Gothic literature/novels

[Kitera]

I’m taking an ext.English course at school and this year’s main focus or chosen genre is Gothicism. Well, being a fantasy lover as myself I think I would find it difficult to read the darker themes. Well, read them I must and I was wondering do you have any suggestions on which gothic novels I should try. I’ve chosen three so far and they are:

~The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
~Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
~ It by Stephen King (can this be considered as a gothic novel?)

Any other novels you think would help me? And what exactly is Gothicism? I know it’s a very dark theme featuring terror and the supernatural; then isn’t it the same as horror?

Help is appreciated.

Kitera

[Nesacat]

Here's what Wiki has to say ... Gothic fiction.

I've read Melmoth The Wanderer and it is very good indeed. Another firm favourite would be Poe's Fall Of The House Of Usher.

There's also Jane Eyre as well as Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre is my all time favourite classic. Both are very gothic with their moody characters, lonely settings, rambling homes.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Kitera

I’m taking an ext.English course at school and this year’s main focus or chosen genre is Gothicism. Well, being a fantasy lover as myself I think I would find it difficult to read the darker themes. Well, read them I must and I was wondering do you have any suggestions on which gothic novels I should try. I’ve chosen three so far and they are:

~The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
~Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
~ It by Stephen King (can this be considered as a gothic novel?)

Any other novels you think would help me? And what exactly is Gothicism? I know it’s a very dark theme featuring terror and the supernatural; then isn’t it the same as horror?

Help is appreciated.

Kitera

Well... yes and no. Gothicism is a rather broad term, actually, and ranges from the light strokes of Mrs. Radcliffe to the over-the-top gruesomeness of M. G. Lewis. Personally, I don't think I'd consider IT as a Gothic. Northanger Abbey is certainly not a Gothic -- it's a send-up of the Gothic. Otranto is the first avowed Gothic, though it, too, has the flaws of too much supernaturalism without preparation, so it ends up feeling over-the-top and rather flat. If you'd like a good look at the history of the field in brief, try this:

SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE (1927, 1933 - 1935) by H.P. Lovecraft

Chapters III-V (the last actually extends well beyond the Gothic proper, but opens with the last few feeble remnants of the original Gothic.

The problem is that Gothic has been extended to include anything that's rather grotesque, eerie, unsettling, awkward, at odds with the mainstream... you name it, depending on the person defining it. But the true Gothic ended around 1825, with the publication of Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer; what has come since has touches of the Gothic, but is not genuine Gothic.

The horror tale came from the Gothic, but the Gothic itself was not necessarily concerned with horror. A lot of the driving force behind the classics of the Gothic was Burke's idea of the sublime, and terror (among other things), not horror, was a way of evoking the sublime. For an idea on that one, here's Burke's original essay, along with an introductory essay to go with it:

Burke, Edmund. 1909–14. On Taste. Vol. 24, Part 1. The Harvard Classics

Burke, Edmund. 1909–14. On the Sublime and Beautiful. Vol. 24, Part 2. The Harvard Classics

The best of the Gothics, spanning the period, would be Otranto (for its historic importance), The Old English Baron, by Clara Reeve (though it will probably appear tedious and insipid... the restraint in that one is almost ridiculously strong, and the didacticism is enough to put most people's teeth on edge); Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (the Gothic, but if you're going to read the whole thing, you've got an enormous book ahead of you ... I recommend the full text, as it really is a very good book, but you may not have that much time); The Monk, by Matthew Gregory Lewis (showing how the German Schauerromantik altered the Gothic from a much more restrained to a much more violent form), Wieland, by Charles Brockden Brown (which shows how the Gothic was handled on American soil), Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley, and Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Robert Maturin (as it has been called, the greatest and the last of the Goths). (If you don't have time for Udolpho, try The Romance of the Forest or The Italian, by Radcliffe. She really should be represented, as she was indeed the "Queen of the Goths", "Mother Radcliffe", as Keats called her.)

For those that extend much of the Gothic spirit, but which are not truly Gothics themselves, I'd definitely include either "The Haunters and the Haunted; or, the House and the Brain", by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Phantom Ship, by Capt. Frederick Marryat, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. (If you really wanted to torment yourself, you could go for Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew as well, but that one dwarfs even Udolpho in length!)

For a broader view of Gothics, look up The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, ed. by Chris Baldick, for a representative selection from the birth of the field to the present.

Kitera... what would be most helpful is to know the instructor's definition of what comprises Gothic. If you could supply that, I'm sure we could give you more helpful suggestions -- that is, more in line with what would help you in the course.

[Kitera]

Since both Nesacat and you suggested it, I think I may go for Melmoth the Wanderer. Gothic literature seems to be very complex and strange. Thanks for being very detailed J.D and thanks for the site Nesacat. I’ve read about ‘the monk’ somewhere of how he captured maidens…. That at least seems a little interesting. I think I might go for Otranto as well since it’s classical. I’ll think of on it. We are watching Dracula and then we need to have a comparative text so I thought to choose one of these.

[j. d. worthington]

Well, I'll warn you: The Monk is a mixed bag. Parts are very good, very effective, others are atrociously written (it was, after all, Lewis' first novel, written as a very young man). It was also quite scandalous in its sexual content (which is still rather strong stuff today, for that matter)... which was quite blunt about the things Mrs Radcliffe only touched on lightly; and even "blunt" doesn't quite cover Lewis' approach ... being hit in the head with a sledgehammer comes closer to the mark.

If your instructor is including Dracula, then he/she is obviously not going for the strict definition of Gothic, but more the broad approach, in which case you've tons of material to choose from, from a rather wide period. Take a look at HPL's essay, as it's one of the best historical guides to the field ever written; and it's also quite brief. That may help you to choose what things you'd like to go with. (Actually, if you wanted a comarative text to go with Dracula, you might think of Richard Marsh's The Beetle, which is also a more accessible book for modern readers.) Melmoth is also a rather long book, but is well worth reading. I'd be curious to hear more about the course as it goes along... why the devil didn't they offer something like this when I was in school?

[Nesacat]

Melmoth and The Monk are both long and as JD said, quite atrocious.

Are your books meant to be of a particular length or could you also do short stories/novellas?

Another thing ... do all the books you choose need to have a common thread; vampirism for instance or insanity?

Otranto is a classic in the field certainly. I re-read it a few months ago and had an urge to line all the characters up against a wall and slap them.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Nesacat

Otranto is a classic in the field certainly. I re-read it a few months ago and had an urge to line all the characters up against a wall and slap them.

Atrocious with Melmoth being unven style to some degree (though nowhere as faulty as The Monk), but definitely pretty strong stuff at some points... that description of the madhouse, for instance.... (grimaces)

Yes... I think that the only sensible character in Otranto is the spectral friar, actually. Everyone else really did need to be given a dose of the Moe....

[Teresa Edgerton]

The Baldick anthology does provide a broad overview as JD says, and there are some excellent selections. "Rappaccini's Daughter," and "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" are among my favorite short stories, period.

But if you have a problem with darker, more horrific stories, Kitera, you might want to stay aware from the stories in the first section. Some of them are extremely gruesome (also a little dry, although that at least makes the scenes of torture and mutilation slightly easier to take). I do like Gothic literature, but there are some stories in there I'd rather not have read.

[Kitera]

Sorry for the late reply. The length does not matter; I could read fairly fast if I’m forced to. Today, my teacher just gave us a book called, “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Bronte. Personally, to me it doesn’t look like a gothic book at all, but she said that we would be working on that particular book at the end of the year.

The monk does sound gruesome and sexual from what J.D had described it as, and I do not think I could stomach it. I can’t remember J.D but she said something about how Gothicism influenced today society and how gothic novels (if there is any) are written today compared to back then. I hope that makes sense. I will read the essay J.D and thanks for providing it.

Today we brainstormed about ‘gothicism’ and what we had was:

l Pop culture; movement; evolution (basically as she explained how Gothicism had evolved and what we now have today such as horror and etc.”
l Goth architecture- I didn’t really understand this though, but it links with the term medieval.
l Melodrama/black humour
l Terror


We also got two worksheets, as quoted from one of the two worksheets:

‘The Gothic movement in literature, like Romanticism, is viewed as a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism, a return to primitive.”

Also:

“Gothic texts characteristically deal with difficult-to-express issues and anxieties.”

Then we have the conventions of the Gothic novel and to just name a few we have:

-wild landscapes
-damsels in distress
-gloomy setting
-torture chamber and the likes.

Thanks for all the help Nesacat and J.D , it’s much appreciated.
Teresa: Well I’m partially frightened to read them since I have this stupid thought that I might turn gothic. *laughs* silly of me though. I’m one of those fantasy freaks and I think this would be my first exposure to reading horror/gothic stories which I had stayed away from most of my life.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Jane Eyre will not frighten you in any way, nor will it turn you "Goth." It's the forerunner of a kind of book that used to be wildly popular when I was in school, called the Gothic Romance.

I can why your teacher chose it, though. It has a broader and more timeless appeal than most of the books mentioned above. I don't even know how many times its been made into a movie, or a television dramatization. I've seen six or seven different versions myself. One of them, on Masterpiece Theater, just last week.

[ravenus]

Argh @ Jane Eyre, please try to convince your teacher to fling that book into the fire.

Wuthering Heights >>>>> Jane Eyre

[j. d. worthington]

No, Kitera, neither Jane Eyre nor Wuthering Heights should be of concern. The Monk was an extreme, and though it influenced many of the later Gothic novels and the post-Gothic movement, it's more notable for its historical place than as a book per se (though parts of it are quite good).

I can't answer for the concerns about "turning Goth"... and for that matter, what "Goth" in that context means to you. I've known a wide range of goths myself, from those who simply liked the styles and some of the literature, to those who set up entire lifestyles to reflect their interest (which was usually more of the later, 19th-century Romantics than the Goths per se). But I will say that the vast majority of Gothic novels are pretty darned tame, actually. She wasn't called "Mother Radcliffe" for nothing, and she detested anything that smacked of vulgarity, poor taste, or overt violence. She was very much in favor of understatement, hints, and atmosphere. You may find this essay by her of help in understanding the difference between the Gothic (or tale of terror) in its pure form and the later horror tale:

Radcliffe, On the Supernatural, p. 1

especially the following passage:

"They must be men of very cold imaginations," said W––, "with whom certainty is more terrible than surmise. Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them. I apprehend, that neither Shakspeare nor Milton by their fictions, nor Mr. Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one ; and where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in the uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreaded evil?"

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, ravenus, it is, perhaps, the sort of book that would generally appeal more to women then men -- although back in the day people could scarcely credit that a woman had written it, it was considered so improper a book.

Going by Mrs. Gaskell's defense of the novel, I believe the term "smutty", or some term very like it, was applied by some of the more irate reviewers.

[Nesacat]

No no, Wuthering Heights perhaps ... I did have the urge to at least shake some of the characters but I do like bits of it especially the moors and the Gothic architecture.

I love Jane Eyre though ... probably has to do with Rochester though I did want to shake him some too. It's a good book and a good read all in all.

At least give it a chance. And as Teresa says it's been made into a movie umpteen times. Wuthering Heights as well.

[j. d. worthington]

Oh, and Kitera... the link with Gothic architecture? It's because when Walpole wrote his Otranto, he was one of the few enthusiasts of Gothic architecture (which was considered at that time barbaric and uncouth in comparison to the revival of classical architecture), and the story was inspired by a dream involving a Gothic castle and a gigantic spectre. Since it was flying in the face of the then-current rationalism, Gothic settings were chosen as appropriate for the more irrational, supernaturalistic incidents; in part this was because of the view that such things were more fitted to a mediaeval mindset, and in part because (as you'll see with Burke's essay), Gothic architecture was itself designed specifically to channel the thoughts into a more sublime realm reflecting the mystical and religious parts of life. Consequently, the philosophy behind the architecture is reflected in the Gothic even when it isn't set in a genuine Gothic location. There are some very good books on the subject, providing plenty of photographs of various examples of architecture considered Gothic, that go into the relationship between the architecture, the spirituality of it all, and the Gothic revival of the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.