Gothic Fiction | 7 Recommendations
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- I love Gothic novels so it was hard to narrow down ones I would like to recommend, but I've come up with 7 to talk about in this video. I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know if you've read any of them or if you have any other favourite Gothic novels.
Links to all books mentioned:
Matthew Lewis - The Monk: amzn.to/2uorI0W
Charlotte Dacre - Zofloya: amzn.to/2tOuviD
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein: amzn.to/2tk4GDu
Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey: amzn.to/2uokVEz
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper: amzn.to/2tRsNvb
Susan Hill - The Woman In Black: amzn.to/2uocGIz
Kate Mosse - The Mistletoe Bride: amzn.to/2tkgPIH
Twitter: @kathrynhaldane
Reading The Mysteries of Udolpho (which I also enjoyed) made Northanger Abbey so much more amusing!
I think The Monk is the penultimate gothic novel!
Pls read THE SHADOW OF THE WIND, Kathryn! (it's dark and gothic style, Barcelona 1945)
Very interesting video. I like how you also give each book a Historical context and the customs that were prevalent at the time of their creation. Thank you for the recommendations. I just finished reading 'The Yellow Wall Paper'. I shall read the rest that you recommended too. Two books that I'd recommend would be 'Charlotte Sometimes' by Penelope Farmer and 'Gormenghast' trilogy by Mervyn Peake.
I love your introduction to gothic lit. I have that exact copy of Zofloya sitting in my shelf for some months already and now I am compelled to read it! Great video, subbed to you right away :)
Thank you for the recommendations! In one of my classes of american literatura we saw a lot of short stories one of them is el empapelado amarillo.
Kisses from Argentina!
The Monk and Zofloya sound intriguing. Gothic Lit is something I don't read often. I want to get more into this genre and your recommendations seem a perfect way to start. I'm binge watching your videos, and I really like your channel.
Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked my recommendations! I think Gothic literature is great; some of the older novels are a little harder to get through but there are some gems in there. :)
The Reader's Athenaeum I’m back to report I’m reading The Monk and I’m truly enjoying it. It has lust, romance, ghosts and a strong critic of the hypocrisy within monasteries and convents. I can see how this book was scandalous when Lewis wrote it. 50 years ago it would have still been controversial in some countries
Thank you for talking about it, I’m going to tackle some of your other recommendations. I hope you decide to make a part two to this video.
Gothic has always been a Impact on my life since childhood
Whether it’s literature, film, music, etc.
If I may, you’re beautiful and intelligent 🖤
Hi Kathryn! Thank you for a wonderful video :) Are you perhaps planing to make a video about Lovecraft? He is bigger then ever now here in Sweden. His cthulhu mythos is being used everywhere, especially when it comes to nerd culture. I am interested to know about your thoughts of him :) it would be very appreciated. Thanks again for the recommendations! Keep up the good work!
Maybe one day I'll do a video about Lovecraft but I'm definitely not familiar enough yet with his writing unfortunately! Thanks for the lovely comment :)
TH-cam just recommended your video and I'm in love 😍 you should also try Gothikana. I just finished reading it and I think you'll love it!
A topic near and dear to my heart, and some good choices. Frankenstein is a must read, and "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a masterpiece both of feminist literature and within broader genre fiction. Have you read Carmilla, by any chance? It's a personal favorite of mine, and I prefer it to the much more popular Dracula.
I hope that you cover Gothic short fiction at some point, I've always found the short story more suitable for the genre.
I've not read Carmilla yet - I need to get around to it soon! I agree, although I prefer novels for most genres, Gothic short stories do work particularly well.
Castle of Otranto is awesome. I just read it. I loved it.
This is a fantastic video! How have I not discovered your channel earlier!? I took a class on the Gothic in college and I agree with what you said about The Castle of Otranto. It's a Gothic classic, but is only really fun to read if you're analyzing Gothic tropes. I don't know if I'd recommend it for fun. Have you read The Mysteries of Udolpho? I haven't, but I always thought I'd get more out of Northanger Abbey if I did.
Thank you for such a kind comment! :) Yes I have, but I read it after I read Northanger Abbey so I would like to reread Northanger Abbey to fully understand the allusions. I thought about mentioning The Mysteries of Udolpho in this video - I enjoyed it, and the Gothic scenes within the castle itself were very good, but it was a sprawling novel that was quite tedious in parts. It has an extremely passive heroine in comparison to some Gothic novels that came about in the couple of decades after this one, and it has the annoying tendency to explain away any strange occurrence in a rational way, which I think Austen picked up on. If you're interested in Gothic literature I would definitely recommend it, because it's really fascinating to see how it contributed to the development of the form, but for the general reader I would say there are much better ones to choose from.
I've heard of The Monk before somewhere. My knowledge of Gothic Fiction is very limited but I am interested in it so hopefully will get to more in the future.
I think it's definitely worth trying some of these books even if you don't know a lot about the genre, they're generally quite accessible. :)
you MUST read The Monk!
I'm especially interested in the Dacre and the Mosse. I love your videos - they're so articulate and informative!
They're both great books in very different ways. :) Thank you so much, that's very kind of you!
Hi! Cool to see you here, Jen, found this video looking around for stuff on Zofloya. Just read it - loved it! Why don't people read it more! A female villain. It was so much more shocking, even to me, now, then I'd supposed. It was also just good fun. I'll be writing on it -- about the collapse of gender in the novel -- comparatively with Dracula. :D
Thanks, great explanation, and very helpful suggestions. Thanks!
Great suggestions 😀😀😀
Wouldn't have minded a longer video, this was so interesting!
I don't think I've ever heard Dacre's Zofloya mentioned anywhere, so that definitely picked my interest.
The Yellow Wallpaper is the only one I've read from this list - and it was really really good!
Kate Mosse... I read her earlier novel called Labyrinth some years ago and didn't much care for it, unfortunately. I wasn't aware she had written ghost stories and more gothic stuff, so that was a nice surprise - perhaps I might give her another chance.
Also, there is this author called China Miéville. He is known as scifi writer, so this might be bit of a stretch, but I would classify some of his stories as modern urban Gothic. Especially some stories in his short story collection called Looking for Jake. For example, there is this story called The Tain, where he uses the concept of "vampires" in a brilliant way. One other story (the name of which I can't remember now) had a person seeing horrors in the walls and eventually got sucked in a wallpaper or something - it had some Yellow wallpaper vibe to it, but with a more horror twist to it. Could be that I'm interpreting his "horror" elements as Gothic, so don't take what I just said for granted.
Btw, I shamefully admit I haven't read Frankenstein yet... *hides in a corner*
I enjoyed the Kate Mosse more than I expected, I thought she built the creepy atmosphere very well. I've heard a lot of good things about China Miéville but I've not read any of his work yet. That does sound really interesting, I'll try to get round to reading that soon too. Haha don't feel too ashamed, as long as you plan to read it soon! I promise it's worth it!
I would like to suggest The turn of the screw by Henry James. One of the only books I enjoyed studying during my bachelor in English studies in France. When I first read the summary , I thought I wouldn't like it at all, but I ended up being one od the few people who got through the end and actually enjoyed reading it. Spooky atmosphere, psychological tremors, uncertainty as to what is real and what isn't.. .
Just enjoy.
I think Frankenstein is like a hybrid of horror and science fiction
Very interesting video, thank you !
You look a lot like Gal Gadot
Excellent list.
Found you through a Zofloya search so instant sub! :D I wish people read and then actually liked it more. Like I said to Jen below am going to be writing about the gender collapse/blurring in the novel, a masculine femininity -- amazing that this can still feel so fresh and, for want of a better term, groundbreaking (ugh) even now. From a few discussions I've had it seems people think you're making special allowances for Victoria based on gender. Really? It's just so much fun too! Looking forward to seeing more from you and I apologise for commenting on an older video. :)
Haha I'm glad you found my video, I doubt there are many about Zofloya! I think gender is one of the most interesting aspects of Gothic literature generally, and Zofloya is particularly transgressive so I'm sure it will be a fascinating essay! Good luck, and thank you for commenting. :)
I love you
Very informative and well presented: thank you. Have you seen the original film of The Woman in Black? It was made in 1989 and is much more faithful to the quiet horror of the novel. I found the later film relied too much on bangs, whoops and unnecessary whistles.
Thanks for your lovely comment. I've not seen the original film actually, I'll need to check it out. :)
Robin Mutt: The Haunted Clown (13 Tales of Death) by Amy McLean TH-camr book
The skull of dracula series. Gothic fiction at its finest.
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