What are Gothic novels?
The Gothic novel was a type of fiction that became extremely popular in England during the late 1700's and early 1800's. The plots of Gothic novels included mysterious and supernatural events that were intended to frighten the reader. The stories were called Gothic because most of them took place in gloomy, medieval castles built in the Gothic style of archetecture. Such buildings had many secret passageways, dungeons, and towers that provided ideal settings for strange happenings. Most Gothic novels were set in Italy or Spain because these countries seemed remote and mysterious to the English.
Today, Some modern romantic adventure stories are called Gothic novels. However, these works emphasize a love story more than terror.
The first Gothic novel was The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole, which features intrigue, violence, and supernatural events. During the struggle for control of an Italian kingdom, one character is poisoned, another is stabbed, and a third is crushed.
The best-known Gothic novels include The mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Anne Radcliffe, The Monk. by Matthew G. Lewis, Frankenstien (1818) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and Melmouth the Wanderer (1820) by the Irish novelist Charles Maturin. In Northanger Abbey (1818), Jane Austen satirized Gothic novels and their vivid impression on readers. The Gothic novel also influenced such American writers as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
