Gothic Readings: The First Wave, 1764-1840 is an anthology of Gothic literature, set within the context of contemporary criticism and readers' responses. It includes selections from the major practitioners (including Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe) and many of their followers (including Clara Reeve, Charlotte Smith, Joanna Baillie, Charles Brockden Brown, Catherine Cuthbertson and Eliza Parsons), as well as contemporary reviews, private letters and diaries, chapbooks, and contemporary anecdotes about dramatic performances and the design of theatre sets.