American Nightmares The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction

Scholar and fantasy writer Bailey traces the motive from English gothic fiction through such luminaries as Poe and Hawthorne to Steven King and paperback potboilers of the present. After exploring the domestic, economic, and social significance of houses, he finds that in good hands, the haunted house becomes a subversive symbol of everything that has turned nightmare in the American Dream. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR