Scare Yourself Back to the 18th Century

Need to get into the mood for Halloween?  Check out the ghost stories and other macabre tales available in the Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Early English Books Online databases.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a recent acquisition, thanks to generous support from the Department of English of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.  Based on the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), Eighteenth Century Collection Online (ECCO) captures most significant books (monographs) published in the United Kingdom during the 18th century regardless of language, plus thousands of English-language works from elsewhere. Search by keywords in the text or by fields such as work author, title, publisher, or place of publication. Texts are divided into 8 broad subject areas, such as history and geography, law, literature, or medicine and science.
ECCO is truly an amazing cabinet of wonders for examining life and thought in the dawn of the modern era, from political upheaval to scientific breakthroughs to the rise of international commerce and middle class consumerism.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) is the “prequel” to ECCO, offering page images of more than 125,000 books, pamphlets, and broadsides from the beginning of printing in England up until 1700. Here you will find religious and political tracts treating the English Civil War, establishment of and trade with North American colonies, medical investigations, religious dissent and disputation, and a flourishing literary culture of plays, poetry, and essays.

Taken together, ECCO and EEBO offer you a global library of rare books from the comfort of your keyboard or tablet.  You can search by keyword or for type or publication, or for physical qualities such as the presence of illustrations.  Or browse page images of a book from beginning to end.

Now: back to scary stuff.  Here are some ECCO and EEBO links to get you ready for a spooky holiday.

• Ghost Stories from ECCO, including The Compleat Wizzard (1770),  The History of Apparitions, Ghosts, Spirits or Spectres (1762), and The wonderful, strange, apparition and ghost of Edward Ashley, the Widdow Ashley’s son, that lives in Little Russell-Street in Bloomsbury (1712).
• The earliest horror and Gothic novels from ECCO, including The Castle of Otranto, Vathek, and The Mysteries of Udolpho.
• Supernatural tales from EEBO, including Strange and Wonderfull News from Cornwall (1687), Wonderful and Strange News from Scotland (1673), and (dum dum dum) The Kingdom of Darkness (1688).  

Access ECCO and EEBO from anywhere with your UARK username and password.  So no need to leave your house to have some creepy fun.  Unless, you know, there are some odd sounds coming from the basement.