“Gothic Machine should be regarded as essential reading for a long time to come.”

Alan Halsey | Stride Magazine

“Aside from being a very thorough introduction to the role of visual technology and optical illusion up until the release of the first Frankenstein adaptation, Jones’s book manages to achieve what only good academic volumes do: it creates an awareness of the pressing need to consider what had, until now, only been invoked as part of a niche area of study.”

Xavier Aldana Reyes, University of Lancaster | Gothic Imagination

“This well-researched and well-written book makes a major contribution to the history of the magic lantern and its relationship to literature. . . . Gothic Machine combines the author’s first-hand familiarity with the magic lanterns and phantasmagoria and a deep knowledge of gothic literature to describe the interrelationships of visual media and literature from the late 1600s to the twentieth century. . . . It is impossible in a short summary to do justice to the richness of the scholarship in this book. . . . The depth of scholarship . . . makes it a ‘must read’ for anyone with serious interest in the history and culture of the magic lantern in relation to literature.”

Magic Lantern Gazette