![]() ![]() Whether they feature supernatural phenomena or focus on the psychological torment of the protagonists, Gothic works terrify by showing readers the evils that inhabit our world.Ĭharacters in Gothic fiction often find themselves in unfamiliar places, as they - and the readers - leave the safe world they knew behind. The Gothic is a genre of spiritual uncertainty: it creates encounters with the sublime and constantly explores events beyond explanation. Past and present fold in on each other - even as man’s technological advancements seem to make him increasingly powerful, history continues to haunt. ![]() Contemporary technology and science are set alongside ancient backdrops, and this strange pairing helps create the pervasive sense of uncanniness and estrangement that the Gothic is known for. As such, it often takes place during moments of historical transition, from the end of the medieval era to the beginnings of industrialization. Gothic fiction is rooted in blending the old with the new. It draws its name and aesthetic inspiration from the Gothic architectural style of the Middle Ages - crumbling castles, isolated aristocratic estates, and spaces of decrepitude are familiar settings within the genre. The Gothic is characterized by its darkly picturesque scenery and its eerie stories of the macabre. It’s a genre that places strong emphasis on intense emotion, pairing terror with pleasure, death with romance. Read on as we trace the history of Gothic literature and introduce ten essential reads that have haunted us for centuries.Įmerging in Europe in the 18th century, Gothic literature grew out of the Romantic literary movement. Here’s our guide to the gloomiest and most brooding of genres. Its tales shock you out of your everyday experiences - but they’re so uncannily enthralling you may well wish to remain in their realms of fright forever. Haunted houses, dark romances, shadowy corridors, windswept moors… Gothic literature has everything you could ever want in a tale of terror. Through the point of view of fifteen characters, Faulkner tells the story of Addie Bundren and her wish to be buried in her hometown-Jefferson, Mississippi.A Guide to Gothic Literature: The Top 10 Books You Have to Read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1930) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891)Ī young man lives as a libertine without compromising his breathtaking beauty-all the marks of sin fall on his portrait. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)Ĭatherine Morland has read a few too many Gothic novels-and it is clouding her judgment. Love and magic suffuse this story of four generations in postcolonial Chile. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (1982) In a grand, mysterious, and isolated English house, Miranda Silver keenly feels the pull of the generations that preceded her-which comes to a head after her mother’s sudden death. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi (2014) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)Ī young woman marries a handsome widower and finds herself in the imposing shadow of his deceased first wife. Three generations of a family-and a ghost-sustain hope and struggle in rural Mississippi. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2017) Aubert as she faces otherworldly terrors and an evil villain in a crumbling castle. This quintessential Gothic romance, later parodied by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey, follows heroine Emily St. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (1794) This powerful novel follows Sethe, an escaped slave, who lives with her daughter, mother-in-law, and a strange and compelling young woman named Beloved in Ohio just after the end of the Civil War. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)Īfter a gruesome tragedy that killed four family members, the remaining three-Merricat, Constance, and Uncle Julian-live in isolation. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler (2005)Īn amnesiac vampire has to find out who she is and who is out to destroy her. Over two generations on a small stretch of the Yorkshire moors, acrimony, revenge, hope, disappointment, and devotion clash to spectacular results. Most of the Brontes’ works are Gothic, but this one is perhaps the most dramatic. Mary Shelley created the science fiction genre and wrote a classic of the Gothic genre in one decisive stroke. In this frightening and thoughtful novel, a brilliant and misguided scientist uses the secret of reanimating dead matter to build a singular creature. ![]()
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