Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds

An award-winning scholar and author charts four hundred years of monsters and how they reflect the culture that created them

Leo Braudy, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, has won accolades for revealing the complex and constantly shifting history behind seemingly unchanging ideas of fame, war, and masculinity.
 
Continuing his interest in the history of emotion, this book explores how fear has been shaped into images of monsters and monstrosity. From the Protestant Reformation to contemporary horror films and fiction, he explores four major types: the monster from nature (King Kong), the created monster (Frankenstein), the monster from within (Mr. Hyde), and the monster from the past (Dracula). Drawing upon deep historical and literary research, Braudy discusses the lasting presence of fearful imaginings in an age of scientific progress, viewing the detective genre as a rational riposte to the irrational world of the monstrous. Haunted is a compelling and incisive work by a writer at the height of his powers.

• The Devil: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
• The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
• On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears
• Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves and Ghosts: 25 Classic Stories of the Supernatural (Signet Classics)
• The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition
• Three Great Horror Novels: Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics)
• The Vampire: A New History
• Beowulf: A Verse Translation (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)
• Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting