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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 17, 2021 16:59:46 GMT
This is a work in progress. Here we will trace the history of the Gothic novel by year, and we will see the world events that shaped these novels. Perhaps we will actually spot the influences on specific novels. As the genre took shape the Industrial Revolution was upon us, and new political concepts were being played out. Science was changing our understanding of the world, but it wasn't all positive and the horrors of the industrial city loomed large. The novel was coming into its own, and world spanning Empires were being formed. I'll concentrate on the English language novel, as that's what I know about, but maybe you can add European novels to this list. We do not pretend to give this novel as one of the first order, or even of the sec- ond; it has, however, sufficient interest to be read with pleasure. The terrible prevails, and the characters of the two heroes in crime, are too darkly tinctured ā¦ There is no fine writing in these volumes ā¦ but in point of moral tendency they are unexceptionable. Review (1794) of Eliza Parsons, Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)Ā² Quoted in Gothic incest Gender, sexuality and transgression by Jenny DiPlacidi Manchester University Press 2018 Here is a general outline of what we will use. It's very rough and will change. With an example. You might have suggestions. Maybe there is too much here. As you can see I will need to create a table. | Year | Text Published | Literary Event | Non-Gothic Literature | Science | English Histoy | World History | Births | Deaths | | 1764 | The Castle of Otranto - Hugh Walpole | Samuel Johnson co-founds The Club | Kant - Observations on the Feeling
of the Beautiful and Sublime
| Spinning Jenny invented by
James Hargreaves | Row 2 column 6 | Row 2 column 7 | Ann Radcliffe | William Hogarth | | 1778 | The Old English Baron -
Clara Reeve | Row 3 column 3 | Row 3 column 4 | Row 3 column 5 | Row 3 column 6 | Row 3 column 7 | Row 3 column 8 | Row 3 column 9 | | 1786 | Vathek -
William Beckford | Row 4 column 3 | Row 4 column 4 | Row 4 column 5 | Row 4 column 6 | Row 4 column 7 | Row 4 column 8 | Row 4 column 9 | | Row 5 column 1 | Row 5 column 2 | Row 5 column 3 | Row 5 column 4 | Row 5 column 5 | Row 5 column 6 | Row 5 column 7 | Row 5 column 8 | Row 5 column 9 | | Row 6 column 1 | Row 6 column 2 | Row 6 column 3 | Row 6 column 4 | Row 6 column 5 | Row 6 column 6 | Row 6 column 7 | Row 6 column 8 | Row 6 column 9 | | Row 7 column 1 | Row 7 column 2 | Row 7 column 3 | Row 7 column 4 | Row 7 column 5 | Row 7 column 6 | Row 7 column 7 | Row 7 column 8 | Row 7 column 9 | | Row 8 column 1 | Row 8 column 2 | Row 8 column 3 | Row 8 column 4 | Row 8 column 5 | Row 8 column 6 | Row 8 column 7 | Row 8 column 8 | Row 8 column 9 | | Row 9 column 1 | Row 9 column 2 | Row 9 column 3 | Row 9 column 4 | Row 9 column 5 | Row 9 column 6 | Row 9 column 7 | Row 9 column 8 | Row 9 column 9 | | Row 10 column 1 | Row 10 column 2 | Row 10 column 3 | Row 10 column 4 | Row 10 column 5 | Row 10 column 6 | Row 10 column 7 | Row 10 column 8 | Row 10 column 9 | | Row 11 column 1 | Row 11 column 2 | Row 11 column 3 | Row 11 column 4 | Row 11 column 5 | Row 11 column 6 | Row 11 column 7 | Row 11 column 8 | Row 11 column 9 | | Row 12 column 1 | Row 12 column 2 | Row 12 column 3 | Row 12 column 4 | Row 12 column 5 | Row 12 column 6 | Row 12 column 7 | Row 12 column 8 | Row 12 column 9 | | Row 13 column 1 | Row 13 column 2 | Row 13 column 3 | Row 13 column 4 | Row 13 column 5 | Row 13 column 6 | Row 13 column 7 | Row 13 column 8 | Row 13 column 9 | | Row 14 column 1 | Row 14 column 2 | Row 14 column 3 | Row 14 column 4 | Row 14 column 5 | Row 14 column 6 | Row 14 column 7 | Row 14 column 8 | Row 14 column 9 | | Row 15 column 1 | Row 15 column 2 | Row 15 column 3 | Row 15 column 4 | Row 15 column 5 | Row 15 column 6 | Row 15 column 7 | Row 15 column 8 | Row 15 column 9 | | Row 16 column 1 | Row 16 column 2 | Row 16 column 3 | Row 16 column 4 | Row 16 column 5 | Row 16 column 6 | Row 16 column 7 | Row 16 column 8 | Row 16 column 9 | | Row 17 column 1 | Row 17 column 2 | Row 17 column 3 | Row 17 column 4 | Row 17 column 5 | Row 17 column 6 | Row 17 column 7 | Row 17 column 8 | Row 17 column 9 | | Row 18 column 1 | Row 18 column 2 | Row 18 column 3 | Row 18 column 4 | Row 18 column 5 | Row 18 column 6 | Row 18 column 7 | Row 18 column 8 | Row 18 column 9 | | Row 19 column 1 | Row 19 column 2 | Row 19 column 3 | Row 19 column 4 | Row 19 column 5 | Row 19 column 6 | Row 19 column 7 | Row 19 column 8 | Row 19 column 9 | | Row 20 column 1 | Row 20 column 2 | Row 20 column 3 | Row 20 column 4 | Row 20 column 5 | Row 20 column 6 | Row 20 column 7 | Row 20 column 8 | Row 20 column 9 |
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Post by ramseycampbell on Dec 18, 2021 12:59:00 GMT
Certainly de Sade's Justine.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 18, 2021 13:41:58 GMT
Certainly de Sade's Justine. That's where Gothic horrors begin for me. Horace Walpole had his heart in the right place with The Castle of Otranto, but it always struck me as more bizarre than horrific. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 18, 2021 14:00:01 GMT
Certainly de Sade's Justine. That's where Gothic horrors begin for me. Horace Walpole had his heart in the right place with The Castle of Otranto, but it always struck me as more bizarre than horrific. introduced many of the stock elements of the genre. Some contemporary readers agreed with you, like Clara Reeve, who wrote The Old English Baron, I'll quote from wiki to save time (and effort): Secondly, Reeve also sought to find an appropriate formula for ensuring that fiction is believable and coherent. She spurned specific aspects of Walpole's style, such as his tendency to blend in humour or comedy that diminishes the Gothic tale's ability to induce fear. In 1777, Reeve enumerated Walpole's excesses: a sword so large as to require an hundred men to lift it; a helmet that by its own weight forces a passage through a court-yard into an arched vault, big enough for a man to go through; a picture that walks out of its frame; a skeleton ghost in a hermit's cowl...[11] Although successive Gothic writers did not fully heed Reeve's emotional realism, she posited a framework that keeps Gothic fiction within the realm of the probable. This remained a challenge for authors after publication of The Old English Baron. Beyond its providential context, the supernatural often risked veering towards the absurd.[12] |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 18, 2021 14:13:35 GMT
I don't think I can really start this thread until after Christmas, or New Year. As I have things to do.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 18, 2021 14:14:55 GMT
If I'd read The Old English Baron before The Monk or many of the stories Haining compiled into his Great British Tales of Terror, I'd have given up straight away. Relatively short as it is, it bored me rigid. Was really lucky in that I found a copy of Alan Hull Walton's translation of Justine in an Isle of Dogs junk shop just as I was getting interested in horror & supernatural fiction. It's an expurgated version, but it works (for me). In fact, it would be among my all time favourite novels.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 18, 2021 14:38:51 GMT
If I'd read The Old English Baron before The Monk or many of the stories Haining compiled into his Great British Tales of Terror, I'd have given up straight away. Relatively short as it is, it bored me rigid. Was really lucky in that I found a copy of Alan Hull Walton's translation of Justine in an Isle of Dogs junk shop just as I was getting interested in horror & supernatural fiction. It's an expurgated version, but it works (for me). In fact, it would be among my all time favourite novels. Yes, I can understand that reaction to the Reeve novel. Have you read any of the "horrid novels" from Northanger Abbey? The Gothic novels listed in the text. They were thought to be her own invention for a time, but they all exist. But, my dearest Catherine, what have you been doing with yourself all this morning? Have you gone on with Udolpho?" "Yes, I have been reading it ever since I woke; and I am got to the black veil." "Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh! I would not tell you what is behind the black veil for the world! Are not you wild to know?" "Oh! Yes, quite; what can it be? But do not tell me I would not be told upon any account. I know it must be a skeleton, I am sure it is Laurentina's skeleton. Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it. I as- sure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for all the world." "Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you." "Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?" "I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of
Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time." "Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?" "Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them. I wish you knew Miss Andrews, you would be delighted with her. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 18, 2021 14:44:17 GMT
I looked on wiki (dangerous I know) to see what it says about them, and it says:
These works were later thought to be of Austen's own invention until the British writers Montague Summers and Michael Sadleir re-discovered in the 1920s that the novels actually did exist.
I didn't know about the Montague Summers link, or if I read it, it didn't register.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 18, 2021 16:07:36 GMT
I thought about how to do this thread. When I mention a book and year, we can include events from that year, and if you think of any put them in the comments, and I'll add to the post in my chronology. That way we will increase the information available, for a fuller understanding of the period. So you could include political, scientific discoveries or whatever takes your fancy.
So for example with Frankenstein there were scientific discoveries around electricity that probably Mary Shelley was aware of and influenced her.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 18, 2021 18:58:52 GMT
Have you read any of the "horrid novels" from Northanger Abbey? The Gothic novels listed in the text. They were thought to be her own invention for a time, but they all exist. I read Peter Teutold's The Necromancer and (probably; I'm not sure) Francis Lathom's The Midnight Bell when Skoob books reissued them in paperback (I don't think they got as far as the rest, though Valacourt have since reprinted all seven. Believe I've read a lengthy extract from the Horrid Mysteries, too, though can't think where. None of them really stuck. Neither did Northanger Abbey, come to that. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 18, 2021 21:25:01 GMT
Have you read any of the "horrid novels" from Northanger Abbey? The Gothic novels listed in the text. They were thought to be her own invention for a time, but they all exist. I read Peter Teutold's The Necromancer and (probably; I'm not sure) Francis Lathom's The Midnight Bell when Skoob books reissued them in paperback (I don't think they got as far as the rest, though Valacourt have since reprinted all seven. Believe I've read a lengthy extract from the Horrid Mysteries, too, though can't think where. None of them really stuck. Neither did Northanger Abbey, come to that. I've never read any of them--or Northanger Abbey either--but I always thought Horrid Mysteries was one of the greatest titles ever. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jan 7, 2022 9:31:17 GMT
I've started to update this thread. See main post.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jan 7, 2022 10:48:08 GMT
Maybe have a seperate column for Gothic continental literature. What do you think?
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