"Tales of Wonder!" was first published on 1 February 1802 . It is a sharp social commentary mocking the late 18th and early 19th-century public obsession with Gothic novels, melodrama, and the "sublime".
The print's title directly references Tales of Wonder, an 1801 collection of dark, supernatural poems and romances published by Matthew Gregory Lewis (with contributions from Sir Walter Scott and Robert Southey). The inscription in the upper border, "This attempt to describe the effects of the Sublime & Wonderful, is dedicated to M. G. Lewis Esqr, M.P." points fun at the popularity of Lewis's notoriously scandalous and blood-curdling novel, The Monk.
The etching depicts a fashionable, well-appointed Regency drawing-room where four well-dressed women are gathered closely around a small table.
One of the ladies eagerly reads aloud from a book by the dim, dramatic light of a single candle. The other three women listen in absolute, wide-eyed terror, visibly gasping and recoiling at the horrific narrative.
Gillray fills the background with hidden comedic details that mirror the "frightful" themes of the book. The room's fireplace mantle features gothic embellishments like a carved dragon, a Gorgon's head, and a small skeleton intertwined with a snake. Hanging on the wall behind the women is a violent, chaotic classical painting that echoes the dramatic terror inside the room.
During the Romantic era, critics feared that sensory-heavy, sensationalist horror literature was corrupting the minds of readers, particularly women. By portraying these affluent women completely undone by a fictional ghost story, James Gillray brilliantly parodied the era's dramatic literary tastes and behavioural fads.
Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray's illustrations including satirical works. By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray's superior craftsmanship. His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours. Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.
Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray's health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815. Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah's estate when she died in 1818. The executor's of Hannah's estate sold Gillray's painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources. Eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, "The Works of James Gillray".
