Unsafe spaces: Coercion, control,and the domestic in the ghostly Gothictales of E. Nesbit

Although for the most part ‘sunny’, even E. Nesbit's famous children’s books include themes of loss and grief; families are torn apart, ghosts return, and supernatural beings cause mischief. But it is in her short supernatural tales that things turn really dark – returning ghosts (both male and female) demand sex; there are appalling ghostly rapes, and terrifying abductions. These terrible stories of violence and revenge focus on relationships, marriage, and the family. They are very personal stories of what can happen when the familial ‘utopia’ shatters. This chapter focuses on these explorations of the home and the family; on gendered relationships and an idealised version of patriarchal control