[Legend]

What's a Gothic-class book? Vampires? The few chapter diaries of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula I liked it quite a bit, I must say. Apparently, so did the counter lady when she saw it. "Oh wow!"

I haven't decided whether to get George Martin's Fevre Dream yet.

[Randy M.]

Hi, Legend.

Gothic started in the late 18th century with Horace Walpole's _The Castle of Otranto_. It was a reaction to Romanticism (Woodsworth, Shelley, other poets), and essentially concentrated on the darker, flip-side of Romanticism.

Anyway, Gothics tend toward the supernatural: _Frankenstein_, _Dracula_, _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, _Melmouth the Wanderer_. But there are non-supernatural Gothics, too, for instance _Wuthering Heights_, _Wieland_ and _Jane Eyre_, among others.

The tradition of Gothic is what led to Goethe's, Poe's and Hawthorne's stories, as well as work from writers less well-known in the U.S. like E. T. A. Hoffman and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Pretty good arguments have been made for it as the immediate ancestor of ghost stories (like Le Fanu) and horror, both supernatural and psychological, and Brian Aldiss has called it the source for science fiction, as well, and certainly _Frankenstein_ and much of Wells' work support that argument.

Every so often current writers take a stab at writing contemporary Gothic: _Ghost Story_ by Peter Straub felt Gothic to me, and _Perfume_ by Patrick Susskind is strongly influenced by it. I haven't read Joyce Carol Oates' Gothics but at least a couple of her novels were inspired by the genre.


Randy M.

[Legend]

Interesting. Can't say I'ved read any gothic books. So you're talking about vampires too? How does one vamp book compare with another these days in terms of originality and quality?

[Randy M.]

Interesting. Can't say I'ved read any gothic books. So you're talking about vampires too? How does one vamp book compare with another these days in terms of originality and quality?

Vampires? Well, apparently you've already read the grand-daddy, _Dracula_. That stemmed from previous Gothic works like _Varney the Vampire_, a penny-dreadful from the mid-1800s -- writers being paid by the word, all accounts indicate the author stuffed as many into the story as he could. Other probable inspirations would have been Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla," a novella (I highly recommend it if you're interested in the evolution of the vampire story, and Le Fanu's short work in general if you're interested in the history of the horror story and/or Gothic), and the short story "The Vampyre" by John Polidori. That latter came from the same party that produced _Frankenstein_: Apparently Lord Byron and Percy Shelley decided to tell ghost stories and challenged their guests to produce one. Mary Shelley was Percy's mistress at the time, and Polidori was Byron's physician, and they were the only ones to come up with complete stories.

As for more modern works, I haven't kept up with this subgenre, but I've read _'Salem's Lot_ by King, and it was entertaining. Without reservation I'd recommend _I Am Legend_ by Richard Matheson and _Fevre Dream_ by George R. R. Martin -- these ain't your Count Dracula-type vampires. Anne Rice's _Interview with a Vampire_ is quite Gothic, too, and not a bad read. I haven't read any of her other books, though. Poppy Brite's _Lost Souls_, Caitlin Kiernan's _Silk_ and Nancy Collin's _Sunglasses After Dark_ have good reputations and one of these days I may even get around to them, myself.

Randy M.

[spacekase]

Hmm, I like some Southern Gothic novels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Gothic

Shirley Jackson is always fun, I have read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" and "The Lottery." Those were both excellent. Apparently "The Haunting of Hill House" is Steven King's vote for most influential horror story of the 20th century.

http://www.wirenh.com/Literary/Tome_Raider/%91We_Have_Always_Lived_in_the_Castle%92_200711212 594.html