Necromanticism is a study of literary pilgrimage: readers' compulsion to visit literary homes, landscapes, and (especially) graves during the long Romantic period. The book draws on the histories of tourism and literary genres to highlight Romanticism's recourse to the dead in its reading, writing, and canon-making practices.

It argues that readers on both sides of the Atlantic shaped the contours of international `English' in the 1800s, expressing love for books and authors in a wide range of media and social practices.