Скачать или смотреть The history of the (gothic) short story

The Gothic short story didn’t start with Edgar Allan Poe — but Poe gave it rules that still shape horror today.

📚 In this video, we trace the dark family tree:
• E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Night Pieces (1816) introduced uncanny psychology in tales like The Sandman
• Washington Irving gave America its first ghost stories with Rip Van Winkle (1819) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales (1837) set the stage for Poe’s 1842 “unity of effect” theory
• Edgar Allan Poe perfected the form with The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) and The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
• Mary Shelley’s The Mortal Immortal (1833) and Charles Dickens’s The Signal-Man (1866) kept the Gothic pulse alive
• M.R. James crowned the tradition with Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), inventing the modern ghost story

Why short stories? Gothic terror thrives on brevity — atmosphere unbroken, dread sustained, one unforgettable chill.

⚰️ From Hoffmann to James, this is how the short story became horror’s sharpest weapon.

👉 Which Gothic short story haunts you the most? Drop it in the comments.

Referenced works & dates:
• Horace Walpole – The Castle of Otranto (1764)
• E.T.A. Hoffmann – Die Nachtstücke (1816), esp. “The Sandman,” “Das Majorat”
• Washington Irving – “Rip Van Winkle” (1819), “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne – Twice-Told Tales (1837)
• Edgar Allan Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839), “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843); review of Hawthorne (1842)
• Mary Shelley – “The Mortal Immortal” (1833)
• Charles Dickens – “The Signal-Man” (1866)
• M.R. James – Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), esp. “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”