Note: The cover of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed inthe public domain. A more extensive transcriber’s note can be foundat the end of this book.
The
Supernatural in Modern
English Fiction
By
Dorothy Scarborough, Ph.D.
Instructor in English in Extension, Columbia University
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1917
Copyright, 1917
by
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
To
GEORGE AND ANNE SCARBOROUGH
PREFACE
The subject of the supernatural in modern Englishfiction has been found difficult to deal with becauseof its wealth of material. While there has been noprevious book on the topic, and none related to it, saveMr. C. E. Whitmore’s work on The Supernatural in Tragedy,the mass of fiction itself introducing ghostly or psychicmotifs is simply enormous. It is manifestly impossibleto discuss, or even to mention, all of it. Even in mybibliography which numbers over three thousand titles, Ihave made no effort to list all the available examples of thetype. The bibliography, which I at first intended topublish in connection with this volume, is far too voluminousto be included here, so will probably be brought outlater by itself.
It would have been impossible for me to prosecute theresearch work or to write the book save for the assistancegenerously given by many persons. I am indebted to thevarious officials of the libraries of Columbia Universityand of New York City, particularly to Miss Isadore Mudge,Reference Librarian of Columbia, and to the authoritiesof the New York Society Library for permission to usetheir priceless out-of-print novels in the Kennedy Collection.My interest in English fiction was increasedduring my attendance on some courses in the historyof the English novel, given by Dr. A. J. Carlyle, in OxfordUniversity, England, several years ago. I have receivedhelpful bibliographical suggestions from Professor BlancheColton Williams, Dr. Dorothy Brewster, Professor NelsonGlenn McCrea, Professor John Cunliffe, and Dean Talcott[vi]Williams, of Columbia, and Professor G. L. Kittredge, ofHarvard. Professors William P. Trent, George PhilipKrapp, and Ernest Hunter Wright very kindly readthe book in manuscript and gave valuable advice concerningit, Professor Wright going over the material withme in detail. But my chief debt of gratitude is toProfessor Ashley H. Thorndike, Head of the Departmentof English and Comparative Literature in Columbia,whose stimulating criticism and kindly encouragementhave made the book possible. To all of these—andothers—who have aided me, I am deeply grateful, andI only wish that the published volume were more worthyof their assistance.
D. S.
Columbia University,
April, 1917.