''The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey'' is a

gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

first published in 1797 in one

octavo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

volume by the sensationalist

Minerva Press Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, Lon ...

of London. It proved particularly popular with the new circulating libraries of the day. A gothic tale of horror, rather than suspense, it centres on the physical and grotesque, rather than on metaphysical terror.

Synopsis

The novel tells the story of Laura, a foundling refugee from

revolutionary France The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, her attempted seduction at the hands of Lord Oakendale and her explorations of the haunted

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

of the title which lead her to stumble upon a den of

resurrection men ''Resurrection Men'' is a 2002 novel by Ian Rankin. It is the thirteenth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2004. Plot summary Detective Inspector John Rebus has been sent to Tulliallan, the Scottish Pol ...

and

body snatchers Body snatching is the illicit removal of corpses from graves, morgues, and other burial sites. Body snatching is distinct from the act of grave robbery as grave robbing does not explicitly involve the removal of the corpse, but rather theft from ...

. It is unusually graphic in its depiction of death and decay, even by the standards of the day, in terms of its descriptions of the gruesome. The book is similar in some respects to

Eliza Parsons Eliza Parsons (née Phelp) (1739 – 5 February 1811) was an English Gothic novelist, best known for ''The Castle of Wolfenbach'' (1793) and '' The Mysterious Warning'' (1796). These are two of the seven Gothic titles recommended as reading by a ...

' ''

The Castle of Wolfenbach ''The Castle of Wolfenbach'' (1793) is the most famous novel written by the English Gothic novelist Eliza Parsons. First published in two volumes in 1793, it is among the seven "horrid novels" recommended by the character Isabella Thorpe in Ja ...

'' although it does not have the same emotional subtlety of that work.

Authorship

The title page of the novel simply says it is "by the author of ''Elizabeth''," referring to another novel published by the Minerva Press in 1797. Both ''Elizabeth'' and ''The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey'' are attributed to a "Mrs. Carver" in the Minerva Library's 1814 catalogue. "Mrs. Carver" is possibly a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

for

Anthony Carlisle Sir Anthony Carlisle FRCS, FRS (15 February 1768 in Stillington, County Durham, England – 2 November 1840 in London) was an English surgeon. Life He was born in Stillington, County Durham, the third son of Thomas Carlisle and his first wife, a ...

, a well known surgeon, later knighted. The name of Carver would thus be a play on the name of his occupation. In fact, the name Carlisle is mentioned in the book itself, by a guard who tells the main characters "that they frequently procured bodies after word interned at or near Carlisle."

Publication

After first being published in London in 1797, it was reprinted in the United States in 1799 (in New York) and again in 1812 (in Frankford, Pennsylvania). A modern edition was published in 2006 by Zittaw Press in the United States.

References

1797 novels British Gothic novels {{18thC-gothic-novel-stub