Prof Daniel Cook

Professor of English @dundeeuni & General Editor of The Oxford Complete Works of Mary Shelley (Oxford University Press) and The Dundee Review (@DundeeReview)

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

GOTHIC LEGACIES

Series editors:
Professor Daniel Cook
Professor Nick Groom
Dr Maisha Wester

Contact: lucy.brown[at]https://t.co/SoBlydN6Ag

Bloomsbury’s Gothic Legacies showcases the “living archive” of Gothic writers and other creative artists from around the globe, whether through a critical examination of the persistence and pertinence of their tropes and themes or the creative reception of their works in literature, theatre and performance, popular and fine art, film and television, music, and other media. This series chiefly attends to major Gothic works produced in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while also drawing out connections with non-canonical works and modern reworkings from the vantage points of diverse conceptual approaches. The Gothic tradition continues to influence our cultural lives in profound ways, helping us to define the human condition, confront personal and social injustices, and engage with the world around us in an increasingly inclusive manner. This series simultaneously addresses contemporary concerns by re-engaging with familiar, charismatic works of literature and interrogates the ongoing relevance of those works in the twenty-first century.

Objectives
•to examine the influence of canonical Gothic works today;
•to recover once significant but now lesser-known writers and their works;
•to model the intellectual merits of different conceptual frameworks;
•to commemorate major milestones in the Gothic tradition, including anniversaries.

Have a proposal idea?
We solicit monographs, mini-graphs, multi-graphs and essay collections in two strands within the series to enable a thorough but flexible exploration of the living archive of the Gothic. We welcome suggestions for alternative formats, too.

Strand 1 – critical examinations of pertinent and persistent tropes and themes as they appear in literature and other media from the vantage points of diverse conceptual approaches in the areas of race and ethnicity, BLM, identity politics, LGBTQ+, environmentalism, and more. Themes and tropes might include the haunted house and domestic violence, the weird and the eerie, body modification and dysmorphia, lockdown and incarceration, among other things.

Strand 2 – explorations of the creative reception of key works in literature and other media. This may comprise studies of serialised and transmedia adaptations, sequels, or reworkings in a variety of formats as diverse as educational videos, subcultural identity formation, and tourism. This strand includes studies of non-White and/or queer creative responses that critique, speak back to or otherwise revitalize works by Mary Shelley, the Brontës, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, H. P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, and Angela Carter, among other canonical authors.

This series accommodates the traditional monograph (up to 90,000 words), as well as the increasingly popular short-form format (up to 50,000 words) where this better suits specific research questions with one overriding concern or perspective in mind. Essay collections in the series typically follow the conventional length (up to 90,000 words), in order to address a topic comprehensively, but smaller collections tied to major anniversaries or targeted themes would be better placed in a shorter and more flexible form.

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

We need to talk about the creative aura of being a William…

William Langland
William Shakespeare
William Congreve
William Wycherley
William Hogarth
William Blake
William Cowper
William Wordsworth
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Morris
William Golding
William Hope Hodgson
William Carlos Williams
William Somerset Maugham
William Burroughs
William Gibson
William Saroyan
William Gaddis
William Butler Yeats
Williams Sassine
…

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

Happy #WorldGothDay

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

The Dundee Review (@DundeeReview) is a twenty-first-century literary magazine for original gothic, terror, horror and fantasy fiction. Submit your stories now! We pay, and we have prizes.

https://t.co/SbfTr16fYn

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

The Dundee Review is a twenty-first-century literary magazine for original gothic, terror, horror and fantasy fiction. Submit your stories now! We also host the annual Ninewells Literary Prize, which comes with a cash award.

https://t.co/SbfTr16fYn

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

DUNDEE BOOK FESTIVAL

"Join Mairi Kidd as she discusses Poor Creatures, a richly imagined
reworking of the early life of Mary Shelley. Set in 1812 Dundee, the
novel follows a young Mary Godwin as she arrives at a secluded house
on the Tay, where secrets stir and something darker begins to take
shape. Blending literary intrigue with Gothic atmosphere, Kidd
explores the forces that shaped a future icon. She is joined by Daniel
Cook for a fascinating conversation, delving into monsters, mythmaking, and murky origins."

https://t.co/LufdQGjjsi

Date: June 20, 2026
Start time: 17:30
End time: 18:30

Venue: The Steps Theatre, Central Library, The Wellgate, Dundee DD1 1DB

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

Launching today, The Dundee Review, is a twenty-first-century literary magazine for original gothic, terror, horror and fantasy fiction. Submit your stories now!

https://t.co/SbfTr16fYn

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

@JohnBoyne @guardian Good list… but was hoping to see some eighteenth-century novels (beyond Tristram Shandy)…

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

😎🧛

[Ross Noble @realrossnoble]

This is exciting the BBC has released first images of the reluctant vampire. Based on the book by Eric Morecambe. Starring Lenny Rush. It also features Bill Bailey and I as the castle gargoyles.

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

✈️📚 (Dublin, here I come!)

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

October 2026:

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

Out now from @BloomsburyBooks:

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

https://t.co/rMvCm8Tq7a

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

New from Penguin Classics on 13 October: Mary Shelley’s Gothic Tales, edited and introduced by Daniel Cook (paperback, Ebook and audiobook):

https://t.co/FGaPRpuvVx

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

Coming soon: Mary Shelley's Dundee (art by Katy Stone)

[Prof Daniel Cook @profdanielcook]

O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast

“O, wert thou in the cauld blast
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee.
Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy bield should be my bosom,
To share it a’, to share it a’

Or were I in the wildest waste,
Saw black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a Paradise,
If thou wert there, if thou wert there.
Or were I monarch o the globe,
Wi thee to reign, wi thee to reign,
The brightest jewel in my crown
Wad be my queen, wad be my queen.”

#BurnsNight