The 19th century was a time of social, cultural, and economic change; revolutionary scientific developments; and enduring imaginative works. This book explores the classic horror genre of Gothic literature in its historical and social contexts. Its chapters on four major works provide a mix of background information, primary source historical documents, and analysis that will appeal to high school and college students and lovers of literature and the Victorian era. These major works are contextualized through documents pertaining to their respective themes: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (British imperialism, Antarctic Exploration, and environmentalism), Frankenstein (galvanism, electricity, grave robbing, and the vitalist debate), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (19th-century drug use and addiction, psychology and criminology), and Dracula (mesmerism, clairvoyance, alienism, medical ethics, xenophobia, and Victorian pseudoscience).