
Contrary to accounts that interpret terror in opposition to reason, this book shows how three authors famous for their works and theories of terror-Jonathan Edwards, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville-developed a terror that incorporates, theorizes, and extends the Enlightenment...

If America is a nation founded upon Enlightenment ideals, then why are so many of its most celebrated pieces of literature so dark? American Terror returns to the question of American literature's distinctive tone of terror through a close study of three authors--Jonathan...