The Introduction presents the themes, scope, and arguments of the book, and it gives an overview of its structure. There is also a note on terminology.

Chapter 4 shows dinosaurs’ link to concerns about secularisation and specialisation contributed to Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous romance The Lost World. It argues that the text can be understood in relation to Conan Doyle’s romantic approach to scientific knowledge, especially his strident anti-materialism and aversion to technical jargon. Examining archival material from New York Public Library’s Berg Collection, including the original manuscript, Fallon weaves the content of The Lost World together in surprising ways with Conan Doyle’s palaeontological forays, cryptozoological sightings, and interest in psychical research, showing that noting the differences between the US and UK serialised and book versions provides a more precise understanding of Conan Doyle’s intended romantic effects. In particular, Fallon emphasises the illustrations by Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law, Patrick Forbes. Alongside the text, these subtle and meticulously planned images make clear the author’s desire to convince readers that the world is full of unexplained wonders. As such, the British book edition in which Forbes’s images appear was, for Conan Doyle, the correct way to experience The Lost World.

This chapter explores how the Gothic in the late nineteenth century can be related to the different imperial contexts of India, Egypt and America. It argues that it is important to acknowledge the specificity of different colonialisms in order to situate the Gothic of the period and to understand its political complexity. The ghost stories of Rudyard Kipling, for example, challenge many of the colonial contexts that they ostensibly work within; in turn, Kipling’s ambivalent account of India reflects a politically conflicted view of British colonialism. Colonial ambivalence is also clear in the context of Britain’s seemingly illegitimate occupation of Egypt during the period. A number of mummy stories by Grant Allen, Eva M. Henry, Arthur Conan Doyle and Kate and Hesketh Prichard, which explore this specific colonial context, are discussed. The chapter concludes with an account of Bram Stoker’s change in attitude towards America as the country becomes increasingly cast as a colonial threat in Dracula (1897) and The Lady of the Shroud (1909).