America’s Most Gothic

From the Bram Stoker nominated author team who penned A Haunted History of Invisible Women,the first book of its kind to investigate gothic tropes that define American lore. Here is the hiddendark history of what frightens us – and why. The Gothic. Broodingatmosphericchillingand not always the outpouring of a feverish imagination. Reality can be even stranger as borne out in this lush and ghostly look at real people who lived–and diedΓÇöamidst the trappings of the Gothic. Fog clinging to an isolated mansion. A dangerous patriarch or an overbearing matron. Locked doors and forbidden rooms. Whispers of murder and madness. And a woman shadowed by omnipresent threats. YouΓÇÖve guessed it. YouΓÇÖve stumbled into a Gothic taleand it will haunt you like a ghost. We often think of the enduring tropes of the Gothic in terms of fiction and filmΓÇöbreath-catching escapes that tap into our fearsanxietiesforbidden desiresand unsettling dreams. But what if some of these chilly vibes are rooted in the experiences of real and tragic people who danced a macabre waltz with love and death? ThatΓÇÖs why weΓÇÖre here. Take the case of teenage Mercy BrownvictimΓÇöor was it predator?ΓÇöof Rhode IslandΓÇÖs vampire hysteria of the 1890s. Marguerite de la Roquea French noblewoman condemned for ΓÇ£sexual crimesΓÇ¥ to CanadaΓÇÖs long-lost Isle of Demons. What happened to her and the barren landscape itself is the stuff of legend. And ΓÇ£Mad LucyΓÇ¥ Ludwellthe decidedly peculiar eighteenth-century high-society hauteur driven mad in the Virginia estate she prowls to this day. President Helen PeabodyΓÇÖs spirit still stringently watches over her WomenΓÇÖs Collegenow part of OhioΓÇÖs Miami University. Ghosts of workers lost in horrific conditions while building the Hoosac Tunnel warn of imminent danger. Settle in. There are more. Welcome to the phantom shipshaunted academic hallsmenacing landscapesand family curses of AmericaΓÇÖs Most GothicΓÇöa tour of true spectral sightings and disordered minds. But beware: itΓÇÖs sure to get under your skin. The hauntedΓÇöand hauntingΓÇöfigures herein want it that way.