Colophon

How this was made

Method

Every date, fact, setting and influence link on this site carries at least one source id, and the build fails if an id does not resolve to the bibliography. Dates keep the precision their sources prove: a year, a month or a day. Each quotation was checked against the Project Gutenberg text named beside it (double hyphens in the Gutenberg files are set as dashes). Ages and overlaps are computed from the sourced dates.

Research followed a written source standard: primary texts and first-edition scans first, then authoritative references (the British Library, the ODNB, Britannica, scholarly editions, author societies), and Wikipedia only as a pointer that must be corroborated. Where sources disagree, the work page says so in a note on dates.

The timeline counts 28 works by 23 authors, 20 context events, 26 sourced relations: 16 between works on this timeline, 10 to sources outside it, and 211 cited sources.

Privacy

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The illustrations

The large atmospheric "Nocturne plates" are illustrations generated by AI in 2026 (Higgsfield, model gpt_image_2_5) from written prompts, and are labelled as AI-generated. They are imagined scenes from the fiction. Some show real places (Whitby, Westminster and the Thames, the Paris Opéra, Dartmoor), imagined rather than documented, and none depicts a real person. They are never presented as period art. Period images are public-domain scans from Wikimedia Commons, credited one by one.

Every plate shown large has alternative text beginning "Illustration (AI-generated)" and the caption "Nocturne plate · illustration (AI-generated, 2026)". Small thumbnails in grids and rails (the works index, each work's Contemporaries, the Loom's preview card) are decorative because the link beside each names the work, and every such grid or rail carries the line "Thumbnails: Nocturne plates · illustration (AI-generated)". Social cards carry the words "Illustration (AI-generated)" in the image itself. Plates are never framed as artefacts, never given period dates, and never shown in the matted frames used for period images.

Adding a work

A new work is one Markdown file with its sources. Its place on the Loom, its page, its line in llms.txt, its sitemap entry and its WebMCP record all follow from the data, and the build refuses to finish if a date, author, theme or source id is missing or malformed. The procedure is in docs/ADDING-A-WORK.md in the site's repository.

Image credits

Period images shown on this site (33)

Public-domain period images with creators, dates, licences and source pages
Image	Creator	Date	Licence (Commons template)	Source
Title page, 1818 first edition vol. 1	Mary Shelley (1797-1851); Lackington et al.	1818	PD-old-auto-expired; PD-US-expired-text	Wikimedia Commons
Constable first edition cover (yellow cloth)	Archibald Constable & Co; image British Library	1897	PD-art-category; PD-US-expired-text	Wikimedia Commons
Strand Magazine cover vol.2 no.7, July 1891 (Scandal in Bohemia issue)	Strand Magazine; Toronto Public Library scan	1891-07	PD-1923; PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
The hound, book p.204 (Strand 1901-02 / Newnes 1902)	Sidney Paget (1860-1908)	1901-12	PD-old-auto-expired; PD-old-X-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Title page, Great God Pan & Inmost Light (Keynotes Series, Bodley Head)	Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)	1894	PD-Art	Wikimedia Commons
Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine July 1890 cover	Anonymous (J. B. Lippincott)	1890-07	PD-anon-expired; PD-US-expired-max-year	Wikimedia Commons
Longmans 1886 shilling paper cover/title	Longmans, Green & Co	1886-06	PD-US	Wikimedia Commons
Title page The Vampyre, 1819	John Polidori (1795-1821)	1819	PD-old	Wikimedia Commons
Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood, penny-part title illustration	Anon.	1845	PD-old-70-expired; PD-old-70-1923	Wikimedia Commons
Carmilla, The Dark Blue 1872	D. H. Friston (1820-1906)	1872	PD-old-auto-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Title page, 1765 (2nd) edition naming Walpole	Horace Walpole (1717-1797)	1765	PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Frontispiece, 4th edition 1799 (Commons title says 1794)	Unknown	1799	PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Title page The Monk, 1796	Matthew Lewis (1775-1818)	1796	PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Fall of the House of Usher, Tales of Mystery & Imagination	Harry Clarke (1889-1931)	1919 (Commons says 1923)	PD-Art	Wikimedia Commons
Rue Morgue illustration	John Byam Shaw (1872-1919)	c.1909	PD-old-100-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Title page, 1847 first edition	Currer Bell / Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)	1847	PD-old	Wikimedia Commons
Title page, 1847 first edition (Houghton)	Emily Bronte (1818-1848)	1847	PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Fred Walker poster for The Woman in White (1871 stage adaptation)	Fred Walker (1840-1875)	1871 (Commons field says 1896, probably print date)	PD-US	Wikimedia Commons
The Moonstone first edition	Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)	1868	PD-art-category; PD-Scan	Wikimedia Commons
Title page, Heinemann 1895	H. G. Wells (1866-1946)	1895	PD-old-auto-expired; PD-US-expired-text	Wikimedia Commons
Goble illustration, Pearson’s 1897	Warwick Goble (1862-1943)	1897	PD-old-auto-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Pearson 1897 cover	Unknown	1897	PD-old-70-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Frontispiece, Heinemann 1896	C. R. Ashbee (1863-1942)	1896	PD-Art	Wikimedia Commons
Collier’s Weekly 27 Jan 1898 illustration	John La Farge (1835-1910)	1898-01-27	PD-US-1923; PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Blackwood’s Magazine cover (Feb 1899 per Commons)	William Blackwood & Sons	1899-02	PD-US-1923; PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
‘She staggered swooning’, 1911 ed.	Andre Castaigne (1861-1929)	1911	PD-old-70-expired; PD-old-70-1923	Wikimedia Commons
Skeffington 1897 front cover	Unknown	1897	PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Mary Shelley, NPG 1235	Richard Rothwell (1800-1868)	c.1840	PD-Art	Wikimedia Commons
Wilde, New York	Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896)	1882	PD-old-auto-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Stoker	W. & D. Downey	1906	PD-old	Wikimedia Commons
Conan Doyle	Herbert Rose Barraud (1845-1896)	1890	PD-old-70-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Poe daguerreotype (Brady)	Mathew Brady (c.1822-1896)	before 1849	PD-US-expired	Wikimedia Commons
Charlotte Bronte, chalk portrait	George Richmond (1809-1896)	1850	PD-Art	Wikimedia Commons

Generated plates (36)

AI-generated Nocturne plates and where each is used
Plate	Used for	Made with
`carmilla`	Work page: Carmilla	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`castle-of-otranto`	Work page: The Castle of Otranto	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`dracula`	Work page: Dracula	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`era-1764`	Era door, Castles and abbeys	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`era-1820`	Era door, Wanderers and moors	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`era-1859`	Era door, Sensation	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`era-1886`	Era door, Fog and the fin de siècle	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`era-1901`	Era door, After Victoria	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`fall-of-the-house-of-usher`	Work page: The Fall of the House of Usher	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`fallback`	Any work without its own plate	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`frankenstein`	Work page: Frankenstein	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`heart-of-darkness`	Work page: Heart of Darkness	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`hero`	Home cover	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`hound-of-the-baskervilles`	Work page: The Hound of the Baskervilles	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`island-of-doctor-moreau`	Work page: Island of Doctor Moreau	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`jane-eyre`	Work page: Jane Eyre	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`jekyll-and-hyde`	Work page: Jekyll and Hyde	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`melmoth-the-wanderer`	Work page: Melmoth the Wanderer	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`murders-in-the-rue-morgue`	Work page: Murders in the Rue Morgue	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`mysteries-of-udolpho`	Work page: The Mysteries of Udolpho	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`og`	Social card	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`phantom-of-the-opera`	Work page: The Phantom of the Opera	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`sherlock-holmes`	Work page: Sherlock Holmes	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-beetle`	Work page: The Beetle	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-great-god-pan`	Work page: The Great God Pan	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-invisible-man`	Work page: The Invisible Man	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-monk`	Work page: The Monk	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-moonstone`	Work page: The Moonstone	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-picture-of-dorian-gray`	Work page: Dorian Gray	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-time-machine`	Work page: The Time Machine	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-vampyre`	Work page: The Vampyre	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`the-woman-in-white`	Work page: The Woman in White	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`turn-of-the-screw`	Work page: The Turn of the Screw	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`varney-the-vampire`	Work page: Varney the Vampire	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`war-of-the-worlds`	Work page: The War of the Worlds	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5
`wuthering-heights`	Work page: Wuthering Heights	Illustration (AI-generated, 2026), Higgsfield gpt_image_2_5

Type: Bodoni Moda and Literata, both under the SIL Open Font License, self-hosted.

Bibliography

211 cited sources, grouped by what they support: each work in order of appearance, then the authors' dates, then the context events. Each entry shows its publisher and tier (T1 primary text or scan, T2 authoritative reference, T3 pointer only, never cited alone). Sources were accessed on 2026-10-09 unless marked. Each entry's anchor is the id the content files cite.