BAVS@Home: Terrifying Tales of the Victorian Weird

A Halloween-themed BAVS@Home session exploring nineteenth-century ghost stories

Wed, 27 October 2021 17:00 – 18:30 BST

‘Of course I do not believe in ghosts; but I don’t deny, any more than other people, that there are stories which I cannot pretend to understand.’

‘The Open Door’, Margaret Oliphant, 1881

Speakers: Dr Jen Baker (Warwick University), Dr Joan Passey (Bristol University), Dr Henry Bartholomew (University of Exeter), and Janette Leaf (Birkbeck College, University of London) and Daisy Butcher (University of Hertfordshire)

Hosts: Dr Heather Hind (University of Roehampton) and Dr Danielle Dove (University of Surrey)

Format: Via Zoom

In this Halloween-themed session, Dr Jen Baker, Dr Joan Passey, Dr Henry Bartholomew, Janette Leaf and Daisy Butcher will introduce their British Library ‘Tales of the Weird’ collections, focusing specifically on nineteenth-century ghost stories:

• Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End, edited by Joan Passey
• Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird, edited by Daisy Butcher and Janette Leaf
• Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth, edited by Jen Baker
• Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-bending Tales of the Mathematical Weird, edited by Henry Bartholomew

After a short reading, we will host a roundtable discussion followed by a Q&A.

This event is part of the BAVS@Home series hosted by the British Association for Victorian Studies. Tickets are free to all BAVS members and just £5 for non-members.