Gothic novel

A European Romantic, pseudo-medieval literary genre that took shape in England between 1790 and 1830. It is sometimes referred to as Gothic romance. Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1765) is considered the first Gothic novel.

The Gothic novel is often set in medieval castles or ruins in the Gothic style, or in monasteries. These buildings are usually equipped with hidden trapdoors and subterranean passages. Many British Gothic novels, such as Anne Radcliffe's Italian (1797), are set in a Mediterranean, Catholic environment. Therefore the Gothic novel is considered an anti-classical genre, as it is opposed to the classical Augustan style of contemporary Britain. The predominant atmosphere in Gothic novels is one of mystery and terror. It draws on the readers' subconscious fears. Supernatural phenomena such as ghosts can also be found.

In the 18th century the Gothic novel was a very popular genre, especially with female readers, but it was also ridiculed. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818) is a well-known parody on the Gothic novel.

The Gothic novel had frequent revivals. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) are written in the Gothic tradition but lack the trapping that can be found in earlier Gothic novels.

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Sources:

Norton, Peter B.; Esposito, Joseph J.: The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 5, 15th edition, Chicago.

Sage, Victor: The Gothick Novel, Casebook Series, London: Macmillan, 1990.

Nowak, Helge: Literature in Britain and Ireland. A History., Thübingen: Francke Verlag, 2010.