"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending..."  —Wm. Wordsworth

The Literary Gothic has surrendered to the commercial impulse that so defines our age, becoming an Amazon.com Associate in order to make a few bucks. I'm not planning on quitting my day job, much to the dismay of my students, for — in all seriousness — the financial goals here are pretty modest; I'll be delighted if this enterprise brings in enough to cover 3 months of my webhosting fee (which is about what it does, so I guess my plan was a success). Another very real part of this involves the simple pleasures and realities of reading hard-copy texts rather than etexts; the latter are all well and good, but for many of us they can't fulfill all the needs and expectations and practical requirements of the reading we do or want to do in our lives. Sometimes you just need a paper-and-ink book.

So..... I've set up links from various author pages to particular texts for sale at Amazon.com, something which in many respects is simply an extension of this website's primary purpose: to function as a guide to the world of the Gothic. Whether paper or pixel, Gothic is Gothic....

The Books: I've chosen particular editions where more than one is available — purely subjective on my part, to be sure, but I've tried to keep the following principles in mind: I've selected paperbacks rather than hardcover whenever possible; I've avoided out-of-print or special order titles if there are other options, even if that means selecting a hardcover edition; I've not linked to any ebooks (rather defeats the purpose, I'd say); I've chosen the most authoritative edition possible, which means favoring university presses such as Oxford UP or more prestigious publishing houses such as Penguin over the mass-market (and, yes, often slightly less expensive) offerings of such imprints as Bantam or Signet. Not that those companies aren't represented here, and not that I don't sometimes use them myself in some of my classes and for personal purchases, but the English professor in me insists, whenever possible, on those editions of important texts which have been prepared according to the highest scholarly standards. The more authoritative editions also usually have various introductions and notes which can help explain some of the more obscure references and allusions in these old texts, and that alone is worth a buck or two.

Cookies? As of late 2005 I've started adding some of Amazon's enhanced product links to various pages; these are book cover images which, when moused over, will cause a small window to pop-up, providing basic info about the book. Currently, only some users will see these. This feature requires Amazon's servers to set a cookie, and while your browser may show a warning about LitGothic.com wanting to set a cookie, rest assured those cookies are NOT actually set by LitGothic, nor does any of that information come to LitGothic.

If you find this Amazon feature useful, or annoying, or disruptive, or whatever, please let me know.



As always, enjoy, and thanks for visiting LitGothic.