Introduction: "The sphinx of epidemic diseases' -- Pre-modern influenza -- 'An epidemic started by telegraph': news, sensation and science -- 'An inexpressible dread': influenza, nervousness and psychosis -- Demons and disembodied spirits: influenza, masculinity and gothic production at the fin-de-siècle -- 'Death is very busy just now': influenza, celebrity and suffering -- 'A sense of dread is very general': the first world war, the Spanish flu and the northcliffe press -- The 'forgotten' pandemic: flu, trauma and modern memory -- Apocalypse redux