European Society for the Study Of English

Honourable mention in the Category LITERATURES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Award in Category A: Honourable mention:
Saggini, Francesca: The Gothic Novel and the Stage: Romantic Appropriations. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2015.

This study focuses on the relationship between the late 18th c. and early 19th c. Gothic novel and the stage. Saggini has carried out extensive research and has detected an impressive number of sources that record stage appropriations of Gothic novels. The book is dedicated to a highly neglected Romantic genre, i.e. drama, in a manner which combines structuralist analysis with contextual historical understanding. Saggini writes lucidly in a style that will appeal to readers also outside academia, and the book contains brilliant illustrations as well as clear overviews in table form. In sum, this is a significant work of admirable scholarship, thoroughly researched and admirably documented, offering valuable insights into the eighteenth-century culture.