Regency Thrills and Chills

My two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving, for family and American-style football, and Halloween. The first has never caused another to even blink in surprise; the latter has caused more than one arched brow of consternation, given that I’m a wuss of the highest order. While none can convince me that IT is not waiting for me under the bed, that saying “Candyman” into a mirror thrice is a good idea, or suddenly elongating shadows sprouting claws are a good thing, so, too, are there aspects about the holiday I relish. Still, given all the references in the Austen novels to gothic novels of the times, I thought I would get an idea of what that was all about during the Regency.

A few books that delved into the occult published before 1800:

1. The Castle of Wolfenbach, by Eliza Parsons (1793)
2. Clermont, by Regina Maria Roche (1798)
3. The Mysterious Warning, by Eliza Parsons (1796)
4. The Necromancer, or The Tale of the Black Forest, by Ludwig Flammenberg (1794)
5. The Midnight Bell, by Francis Lathom (1798)
6. The Orphan of the Rhine, by Eleanor Sleath (1798)
7. The Horrid Mysteries, by Carl Grosse (1796) – translated from German by Peter Will

The Regency Looking Glass: Regency thrills and chills: Jane Austen’s “horrid novels”

Not in this list are The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Italian (1797), and Catherine Moreland’s favorite, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), both by Ann Radcliffe. Before the Regency ended, it would also see Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I have long loved Shelley’s novel and added it to my Austenesque TBR challenge.

Some stories were more amusement than gothic horror; examples include Ackermann’s Repository tales The Widow of Milan and The Apparition of Lady Lee. You can read these tales in complete here: EKDuncan – My Fanciful Muse: Regency Era Ghost Stories from Ackermann’s Repository. The author of the bog made the fun picture used as the title photo with these inspirations.

Still, some felt that All Hallow’s Eve, also called Nutcrack Night, was a night to be feared. In an annotated version of Burn’s Halloween, Hamilton Paul (1819) describes Halloween as “thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings, are abroad on their baneful, midnight errands…”

Although the origins of Halloween are commonly thought to be pagan, historians link it to the Celtic festival of Samhain, derived from the Old Irish Samhain, meaning “summer’s end” (Halloween wiki). Turnips, not pumpkins, were carved into lanterns to remember the souls in purgatory. “Trick-or-treating, known as guising (dressing in disguise), is said to be rooted in the tradition of Christmas wassailing. This was most prevalent during the medieval age, when the poor would go “souling” or door to door on Hallowmas (All Hallow’s Day), receiving food in return for prayers of the dead.

Traces of many cultures can be found on Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, or All Souls Night. And though one would think it would be a night full of masquerades and other shenanigans of the haute ton, many estate owners were yet in the country for the harvest and throwing a harvest ball for their tenants, allowing for a night of drinking, dancing, and general carousing that can only be done to celebrate hard work and the prosperity of an estate. Still, that does beg the opportunity for a novel or novella to begin with a masquerade in Lambton, Bath, or Lyme for one of Austen’s dear couples.

Sources for Regency Thrills and Chills:

Author Unknown “Thrills and Chills of the Regency Era” Regency Reader Date Unknown, Regency Literature: Ghosts, Ghouls and Gothic – Regency Reader (regrom.com)

Author Unknown “All Hallow’s Eve Part I” Regency Reader Date Unknown, Regency Culture and Society: All Hallow’s Eve Part One – Regency Reader (regrom.com)

Author Unknown “All Hallow’s Eve Part II” Regency Reader Date Unknown, Regency Culture and Society: All Hallow’s Eve Part II – Regency Reader (regrom.com)

EKDuncan “Regency Era Ghost Stories from Ackermann’s Repository” My Fanciful Muse October 2, 2011, EKDuncan – My Fanciful Muse: Regency Era Ghost Stories from Ackermann’s Repository

Mackey, Maureen “Regency thrills and chills: Jane Austen’s “horrid novels” The Regency Looking Glass October 23, 2020, The Regency Looking Glass: Regency thrills and chills: Jane Austen’s “horrid novels”