric poetry, with a few epics—in the playlet as in the standard drama, in the short story as in the novel. It manifests itself in countless ways in current literature and inviting lines of investigation suggest themselves with reference to various aspects of its study. The supernatural as especially related to religion offers an interesting field for research. The miracles from the Bible are often used, as in Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, and Christ is introduced in other times and places, as the war novel,[248] or in Marie Corelli’s satire on Episcopacy,[249] where the cardinal finds the Christ child outside the cathedral. The more than mortal elements, as answers to prayer, the experience of conversion, spiritual miracles, and so forth, are present to a considerable extent in modern fiction. Two very recent novels of importance base their plots on the miraculous in religion, The Brook Kerith, by George Moore, and The Leather-wood God, by William Dean Howells. I have touched on this aspect of the subject in a previous article.[250]

One might profitably trace out the appearances of the ghostly in modern poetry, or one might study its manifestations in the late drama, including melodrama and comedy as well as tragedy. This present treatment of the supernatural in modern English fiction makes no pretensions to being complete. It is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive, and I shall be gratified if it may help to arouse further interest in a significant and vital phase of our literature and lead others to pursue the investigations.

INDEX

[A]	[B]	[C]	[D]	[E]
[F]	[G]	[H]	[I]	[J]
[K]	[L]	[M]	[N]	[O]
[P]	[Q]	[R]	[S]	[T]
[U]	[V]	[W]	[Y]	[Z]

• A
• Accusing Spirit, The, [21]
• Address to the De’il, An, [131]
• Æsop, Fables, [231]
• Affair of Dishonor, An, [91]
• Afterwards, [102], [202]
• Afterwards, [302]
• Ahasuerus, [176]
• Ahrinziman, [88], [183], [213]
• Aids to Gothic Effect, [36] et seq.
• Ainsworth, W. H., [181]
• Albigenses, The, [9], [11], [94], [168], [288]
• Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, [63]
• —— Miss Mehitabel’s Son, [68], [85], [287]
• —— Père Antoine’s Date Palm, [63]
• —— Queen of Sheba, The, [122]
• Amazonian Tortoise Myths, [232]
• Amboyna, [41]
• Amiel, Friedrich, [144]
• Among the Immortals, [217]
• Amos Judd, [40], [257]
• Amphitryon, [122]
• Amycus and Celestine, [63]
• Anansi Stories, [232]
• Ancient Legends and Superstitions of Ireland, [229]
• Ancient Records of the Abbey of St. Oswyth, [9], [21]
• Ancient Sorceries, [65], [105], [124], [153], [194]
• Andersen, Hans Christian, [155], [176], [233]
• —— The Little Mermaid, [155], [176], [233]
• Andreyev, Leonidas, [69]
• —— King-Hunger,308
• —— Red Laugh, The, [69]
• —— Silence, [293]
• Angel Island, [294]
• Angel Message, An, [207]
• Ankerwich Castle, [34]
• Another Little Heath Hound, [290]
• Anti-Jacobin, The, [51]
• Any House, [307]
• Apuleius, Lucius, Metamorphoses, [145]
• Applier, Arthur, Vendetta of the Jungles, A, [168]
• Arabian Nights’ Tales, [252]
• Architecture, Gothic, [8] et seq.
• Ariel, or the Invisible Monitor, [24]
• Arnim, Achim von, Die Beiden Waldemar, [122]
• Arnold, Edwin Lester, Strange Adventures of Phra, the Phœnician, The, [188]
• Arnold, Matthew:
• —— Forsaken Merman, The, [155],233
• —— Neckan, The, [155]
• Arrest, An, [85]
• Arthur and Gorlogon, [30]
• Arthur Mervyn, [35]
• Artist of the Beautiful, The, [287]
• Astral Bridegroom, An, [207]
• At the End of the Passage, [120]
• At the Gate, [201], [291]
• Auerbach, Berthold, [176]
• Austen, Jane, [47], [49]
• —— Northanger Abbey, [47], [51]
• Austin, Alfred, Peter Rugg, the Missing Man, [189]
• Austin, M. H., Readjustment, [107]
• Avengers, The, [56]
• Ayesha, [183], [193]

• B
• Bacon, Josephine Daskam, [94]
• —— Children, The, [289]
• —— Heritage, The, [94]
• —— Miracle, The, [254]
• —— Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchion, The, [254], [299]
• —— Unburied, The, [66], [301]
• —— Warning, The, [276]
• Bahr-geist, The, [115], [225]
• Balzac, Honoré de, [182]
• —— Elixir of Life, The, [60]
• —— Magic Skin, The, [60]
• —— Melmoth Réconcilié, [59]
• —— Unknown Masterpiece, The, [60]
• Bangs, John Kendrick, [112], [293]
• —— Enchanted Typewriter, The, [207], [286]
• —— House-boat on the Styx, The, [112], [216]
• —— Pursuit of the House-boat, The, [112], [187], [216]
• —— Rebellious Heroine, The, [197]
• —— Speck on the Lens, The, [255]
• —— Thurlow’s Christmas Story, [121]
• —— Water-Ghost and Others, The, [112]
• Banshee, The, [99]
• Bardic Stories of Ireland, [243]
• Baring-Gould, S., [181]
• —— Eve, [246]
• Barker, Elsa, [206], [207]
• —— Letters from a Living Dead Man, [207]
• —— War Letters from a Living Dead Man, [206], [292]
• Barker, Granville, [123], [198]
• —— Souls on Fifth, [123], [198], [215]
• Barrett, Eaton Stannard, [8], [49]
• —— Heroine, The, [49], [50]
• Barrie, J. M., [240]
• —— Little White Bird, The, [240]
• —— Peter Pan, [240], [306]
• Baynim, John, [246]
• Baynim, Michael, [246]
• Beckford, William, [17]
• —— Vathek, [8], [17], [22], [25], [29], [33], [37], [70]
• Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, [53], [297]
• —— Death’s Jest Book, [53], [115], [297]
• Beetle, The, [290]
• Belasco, David, Return of Peter Grimm, The, [201], [298]
• Beleaguered City, The, [211]
• Bellamy, Edward, [189]
• —— Looking Backward, [189], [262]
• Belled Buzzard, The, [296]
• Benet, William Rose, Man with the Pigeons, The, [218]
• Ben Hur, [309]
• Bennett, Arnold, Ghost, The, [117]
• Beowulf, [281]
• Berenice, [62]
• Besant, Walter, Ivory Gate, The, [122]
• Betrothed, The, [225]
• Beyond Their Strength, [306]
• Bierce, Ambrose, [53], [61], [109], [116], [290], [300]
• —— Arrest, An, [85]
• —— Damned Thing, The, [61], [92]
• —— Death of Halpin Frazer, The, [110], [192]
• —— Eyes of the Panther, The, [170], [271]
• —— Middle Toe of the Right Foot, The, [61], [92]
• —— Mysterious Disappearances, [259]
• —— Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The, [275]
• —— Two Military Executions, [116]
• —— Vine on the House, A, [90]
• Biology, Supernatural, [270]
• Biology, Supernatural in Gothicism, [34]
• Birthmark, The, [185], [270]
• Bisclavret, [30], [168]
• Bisland, Elizabeth, The Case of John Smith, [215]
• Björnson, Björnstjerne, [306]
• —— Beyond Their Strength, [306]
• Black Magic, [146]
• Black Monk, The, [69]
• Black Patch, The, [255]
• Blackmore, R. D., Lorna Doone, [226]
• Blackwood, Algernon, [68], [76], [79], [85], [96], [105], [166], [171], [235], [273], [285], [287], [300], [304], [309]
• —— Ancient Sorceries, [65], [124], [153], [194]
• —— Camp of the Dog, The, [170]
• —— Clairvoyance, [289]
• —— Empty House, The, [98], [117]
• —— Glamour of the Snow, The, [231]
• —— Haunted Island, A, [114]
• —— Heath Fire, The, [231]
• —— Human Chord, The, [275]
• —— Jules Le Vallon, [194]
• —— Keeping His Promise, [98]
• —— Man from the Gods, The, [121]
• —— Man Whom the Trees Loved, The, [230], [272]
• —— Nemesis of the Fire, A, [98]
• —— Old Clothes, [124], [194]
• —— Psychic Invasion, A, [106]
• —— Regeneration of Lord Ernie, The, [230]
• —— Return, The, [123], [198]
• —— Sand, [230]
• —— Sea Fit, The, [230]
• —— Secret Worship, [105], [117], [137]
• —— Temptation of the Clay, The, [231]
• —— Terror of the Twins, The, [122], [192]
• —— Transfer, The, [164]
• —— Wave, The, [194]
• —— With Intent to Steal, [62], [117]
• Bleek, W. H. I., Reynard, the Fox, in South Africa, [232]
• Blind, The, [64], [298]
• Blithedale Romance, The, [188], [199]
• Blue-Bird, The, [64], [278], [280], [306]
• Blue Roses, [268]
• Blue Sphere, The, [208], [278]
• Blythe, James, Mine Host and the Witch, [148]
• Bon Bon, [95], [141]
• Bones, Sanders, and Another, [156]
• Bonhote, Mrs., [20]
• —— Bungay Castle, [20], [45]
• Book of the Serpent, [292]
• Book of Wonder, The, [245]
• Borderland, The, [124]
• Botany, Supernatural, [272] et seq.
• Bottle Imp, The, [70]
• Bottomley, Gordon, [65], [153], [285]
• —— Crier by Night, The, [65], [238]
• —— Riding to Lithend, [152]
• Bowmen and Others, The, [204], [258], [282]
• Brand, [65]
• Brandes, Georg, [122]
• —— Romantic Reduplication and Personality, [122]
• Brentano, Die Mehreren Wehmüller, [122]
• Bride of Lammermoor, The, [38]
• Brieux, Eugene, [252]
• Brissot’s Ghost, [89]
• Brontë, Emily, [86]
• —— Wuthering Heights, [86], [226]
• Brook Kerith, The, [310]
• Brooke, Rupert, [308]
• —— Failure, [222]
• —— Heaven, [221], [283]
• —— On Certain Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society, [281], [283]
• Brown, Alice, [101], [211]
• —— Here and There, [101], [107]
• —— Tryst, The, [126], [211]
• Brown, Charles Brockden, [35]
• —— Arthur Mervyn, [35]
• —— Edgar Huntley, [39]
• —— Wieland, [35], [39]
• Brownie of Bodbeck, The, [26], [38]
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, [148]
• —— Drama of Exile, A, [133]
• —— Lay of the Brown Rosary, The, [148]
• Browning, Robert, [69]
• —— Sludge, the Medium, [69]
• Brushwood Boy, The, [195]
• Bubble Well Road, [138]
• Buchanan, Robert, [177]
• —— Wandering Jew, a Christmas Carol, The, [177], [180]
• —— Haunters and the Haunted, The, [60], [78], [188], [299]
• —— Strange Story, A, [90], [182]
• Bungay Castle, [20], [45]
• Bunyan, John, [213]
• Burger, [56]
• —— Lenore, [56]
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson, White People, The, [203], [298]
• Burns, Robert, [232]
• —— Address to the De’il, An, [131]
• —— Tam O’Shanter, [156]
• Burns, Miss, Shropshire Folk-tales, [291]
• Butler, Ellis Parker, Dey Ain’t No Ghosts, [128]
• Butler, Katherine,
• —— In No Strange Land, [96], [212]
• Butler, Samuel, [262]
• —— Erewhon, [262]
• By the Waters of Paradise, [83]
• Byron, Lord:
• —— Cain, [136]
• —— Giaour, The, [160]
• —— Heaven and Earth, [221]
• —— Vision of Judgment, A, [134]

• C
• Cable, George W., [226]
• Calderon, [27], [133]
• —— El Embozado, [119]
• —— El Magico Prodigioso, [100], [143]
• Camp of the Dog, The, [170]
• Campbell-Praed, Mrs., [207]
• —— Nyria, [207]
• Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, Extracts from, [201], [217]
• Car of Phœbus, The, [207]
• Carmen Sylva, [176], [233]
• Case of Becky, The, [305]
• Case of John Smith, The, [215]
• Castle of Caithness, The, [20]
• Castle of Otranto, The, [4], [8], [16], [25], [31], [36], [40], [52], [101]
• Castle of Wolfenbach, The, [48]
• Castle Specter, The, [53]
• Celestial Grocery, The, [265], [300]
• Celestial Railroad, The, [213], [265], [300]
• Celtic Revival, The, [227]
• Celtic Twilight, The, [239]
• Chambers, Robert W., [87], [290], [296]
• —— The Messenger, [88]
• Chamisso, [59], [176]
• —— Erscheinung, [122]
• Chansons de Gestes, [7]
• Chaucer, Geoffrey, [87], [140], [217]
• —— Friar’s Tale, The, [140]
• Chemistry, Supernatural, [267]
• Cher, Marie, [197]
• —— Immortal Gymnasts, The, [197]
• Chesterton, G. K., [306]
• —— Magic, [306]
• Children, The, [289]
• Children of the Mist, The, [226]
• Christabel, [148], [238]
• Clairvoyance, [289]
• Clara Militch, [68], [162]
• Clark, Rev. T., Wandering Jew, or the Travels of Bareach, the Prolonged, The, [178]
• Clarke, Laurence, [94]
• —— Grey Guest, The, [94], [282]
• Clermont, [48]
• Cloak, The, [68]
• Closed Cabinet, The, [107]
• Cobb, Irvin, Belled Buzzard, The, [296]
• Cobb, Palmer, Influence of E.T.A. Hoffmann on Edgar Allan Poe, The, [58]
• Cocotte, [61]
• Coffin Merchant, The, [254]
• Cohan, George M., [306]
• —— Miracle Man, The, [306]
• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, [65], [118]
• —— Christabel, [148], [238]
• —— Wanderings of Cain, The, [118]
• Collins, Wilkie, [78]
• —— Dream Woman, The, [78]
• —— Ghost Touch, The, [103]
• —— Haunted Hotel, The, [89], [100]
• —— Queen of Hearts, The, [107], [113]
• Collins, William, Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands, [74]
• Collison-Morley, Lacy, [202]
• —— Greek and Roman Ghost Stories, [202]
• Comer, Cornelia A. P., Little Grey Ghost, The, [118]
• Comus, [7], [148]
• Confessions of a Justified Sinner, [29]
• Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, [268]
• Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court, A, [189], [262], [286]
• Converse, F., [93]
• —— Co-operative Ghosts, [93], [98]
• Conway, Hugh, [103]
• —— Our Last Walk, [103]
• Conway, M. D., [180]
• Cooper, J. Fenimore, [226]
• Co-operative Ghosts, [93], [98]
• Corbin, John, [76]
• Corelli, Marie:
• —— Master Christian, The, [309]
• —— Romance of Two Worlds, A, [213]
• —— Sorrows of Satan, The, [136], [144]
• Count Roderick’s Castle, or Gothic Times, [20]
• Countess Cathleen, [65], [143]
• Courting of Dinah Shadd, The, [152]
• Coward, The, [61]
• Craddock, Charles Egbert, [83], [104], [226]
• —— His Unquiet Ghost, [83]
• Crawford, F. Marion, [37], [68], [94], [109], [116], [117]
• —— Among the Immortals, [217]
• —— By the Waters of Paradise, [83]
• —— Dead Smile, The, [70], [109]
• —— Doll’s Ghost, A, [98]
• —— For the Blood Is the Life, [62], [78], [162]
• —— Khaled, [62], [70], [147]
• —— Man Overboard, [97]
• —— Mr. Isaacs, [37], [71]
• —— Screaming Skull, The, [60], [89], [92]
• —— Upper Berth, The, [100]
• —— Witch of Prague, The, [149], [195], [266]
• Crawford, Hope, Ida Lomond and Her Hour of Vision, [207]
• Creation, [277]
• Crier by Night, The, [65], [238]
• Crock of Gold, The, [241], [246]
• Croly, George, [179]
• —— Salathiel, or Tarry Thou Till I Come, [179]
• Crystal Egg, The, [263]
• Cuchulain of Muirthemne, [243]
• Culex, [290]
• Curran, Mrs. John H., Patience Worth, [197], [207]
• Curse of the Cashmere Shawl, The, [153]
• Curse of the Fires and the Shadows, The, [154]
• Curse of the Wandering Jew, The, [177]
• Curtin, Jeremiah, [244]
• Curtis, George William, [121], [258]
• —— Prue and I, [121], [258]

• D
• Dacre, Mrs., [10], [77]
• —— Zofloya, [10], [17], [28], [33], [35], [37], [38], [53], [154], [251]
• Damned Thing, The, [61], [92]
• Danby, Frank, Twilight, [268]
• Daniel and the Devil, [141]
• D’Annunzio, Gabriel, [66]
• —— Daughter of Jorio, The, [67], [149]
• —— La Città Morta, [66], [298]
• —— Sogno d’un Mattino di Primavera, [67], [300]
• —— Sogno d’un Tramonto d’Autunno, [67], [152]
• Dante, [27], [130], [133], [144], [209], [215]
• Dark Nameless One, The, [155]
• Darwin, Charles, [73], [251]
• Darwin, Erasmus, [14]
• Daughter of Jorio, The, [67], [149]
• Daughter of the Moor, The, [304]
• Davis, Owen, and Robert, Any House, [307]
• Davis, Richard Harding, Vera, the Medium, [200]
• Day of My Death, The, [199]
• Days of the Comet, The, [264]
• Dead Are Singing, The, [282]
• Dead City, The, [298]
• Dead Ship of Harpswell, The, [187]
• Dead Smile, The, [70], [109]
• Deakin, Lumley, [146]
• —— Red Debts, [146]
• Death of Halpin Frazer, The, [110], [192]
• Death’s Jest Book, [53], [115], [297]
• Defoe, Daniel, [205]
• —— Apparition of Mrs. Veal, [205]
• —— History of Duncan Campbell, The, [225]
• Demi-gods, [242]
• Demi-gods, The, [219], [221]
• Dæmonic Spirits, [158] et seq.
• Dæmonology, Gothic, [33]
• De Morgan, William Frend, [92], [283]
• —— Affair of Dishonor, An, [91]
• —— Likely Story, A, [287]
• De Quincey, Thomas
• —— Avengers, The, [56]
• —— Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, [268]
• —— Dream Fugue, [15]
• —— Klosterheim, [56]
• —— On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth, [295]
• Descent into the Maelstrom, The, [231], [253]
• Devil, The, [138]
• Devil and His Allies, The, [130] et seq.
• Devil, Gothic, The, [27] et seq.
• Devil and Tom Walker, The, [140]
• Devil in the Belfry, The, [141]
• Dey Ain’t No Ghosts, [128]
• Diamond Lens, The, [274]
• Dickey, Paul, [307]
• —— Last Laugh, The, [307]
• Dickens, Charles:
• —— Haunted House, The, [171]
• —— Signal Man, The, [114]
• Die Beiden Waldemar, [122]
• Die Braut von Corinth, [162]
• Die Mehreren Wehmüller, [122]
• Disassociation of a Personality, The, [305]
• Divine Adventure, The, [248]
• Dr. Bullivant, [185]
• Dr. Faustus, [15], [143]
• Dr. Heidigger’s Experiment, [184], [252]
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, [120], [268], [305]
• Dog Harvey, The, [291]
• Doings of Raffles Haw, The, [267]
• Dolliver Romance, The, [183], [184]
• Doll’s Ghost, A, [98]
• Door in the Wall, The, [258]
• Doppelgänger, [57], [119]
• Doppelgänger, The, [122]
• Dorset, St. John, [159]
• —— Vampire, The, [159]
• Double Personality, [305]
• Doyle, A. Conan, [79]
• —— Doings of Raffles Haw, The, [267]
• —— Hound of the Baskervilles, The, [290]
• —— Los Amigos Fiasco, The, [187], [270]
• —— Lot No. 49, [62]
• —— Secret of Goresthorpe Grange, The, [79]
• —— Silver Mirror, The, [259]
• —— Terror of Blue John Gap, The, [272]
• Dracula, [78], [163], [188], [301]
• Dream, The, [68]
• Dream Fugue, [15]
• Dream Gown of the Japanese Ambassador, The, [79]
• Dream of Armageddon, A, [196], [262]
• Dream of Provence, A, [293]
• Dream Woman, The, [78]
• Dreams, [13], [77]
• Dreiser, Theodore:
• —— Blue Sphere, The, [208], [278]
• —— In the Dark, [208]
• —— Laughing Gas, [278]
• —— Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural, [208]
• —— Spring Recital, A, [208]
• Dromgoole, Will Allen, [226]
• Dryden, John, [41]
• —— Amboyna, [41]
• Duchess at Prayer, The, [121], [303]
• Duchess of Malfi, The, [8], [166]
• Dumas, Alexandre, Père, [159]
• —— Le Vampire, [159]
• Du Maurier, George:
• —— Martian, The, [196], [207], [264]
• —— Peter Ibbetson, [186], [196], [206], [300]
• —— Trilby, [267]
• Dunbar, Aldis, [244]
• Dunbar, Olivia Howard, [85]
• —— Shell of Sense, The, [85], [212]
• Dunsany, Lord, [52], [63], [235], [242], [244], [247], [249], [285], [292], [300]
• —— Book of Wonder, The, [245]
• —— Glittering Gate, The, [221], [222]
• —— Gods of Pegana, The, [245]
• —— Gods of the Mountain, The, [244], [303]
• —— Night at an Inn, A, [244], [303]
• —— Time and the Gods, [245]
• —— Usury, [198]
• —— When the Gods Slept, [63], [74]

• E
• Edgar Huntley, [39]
• Edwards, Amelia, [86]
• —— Four-fifteen Express, The, [86]
• Eel-King, The, [233]
• Eighty-third, The, [61], [281]
• El Embozado, [119]
• Elementals, [300]
• Eleonora, [103]
• Eliot, George, [167], [257]
• —— Lifted Veil, The, [157]
• Elixiere des Teufels, [57]
• Elixir of Life, The, [35], [182] et seq.
• Elixir of Life, The, [60]
• Elixir of Youth, The, [186]
• Elizabethan Drama, The, [139]
• El Magico Prodigioso, [100], [143]
• Elsie Venner, [170]
• Elves, [247]
• Emperor and Galilean, [42], [66]
• Empty House, The, [98], [117]
• Enchanted Typewriter, The, [207], [286]
• Erckmann-Chatrian, [62]
• —— Invisible Eye, The, [62]
• —— Owl’s Ear, The, [62]
• —— Waters of Death, The, [62]
• Erewhon, [262]
• Erscheinung, [122]
• Eternal Magdalen, The, [27]
• Eternal Mystery, The, [306]
• Ethelwina, or the House of Fitz-Auburne, [25]
• Eubule-Evans, A., [177]
• —— Curse of the Wandering Jew, The, [177]
• Eve, [246]
• Evil Eye, The, [152]
• Exchange, The, [153], [156], [197]
• Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, An, [217]
• Eyes, The, [297]
• Eyes of the Panther, The, [170], [271]