Ailise Bulfin, Gothic Invasions: Imperialism, War, and Fin-de-Siècle Popular Fiction (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2018), pp. 288, £85 hardcover

In her first monograph and latest contribution to the field of invasion studies, Ailise Bulfin asks: What do tales of stalking vampires, restless Egyptian mummies, foreign master criminals, barbarian Eastern hordes, and stomping Prussian soldiers have in common? The chief answer is that this rogues’ gallery of literary and pop culture monsters reflects British society’s fear of invasion and subversion by foreign powers or peoples and the degeneration that would either enable or result from such an invasion.