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Dale Bailey. American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1999.
In close readings of what he argues is a "representative selection" of texts that chart the development of the haunted house trope in American popular fiction, Bailey discusses how these formulaic tales predominantly expose patriarchal and materialistic structures embedded in the American Dream. After glossing The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Great Gatsby in order to highlight how the house has often functioned in fictional texts as a subversive site that "indict[s] American culture," Bailey examines several twentieth century novels that build upon the haunted house conventions established by Poe's "The Fall of...