In
1800 London, Franz and Serena Potter might have been
street-corner vendors hawking popular pamphlet-sized Gothic
novels to the masses for a sixpence or a shilling.
In
2005 Thousand Oaks, the literature-enthused couple sit in their
modest apartment and try to do much the same thing. Their
efforts to bring 19th-century Gothic fiction to the public light
-- via their fledgling Zittaw Press business -- is authentic to
the point where the books are printed on cotton rag, folded and
stitched together. That's one by one, right there in the living
room.
"This
was not the well-thought-out part," Franz Potter said with
a laugh as he threaded the binding on a copy of "The Bloody
Hand" one afternoon last week. Added Serena, "We just
rent a couple of videos, cut and sew all night, and get out the
shipment."
Random
House this isn't. This husband-and-wife team is about as micro
as publishing gets. But their reprints have made the shelves of
university libraries at Harvard, Berkeley and elsewhere, and
filled out the reading list on many a college syllabus. They
even sold some of their stuff to a junior high school literature
teacher in Australia.
Not
bad for a business that's existed for just two years. Gothic
literature, with its overtones of horror, terror and mystery --
think Frankenstein, Dracula, dark forests, decaying castles and
monasteries, evil counts, young women in distress, dungeons and
cobweb-filled staircases, though it occasionally branched into
historic and romance novels -- is again retro popular.
Gothic
leanings can be seen in the vampire novels of Anne Rice, the
writings of Joyce Carol Oates, some Stephen King works and many
a Harlequin romance novel. "The Shadow of the Wind," a
fixture on the New York Times best-seller list last year, is
"step-by-step Gothic novel," Serena said (though
author Carlos Ruiz Zafon moves it ahead in time to post-World
War II Barcelona). Gothic also has infused music and movies, and
now people are scrambling to find out how and when it all began.
"The
field of Gothic studies is exploding," she said.
Therein
lies a rub for the Potters. They, through dealings with
university and library distributors and hitting conferences,
have covered academia markets fairly well. Now they want to
figure out how to get the general public interested.
"My
goal is for people to read them -- and read them to death,"
Franz said. "We want them out there so people can get a
flavor for the time period. It's a glimpse into the past."
A bit
of history
Gothic
novels enjoyed their heyday from the 1760s to the 1820s. They
were, Franz said, the best-sellers of their time. One reason is
that they came in edited, pamphlet-sized versions, called
chapbooks (or bluebooks), that the average person could get for
a sixpence or shilling on a street corner.
Many
commoners didn't have access to libraries, and a full novel
could cost a working-class toiler more than a month's wages,
since paper was so expensive in those days, said Franz, who has
a doctoral degree in English from the University of East Anglia
in Norwich, England, and also teaches it online via National
University in Camarillo, where he's an associate English
professor.
So it
was not uncommon for an 800-plus-page novel to be boiled down
to, say, a 36-page chapbook.
"They'd
go to parties and talk about it like they'd read the whole
thing; it was sort of like our modern Cliffs Notes," Serena
said, alluding to the booklets that contain summaries of novels
and plays and are worshipped by many a college student who
doesn't want to read the whole thing or doesn't want to shell
out big bucks for a hardcover version.
Their
popularity spread from England all the way to America. The
masses loved the Gothic trade books, but they were not
critically acclaimed and were dismissed in serious literary
circles.
Jane
Austen made fun of them in her writings, Franz noted, though for
others they were guilty pleasures. When a copy was spied in
someone's house, they'd often remark that the maid was reading
it.
"That's
what they were at the time, the page turners," Franz said.
To not
include them in literary history, he opined, "would be as
if you studied the mystery-thriller genre and didn't include Tom
Clancy," referring to another popular author who is not a
critical darling.
Gothic
novels also marked the first time women were influential in
literary circles, Franz said. Many of the Gothic writers were
women; so were many of the readers.
Mary
Shelley's "Frankenstein," written in 1818, is probably
the signature work from the period (though during a brief Gothic
revival at the end of the 19th century, Bram Stoker wrote
another Gothic giant, "Dracula," in 1897). Other
writers included Ann Radcliffe and Sarah Wilkinson.
"Gothic
literature was the first time women dominated a genre,"
Franz said.
But
many suffered for it. Women who wrote for a living, such as
Wilkinson, were frowned upon (they were not supposed to have
jobs); Radcliffe, who wrote in her spare time, was celebrated.
This was also an era when women still married who they were told
to and obeyed out of a sense of duty and responsibility.
So
when some of the female authors wrote of women finding true love
but having to suffer because of their duty of being promised to
another, it was almost considered a crime. Many of them wrote
anonymously.
"A
lot of these women wrote out of desperation," Franz said.
"But
it was not considered proper and, other than Ann Radcliffe, the
women didn't do that well."
Wilkinson,
for example, died in a poorhouse (also called a workhouse in
England), leaving behind 17 novels and about 100 chapbooks.
Lessons
learned
Aside
from the horror, forbidding castles, revenge and
sensationalistic elements, the books wanted to teach people
harsh lessons. They were didactic, moralistic -- "they
wanted you to learn something," Franz said.
The
street-corner Gothic fiction chapbooks waned in popularity with
the creation of printing presses and other processes that
brought the cost of paper way down.
That
gave rise to newspapers, such as the ones in which Charles
Dickens got his start writing, as mass-appeal information
sources. But the Gothic works influenced not only Dickens but
other budding greats as well, such as the romantic poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley (husband of Mary Shelley), who wrote two Gothic
novels before sticking to stanzas, as well as the poet John
Keats, who read Radcliffe.
In
their heyday, literally hundreds of thousands of copies of the
Gothic chapbooks and novels existed, Franz said. Of that, only
about 10 or so -- such as "Frankenstein" -- are what
would be deemed mainstream titles.
Tracking
down titles
Few
survive to this day. The Potters found some titles at the
national British Library. Here, the University of Virginia has a
nice Gothic collection. Occasionally, Serena said, an old
chapbook will pop up at an estate sale.
Their
quest to bring lesser-known and forgotten Gothic works to light
has taken them around the world on searches for long-lost
titles.
"Sometimes,
we have to do a lot of scouring," Serena said.
They
don't make much money at this, and it's obvious something else
is at work.
The
couple clearly relish the genre -- "Should we try to look
dreadful?" Serena teased during a photo shoot -- and to
hear Franz talk about Gothic literature is akin to having those
rustling dark forests, creaky staircases and dank dungeons come
to life right on the spot. His fists clench for emphasis,
excitement burns the edges of his voice, the eyes spark and
fire, and he gets lost in character.
"I'm
sorry, I get carried away sometimes," he said with a laugh
at one point, pausing only briefly before launching into another
story.
The
enthusiasm is almost infectious.
With
the Potters it lasts and lasts -- until it's time to sew those
book bindings.
About
the proprietors
November
10, 2005
In
2005 Thousand Oaks, the literature-enthused couple sit in their
modest apartment and try to do much the same thing.
What:
Co-owners of Zittaw Press, a small independent press based in
Thousand Oaks that specializes in reprints and reproductions of
rare 18th- and 19th-century Gothic fiction, including chapbooks
and novels. The genre deals primarily with horror, terror and
mystery but also includes historical and romantic novels. Franz
is the editorial adviser and academic researcher; Serena handles
marketing and advertising.
Age:
Both are 36.
Local:
Thousand Oaks residents for three months. Serena grew up in Los
Angeles County, Franz in Orange County. Previously they lived in
New Hampshire and England.
Education:
Franz has a doctoral degree in English from the University of
East Anglia in Norwich, England, and is an associate professor
at National University in Camarillo. Serena has a bachelor of
arts degree in studio art from the University of Utah. When not
doing Zittaw work, she likes to paint.
Family
life: Two daughters, MaCall, 10, a sixth-grader at Glenwood
School in Thousand Oaks, and Eloise, 7, a second-grader there.
One goofball Russian Blue cat, Lucy.
Of
note: Their company name, Zittaw Press, comes from a Sarah
Wilkinson chapbook titled "Zittaw the Cruel."
