The Stress of Her Regard is a 1989 horror/fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won a 1990 World Fantasy Award, Mythopoeic Award, and Locus Poll Award. As with many Powers novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes: in this case, the lives of famous English Romantic writers—as well as political events in central Europe during the early 19th century—are largely determined by a race of protean vampire-like creatures. See also: 1988 in literature, other events of 1989, 1990 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. ... haha For other meanings see Fantasy (disambiguation) Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Tim Powers at the Israeli ICon 2005 SF&F Convention Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ... First awarded in 1975, the World Fantasy Awards are handed out annually at the World Fantasy Convention (WFC) to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy. ... The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given by the Mythopoeic Society to authors of outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas. ... A secret history (or shadow history) is a version of history that is at odds with commonly accepted historical events and which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed or forgotten. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire, 1897 Vampires are mythological or folkloric creatures, typically held to be the re-animated corpses of human beings and said to subsist on human and/or animal blood (hematophagy). ...

Drawing from European and Middle Eastern mythology, Powers depicts these beings as having qualities of vampires, succubi, incubi, Lamia, fairies, and jinn. Not only predators but sometimes benefactors of humans, they are the basis for the Muses and the Graeae. A bracket carved as a winged succubus on the outside of an English inn, suggesting that a brothel could have been found inside. ... In Western medieval legend, an incubus (plural incubi; from Latin incubare, to lie upon) is a demon in male form supposed to lie upon sleepers, especially on women in order to have sexual intercourse with them. ... There are several different meanings of Lamia. ... It has been suggested that Trooping fairies be merged into this article or section. ... Ancient Assyrian stone relief of a genie. ... For other uses see Muse (disambiguation). ... The Graeae (old women or gray ones), were three sisters, one of several trinities of archaic goddesses in Greek mythology. ...

Real people, events, and literary works figuring in the novel include:

• George Gordon, Lord Byron and his involvement in the Carbonari
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Mary Shelley, her novel Frankenstein, and her stepsister Claire Clairmont
• John Keats and his poem "Lamia"
• John Polidori (Powers does not mention his influential story "The Vampyre" at all, possibly a deliberate and ironic omission given Polidori's fate in the novel)
• Leigh Hunt