LONDON.- This autumn sees the opening of Terror and Wonder, the UK’s largest exhibition of Gothic literature. Marking 250 years since Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto caused a sensation and inspired the new genre, the exhibition celebrates the many literary masterpieces produced in Britain ever since, as well as modern interpretations of the Gothic in pop culture today.

The exhibition features the manuscripts and rare and personal editions of such Gothic classics as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, as well as the work of contemporary writers influenced by the genre, including Angela Carter, Mervyn Peake, Clive Barker and Sarah Waters.

Highlights of the exhibition also include the dark and Gothic-inspired artworks of influential painters, including Henry Fuseli, William Blake and Philip James de Loutherbourg, contrasted against modern art and photography, costumes and movies, from the Chapman Brothers to Stanley Kubrick.

Tracing Gothic fiction’s exciting journey, the exhibition explores how this literature has been an important reflection of society’s attitudes, angst and fears over the last 250 years. From the dark days of the French Revolution, when writers pushed boundaries with shocking novels such as The Monk, to the explosion of Gothic in the 20th century and its influence on the art and culture we enjoy today, Terror and Wonder questions our continuing fascination with the dark and the monstrous.

Earlier this year the Library announced that they are putting their literary treasures online for the world to see with a new website, Discovering Literature. Many of the Gothic literary greats featuring in the exhibition, including the Brontës, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, can be explored amongst the Romantic and Victorian literature now available online.

A wide range of literary, film and music events will accompany the exhibition, as well as a learning programme for teachers and students. Among the high profile event participants will be authors Susan Hill and Sarah Waters, actor Reece Shearsmith, comedian Stewart Lee and musician Brian May.

This Autumn BBC Two, BBC Four and the British Library are celebrating all things Gothic with a new season of programmes exploring the literature, architecture, music and artworks that have taken such a prominent place in British culture.