This digital scholarly edition offers several ways to explore these six Gothic tales. From the Home page, click on one of the titles or images to visit the main page for that tale.
Tale Pages
On the tale's main page (e.g., Ferdinando Eboli, you will see the illustration of the tale followed by a brief summary of the tale and how it engages with the Gothic.
The brief summary is followed by some bibliographical information:
Title in Contents List: This field lists the title of the piece as shown in The Keepsake's title page, which is sometimes different than the tale's actual title.
Creator: The author or artist who created the piece. The six tales collected in this edition are all written by Mary Shelley, but the other pieces in each volume of The Keepsake have different creators. Clicking this link takes you to a list of all the items in the digital edition with that creator.
Attribution: The creator of the piece as listed within The Keepsake, in the Contents list and/or on the first page of the piece itself. Mary Shelley's writing is usually attributed "The Author of Frankenstein" or some variation.
Type of Work: The six Gothic tales are categorized as "Tales or Short Story," for example, and the engravings that accompany them are categorized as "Illustration." Clicking this link takes you to a list of all the other items in the digital edition of that same type.
Date of Publication: The date that the item was published. The Keepsake was published a few weeks before the year it is numbered for, so that "Ferdinando Eboli" was published in late 1828 but appears in The Keepsake for 1829.
Page(s): The pages on which the item appears. For illustrations and other unnumbered pages, the number of the page facing the item is given.
Text of the Tale: Clicking this link opens a plain text version of the text. The copytext, or text from which this plain text version was created, is the version of the tale in The Keepsake. There may be slight variations between the copytext and the holograph manuscript of the tale, that is, the manuscript of the tale in Shelley's handwriting. This plain text can be saved as a .txt file and downloaded for reading or research, such as text analysis.
Intertexts: Other texts referenced, alluded to, or somehow related to this text. "Text" is defined broadly here, and refers to textual documents (such as the tales) as well as illustrations (visual texts). Clicking one of these links opens the main page for that item.
Motifs: The literary motifs or tropes characteristic of Gothic literature that appear in the tale. Clicking on one of these links takes you to a list of all the items in the digital edition that include that motif.
Named Characters: All the characters with names who appear in the tale. Other characters who are not named (e.g., "the maid," "a fisherman") are not listed, with the exception of the unnamed creature in "Transformation." Clicking on one of these links takes you to the main page for that character. Each character's main page lists their full name and title as given in their tale (or other text), their role (e.g., character, historical character), and if applicable (i.e., for historical characters), a link to their identity authority page in WorldCat. This identity authority is useful for identifying historical figures that appear in the texts in The Keepsake and providing paths for future research.
Named Dates: All the dates or markers of time that appear in the tale. Some tales refer to precise years, while others refer to historical periods (e.g., a monarch's reign).
Named Places: All the places, such as geographical locations and landmarks, that are named in the tale. Clicking on one of these places takes you to a list of all the items in the digital edition that include a mention of that place. The map underneath the list of Named Place includes markers that are generated automatically from the location names, and are for general reference only, since they do not necessarily represent the precise location described in the text.
Page Image Gallery: A digital facsimile of the tale as it appears in The Keepsake. These facsimiles were created by scanning the copes of The Keepsake held in University of Victoria Libraries' Special Collections. Because the bindings of these books is quite delicate, some of the scans are a little misaligned.
Using This Site
This page, the page you are reading now, is a guide for using this digital edition.
The Project
This page describes the goals of the project and the process of developing it.
The Keepsake
This page provides an overview of The Keepsake and its significance, and includes a gallery of images illustrating its features.
The Tales
This page provides an overview of the six tales collected in this digital edition and a rationale for selecting them.
The Editor
This tale introduces the editor of the digital edition.
Volume Pages
Just as each tale has its own page, each volume of The Keepsake from 1829 to 1834 has its own main page that begins with some bibliographical information (e.g., The Keepsake for 1829).
Publication Date: The date that the volume was published.
Editor: The editor of that volume of The Keepsake. Clicking on one of these links takes you to that creator's main page (see below).
Publisher: The publisher of that volume of The Keepsake
This bibliographical information is followed by a list of all items in the Contents list of that volume of The Keepsake
Agent Pages
Clicking on the name of an author, editor, illustrator, engraver, or other creator takes you to their main page (e.g., Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley). Although most of the creators are people, some–like publishing houses–are not.
This page lists the creator's name, attribution, and identity authority page in WorldCat, as described above, as well as their role and birth and death dates.
List of Works: A list of all the works made by this creator in the digital edition. Clicking on these links take you to a page for that work.
How to Cite
Winter, Caroline. [Title of Page]. Mary Shelley's Gothic Tales in The Keepsake. 2019, www.gothictales.ca. Accessed [date].