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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Gothic Novels

  
 
The Photographer in Blowup
18:57 / 20.12.02
I'm currently reading one of the funniest novels i have ever read - Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, which is really an intelligent parody of the Gothic novels of early 19th century - specially Anne Radcliffe's The Castle of Udolpho (which i'm trying to find)

Well, anyway, could anyone recommend me other Gothic novels/writers for future reading, i think i've been losing good stuff all those years?
 
 
Jack Fear
19:15 / 20.12.02
Complete text of The Mysteries of Udolpho online.

The Monk, by Matthew Lewis.

The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole.

Dowloadable text of Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Maturin.

Literary Gothic resource pages, with loads of links to online texts and author bios.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
20:01 / 20.12.02
Anne Radcliffe's The Castle of Udolpho

Is it actually The Mysteries of Udolpho? Thanks for correcting me, Jack, i was confusing it with Walpole's The Castle of Otranto

Oh, and thanks for the e-books.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
22:14 / 20.12.02
I second Jack's suggestions, though I've never actually managed to complete Melmoth, myself. Radcliffe's stuff is great - The Italian et al - but you should also make a point of digging out some Poe, too. Some of it's bad, but when it works, it's phenomenal.

Cavatina is actually the poster to ask about this stuff; it's hir pet area. Ze has written lots on it, and really knows hir onions, spookily speaking.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
09:05 / 21.12.02
Oh, i've read Poe before, and Lovecraft, and James, amd the other James (the M. R. one), and Stevenson, and a bit of La Fanu...

But i never really touched pre-Poe horror stuff, which is what the Gothic novels are - i can see now what influenced Poe (besides his drunkness)
 
 
LucasCorso
04:29 / 23.12.02
Maybe you should be interested in neo gothic novels as well. "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub is a good example of post modern gothic, and all of Flannery O'Connor's novels and tales are full of gothic taste.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
08:51 / 23.12.02
Neo Gothic? Can't say i enjoy modern horror that much, apart from Ramsey Campbell and Clive Barker.

I really prefer horror novels written (or taking place) in the 19th century, don't ask me why.

And Peter Straub writes a bit too much like Stephen King, whose novels are an editor's nightmares; Shining must be the most boring crap i have ever read.

Modern horror novels i enjoy:

The Exorcist
Rosemary's Baby
Psycho
And anything in between H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Bloch's time span.
 
 
rizla mission
10:47 / 23.12.02
Lovecraft's extended essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a surprsingly good history of gothic literature and it's development into the 19th/20th C. horror story.. although you have to put up with HPL's rather forthright views on what was good and what was rubbish, and his habit of going off on one about the "black gulfs between the stars" every few pages, despite the fact that he's writing non-fiction..
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
10:57 / 23.12.02
Yeah, Lovecraft always preferred description over action; guess it never occurred to him that a psychopath slashing a woman in a bathtub would be more disturbing than his quasi-monologues on... nothing.

And to think Robert Bloch learned his stuff with Lovecraft... now that's weird, can't see any comparison, fortunately.
 
 
The Strobe
10:59 / 23.12.02
Modern gothic: Patrick McGrath, especially Asylum and Dr Haggard's Disease. Spider has just been filmed by Cronenberg. The other early gothic novel of his is The Grotesque, which is an interesting diversion; the short stories, Blood and Water, are fantastic too.

Martha Peake, his most recent book, is not gothic, but could be worth a look. But yes; he's very good. 50s set, many of them seem; and the reason Asylum is so creepily personal is that McGrath's father was superintendent at Broadmoor in the 50s. Erk.

Dr Haggard is my favourite. But basically, they're recently written attempts at gothic usually using mental illness as a way in. Pscyhological in a very appropriate sense of the word.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
11:10 / 23.12.02
I can't see any likeness between today's 'Gothic' novels with 18th century ones; there are a whole set of specific characteristics:

A haunted house/castle
graveyards/churches/attics
secret passages
a family curse
a helpless heroine
a villain seuxally amoral
and a lot more i can't even remember right now

You know, all those things that belong so much to the 18/early 19th century, and we can't copy in our modern days, even because this stuff isn't new or original anymore.

People now want different stuff, but you put a haunted house in a horror novel and people will say it's 'Gothic' - bullshit.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
11:11 / 23.12.02
Anyway, Spider is indeed very good, but i can't say it is Gothic.
 
 
Cavatina
11:47 / 23.12.02
L.M. Rosa, I have sent you a private message.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
13:07 / 23.12.02
Cav: share yr gothic goodness?
 
 
The Strobe
17:10 / 23.12.02
Well, if you're talking 18th-19th century gothic, then yes. There are characteristics. And modern gothic is not about haunted houses and dodgy vampire novels.

McGrath writes: "The gothic is strongly characterised by decay, by a movement towards death... seeing a culture that is fading out gives a lovely feeling of decadence".

And I'd say he picks up on that admirably. Spider is not his most gothic novel. But The Grotesque - twisted butlers, looming houses, taxidermy... it's a bit pastiche, even, at times. The short stories, too, are very in line with older concepts of "gothic". I think. I don't know enough yet, but I'm studying "the novel" this term and might look into some of it... also, a friend is doing a dissertation on 18th-19thc vampire fiction. Which could be very interesting.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
17:52 / 23.12.02
a friend is doing a dissertation on 18th-19thc vampire fiction. Which could be very interesting.

How interesting indeed; you must keep me informed.

anyway, i would rather stick to 18/19th century gothic novels, as modern fantastic/horror literature is becoming less good or even original every day that goes by, and there's nothing like going back to the origins of one genre that was once superb.

Well, that's my opinion, anyway.
 
 
The Photographer in Blowup
18:04 / 23.12.02
Hm, just out of curiosity, tell me a bit more about The Grotesque it seems to pick my interest.

It's not that i don't like modern novels, but usually when given a choice between a modern one and another written one hundred years ago, i prefer the latter.

I mean, there are some elements we can't recreate anymore: like Renfield committed to an asylum, in Dracula, or those secret passages; well, they just seem corny nowadays, but back then it seemed magic.

But, yeah, Paleface, i guess 'Gothic' is more than old churches and graveyards, it is also about atmosphere: "The gothic is strongly characterised by decay, by a movement towards death... seeing a culture that is fading out gives a lovely feeling of decadence".

Would you consider The Exorcist gothic?
 
  
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