the gothic novel part I

For those of you who notice the changes on my blog reading list, you’ll see that I read quite often. I also enjoy a variety of genres, though I do go through phases where I tend to read one particular type of story, author, or theme, fast and furiously.

Lately, I’ve been on a gothic kick. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the term “gothic” unless it refers to (as my previous post mentioned)…black hair, vampires, and morbid obsessions with death and tragic romance, I’ll enlighten you.

Actually, I’ll let Wikipedia do a little enlightening for you:

Gothic fiction is an important genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. The effect of Gothic fiction depends on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of essentially Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel.

Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.

The stock characters of Gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew and the Devil himself.

Important ideas concerning and regarding the Gothic include: Anti-Catholicism, especially criticism of Roman Catholic excesses such as the Inquisition (in southern European countries such as Italy and Spain); romanticism of an ancient Medieval past; melodrama; and parody (including self-parody).

There is just something about a good old fashioned spooky gothic that gets me all hyped up. And I’m sure it’s the sense of danger, deceit and the Byronic hero, a.k.a. the tortured, sexually magnetized, mysterious man of the manor. Now, the original gothics weren’t really true “romances” in the commercial definition at all. I mean, they weren't required to have a happy ending and usually the endings were more tragic, like a combination of a bad horror movie and Romeo and Juliet. But as most things do, the gothic romance evolved with the times.

Enter Ann Radcliffe (late 18th century), the supposed creator of the gothic novel in its now-standard form, which I would even say has evolved from that, but I’ll hold off on that theory. She introduced the brooding villain, which turned into the tortured hero. I think one of the reasons I’m so fascinated by gothics is this fine line between the villain and hero, and eventually this line blurred within the hero alone. He must constantly struggle between the good and bad sides, the good usually (hopefully) winning in the end.

Anne Radcliffe’s books were best sellers, unlike previous gothic novels, though much of high society looked down upon the stories as “sensationalist women’s entertainment.” Sounds kinda familiar to what romance is today to some of the more ignorant types, don’t you think?

Anyway, as the Victorian period came about we had Poe, the Bronte sisters (Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre), Stoker (Dracula), Dickens, Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), and Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Gray). Yes, some of these author’s may not seem to be gothic, but the influence is there more than not.



With the arrival of the 20th century, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca kept the gothic torch alive and ushered in the “woman in peril” concept that most gothics are associated with today.



In the 1950’s the gothic made a huge comeback in popularity, Victoria Holt leading the pack. Now, Victoria Holt is one of my all time favorite authors. I’d say after the young adult horror/romance novels I began my love of reading with, Victoria Holt was the first gothic author I fell in love with. After reading her first gothic work, Mistress of Mellyn, I cried. Basically for two reasons: 1) The narrator is looking back on her life and telling the story as an old woman. This tactic gives the story a timeless, more grandiose feel, and its makes me feel small and insignificant. Don’t ask me why, it just does. But I do love it, even though I cry :-) 2) Victoria Holt is a master storyteller and I fear that I’ll never be as amazing as she was! HA! She had written over 50 gothics AND more than 100 historical fiction and non-fiction novels. Talk about productive. She’s my hero!



I have a few other authors that do the gothic proud: Anne Knoll, Beverly C. Warren, Eve Silver, Lydia Joyce and Diane Tyrrel. I plan on continuing this post with a short review of what I’ve read of their work so far. So until next time….

grand total: 40015

Quote of the Day: Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain