Gothic novel

The Gothic novel is a form of fiction which became popular in England in the second half of the eighteenth century. Gothic novels often involve elements of the supernatural and were designed to give a pleasing frisson of terror to the reader.

History

One can trace elements of the Gothic novel in earlier novels such as Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett, published in 1753; but the first full-fledged Gothic novel was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, which appeared in 1764. Set in the thirteenth century, this tale involves princes, a castle, murder and a ghost, and purported - a common Gothic convention - to be a translation from an Italian original. The novel quickly created a new fashion in novel-writing, in which a large element consisted on playing on the emotions of the reader. Gothic fiction is thus a part of the wider movement of romanticism in literature and the arts, and of the reaction of the more measured "classical" style which had dominated literature in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Other writers jumped on the Gothic bandwagon, and Gothic novels stayed very popular well into the nineteenth century. Jane Austen made affectionate fun of them in Northanger Abbey, as did Thomas Love Peacock in Nightmare Abbey. Among the key writers in the genre was Ann Radcliffe. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the tales of Edgar Allan Poe incorporate many Gothic elements, as does much of the popular fiction - including many of the so-called "penny dreadfuls" - of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century the Titus Trilogy of Mervyn Peake is a major example of Gothic fiction.

Gothic literature influenced more mainstream writers, including Lord Byron and John Keats (especially in Isabella). The ghost story and the horror novel are direct descendants of the genre.

Characteristics of the Gothic novel

All Gothic novels introduce an element of terror, suspense and mystery. They generally incorporate many of the following:

• cliff-hanger chapter endings
• supernatural elements such as ghosts, magicians, werewolves, monsters and devils
• a medieval setting, often with a castle, dungeons, ruins, or a monastery
• mad characters
• merciless, flamboyant villains
• persecuted damsels
• curses which pass down the generations
• dark secrets
• the Inquisition

Some Gothic novels

Gothic novels include:

• Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)
• Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron (1777, originally published as The Champion of Virtue)
• William Thomas Beckford, Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1786)
• Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)and The Italian (1797)
• William Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794)
• Matthew Gregory ('Monk') Lewis, The Monk (1796)
• Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland (1798), an early American example
• Regina Maria Roche, The Children of the Abbey (1796) and Clermont (1798)
• John William Polidori, The Vampyre (1819)
• Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)

The full text of many of these can be found on The Gothic Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg.