Lost in time: the wicked voice of Vernon Lee

The Gothic is obsessed with the past. In older texts this can be seen most obviously with the settings, such as castles, ruins and monasteries but also with regard to the characters that inhabit these stories. Creatures like demons, incubi and succubae belong to a mythological past whereas a whole host of monsters impervious to the passing of time – the undead, phantoms and ghosts – are themselves traces of a past that need to be reconciled with the present if they are ever to move on.

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