Gothic Immortals

Originally released in 1990, this book is the first full-length study of the novels grouped under the label 'Rosicrucian.' Mulvey-Roberts follows how this distinct fictional form emerged and argues that a continuous occult tradition runs beneath literary works that otherwise seem to have little in common.

The argument starts with the Enlightenment, when physicians began studying longevity and physical decay as secular questions. That scientific reworking of eternal life drew in writers such as William Godwin, and the book traces how it shaped their fiction.

The study centres on the bodily immortality of the Rosicrucian hero and examines the novels of five major writers: Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Maturin, and Bulwer-Lytton.