Foundations of Fiction, The - Mad Scientists

In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today. Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving. Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the surest way to reach a hungry readership is to build on the fortune and flair of your literary colleagues. In literary terms it seems you are never more than half a dozen stories away from a mad scientist. True or not it’s a given that they are amongst the most entertaining of protagonists and one of the go-to characters for authors down the ages. In this volume we explore everything from the seemingly plausible to the obviously mad-cap and, of course, each narrative is driven by a character full of ideas but missing a button or two of common sense. 01 - Foundations of Fiction - Mad Scientists - An Introduction 2 - Herbert West - Re-Animator by H P Lovecraft 3 - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 4 - The Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe 5 - Doctor Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne 6 - The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley 7 - A Thousand Deaths by Jack London 8 - A Diagnosis of Death by Ambrose Bierce 9 - Carnivorine by Lucy Hamilton Hooper 10 - Lost Hearts by M R James 11 - The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne 12 - The Blue Laboratory by L T Meade 13 - The Man Without a Body by Edward Page Mitchell 14 - The Moaning Lily by Emma Vane 15 - The Love Germ by Constance Cotterell 16 - Cool Air by H P Lovecraft 17 - The Freezing of London by Herbert C Ridout 18 - Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne