Gothic Literature essentials | where to begin with classics
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ต.ค. 2015
- Looking for something scary to read? Why not dive into the classics?
More gothic and dark literature videos:
My gothic autumn to read list • My (frankly excessive)...
Reading Dracula for the first time • I finally read Dracula...
Dark reads for sweltering days • Dark reads for swelter...
Must-read gothic classics: • The scariest must-read...
► My to-read list
Dracula
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Northanger Abbey
► Not my favourite
Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde
► My favourites
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Frankenstein
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For a more modern take on Gothic, Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale is brilliant. It has lots of Bronte references and a very interesting narrative structure.
I just read Frankenstein for this first time in October and I thought it was great! I loved the story within a story (etc.) aspect you pointed out. It was so interesting to keep diving deeper and deeper into the story. And I loved the setting and the ominous atmosphere that Shelley evoked as well!
I absolutely love The Castle of Otranto, which is possibly the first gothic novels ever written. It's amazing and possibly one of my favourites. The story and what happens is so outrageous that it's almost comedic.
+Andrea. I own a copy of this but I haven't gotten to it yet.
Yesssss! That's a good one!
we have always lived in the castle is my absolute favorite novel. just the characters are chilling and slowly gets under your skin.
I don't actually know that I've read any gothic novels, but I so want to! I love the idea of the setting being a character in itself and how dark they are. I did recently find a GORGEOUS copy of Frankenstein which doesn't have a publishing date, but has a written note inside that has a name and the year 1943, so I know it's at least that old. I absolutely love it. Thankfully, I do have that one on my nook, so I can read it without having to read my super old copy, ha.
I read Dracula recently and loved it, especially the style of narration. It's written as a collection of letters, diary entries and newspaper cuttings and it reinforces the idea of the characters combining all the evidence they have to try and reach their end goal. It made me feel more part of the story and like I was going on their mission with them. It's fantastically creepy too and I would highly recommend it.
I studied gothic literature this semester at university and we did a few of these texts! My favourite, though, was The Magic Toyshop :)
That version of Wuthering Heights looked absolutely gorgeous~ and the story is immensely alluring.
Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey are two of my favorite books. I've re-read NA several times and it may just be my favorite Austen. I'm planning to re-read Jane Eyre soon and I'm currently reading some Poe short stories. It's been a very very long time and they are so good! The Hound of the Baskervilles, while it doesn't have all of the elements you described, also comes to mind.
I love Northanger Abbey and Jane Eyre too! For children I suggest "Count Karlstein" by Philip Pullman, I loved it so much when I was a child!
Watching this I also came to see how much I love Gothic fiction without even realising it! I own so many Gothic fiction books (some read, most unread) so I think now is the perfect time to tuck right into them!
I was shocked to see that I have heard about all the novels you mentioned. Like I didn't expect that.
I own a copy of Dr. Jackyl & Mr. Hyde and after you described the plot, I feel like I should give it a try. Maybe I will like it.
Also, really want to read Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein & Jane Eyre. Thanks for the ebook tip. :)
The narration in Wuthering Heights is what has confused me about it, but I need to persevere with it because I love the works of the Brontë sisters. I just need some motivation to read it. LOVE your lipstick, Sanne!
+lucythereader Thanks! :D For me watching an adaptation really helped! Just to get the characters straight.
I love watching and rewatching your videos. Everything about you, your books, your room, and your voice soothes me ❤️
I just finished reading Frankenstein and I loved it! I go to a classical academy and my teachers (one of them is a PhD) and they were talking about how the story didn't make any sense with the way it was narrated and how Frankenstein's monster came to know things, but I thought that Shelley did a great job explaining everything, especially in such an interesting way, as you said.
Great video :) I think you'd really love Poor Things by Alasdair Gray, which is a modern telling-ish-not-really of Frankenstein. It's also a story within a story within a story. A medical student discovers that his tutor found the body of a pregnant woman, put the brain of her baby into her skull and brought her back to life. Her name is Belle (very Beauty and the Beast/Jane Eyre's Bertha) and it's a feminist novel about consent and all other manner of things. Very gothic. One of my all time favourites :) xx
This sounds incredible!
My all-time favourite Gothic novel is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It is so beautiful, full of the sublime, and just an incredible story.
Those were really good options, btw you could have also mention anyone of Daphne du Maurier's books like Rebecca or Jamaica Inn OMG Jamaica Inn was soo dark and creepy loved it so much that i finished it in one afternoon and wanted to re-read it straight after!
Would Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier be considered a gothic novel? I feel like a lot of the themes you mentioned definitely sound like Rebecca fits right in there. Absolutely love that book and it creeps me out. :)
+UtenaOfRoses Great choice I love Daphne du Maurier and Rebecca is considered a gothic novel.
Yes, Rebecca would be considered to be a gothic novel 🙃
+UtenaOfRoses This is my all time favourite gothic novel!
+Rebecca Clyburn Rebecca is my all time favorite book! I love it!! :D
All of your copies look so pretty! and I absolutely love Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, one of my faves!:)
I’m so happy to hear that you liked Frankenstein! It’s my favourite book 📚
I actually clicked onto this video because I thought I had never read a gothic novel before just to find out I already read most of the books you mentioned XD So now I know what gothic novels are thanks!! I just recently read Dr Jekyll and really really enjoyed it because I thought the narration style was very intriguing and it fascinated me how Stevensson made me feel with Dr Jekyll even though we were so far away from him AND even though I was already spoiled for everything!
have you watched Crimson Peak? its very gothic and beautiful and not that scary (I hate being scared, so that was a plus for me). I think you might like it
+Anna Lívia Marques Not yet, but I really want to!
I'm reading The Canterville Ghost by Wilde today!! I got in from Project Gutenberg. There are a few other favourites you could have mentioned: We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson (although I didn't really love it), Ann Radcliff's works, and even Villette by Charlotte Bronte (although Jane Eyre is still the best!).
PS Northanger Abbey is great!!
I just love Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! I read it when I was 10 and I think I reread it about three times over that summer vacation. I really want to reread it some day and see if I still love it.
I love your edition of wuthering heights! I really want to read Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey - I loved this video!
This came at such a good time! We've just finished studying Frankenstein, and now I'm thinking about doing something around gothic novels for my dissertation xx
Frankenstein is definitely one of my favourites. Also The Picture of Dorian Gray. Those are actually two of my favourite classics ever. And of course Poe's stories are fantastic. One that I'm not sure counts as gothic, but definitely has a lot of uncanny elements is E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Sandman (originally in German). It was definitely one of the texts that stood out to me in German class back in high school.
My spooky read for Halloween this year was Burial rites by Hannah Kent. I absolutely loved everything about this book especially since i found out that it s based on real events and characters. It definitely puts me in the Halloween spirit. 👻
YESSSS! I just finished studying Wuthering Heights in class and am currently reading Frankenstein. I am loving the Gothic.
Yes! I am loving Frankenstein but it was also nothing like i expected :)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a great gothic novel!
one of my favourite gothic novels is the private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner by james hogg, it's really creepy and has a narrative within a narrative, i definitely think you'd enjoy it :)
I did my university dissertation on gothic novels! They're my favourites. I love Dorian Gray, Dracula and Frankenstein, so much! The one I haven't been able to get through is Wuthering Heights, it's so boring to me :(
Thanks so much for making this video! I'm studying the Gothic at the moment for my English A Level, and we are looking at The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter and Dracula in particular
Never knew those were considered gothic novels! Love them! Also loved that shade of lipstick! Looks great!
The Haunting of Hill House. One of the quintessential horror novels. :)
I wish you would make themed recs for a holiday (especially Halloween recs) at the beginning of the month instead of so close to the Holiday so I could read them before books leading up to the Holiday to get in the spirit.
Also I think the complicated narration style makes the stories seem more like they're being told to you referencing word of mouth traditions like you and the narrator(s) are sitting around a fire and they're telling you this fantastical and grotesque tale.
I've been wanting to read Dracula for years, as well as Frankenstein. Btw, love your hair and lipstick in this video :)
I recently read The Mysteries of Udolpho and enjoyed it. It also makes Northanger Abbey more amusing with the references to Udolpho. 😀
Great list :) I'm taking a gothic class this year so I just wanted to recommend a few others! The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (considered the first gothic novel), The Monk by Matthew Lewis, The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (she's not as remembered now but was very popular in her time), Rebecca and Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. More recently, there's Angela Carter :)
I feel like your description of Frankenstein as a staircase is linked with your synesthesia, and it's very cool/accurate!
I’ve just come across your channel and have been watching your older videos. I saw this one come up in the suggested videos and got so excited! Gothic literature is my absolute favorite genre (blame it on being a Marylander and growing up on the state’s favorite author: Poe). My favorite gothic stories are definitely the ones by Daphne du Maurier.
Loved this video!
Gothic novels have always appealed to me, but I never knew where to start. Now I do! Wuthering Heights has been sitting on my bookshelf for ages.
love love love that you talk about the classics!
I think The miniaturist by Jessie Burton fits perfectly in this genre! It's a really good read too :)
I LOVE gothic fiction! There is something so absorbing about them. This is a great selection!
I highly recommend Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. It's part gothic romance, mystery, coming-of-age story :)
I love Du Maurier and Rebecca of courssee!!!
I'm always going to have a soft spot for Frankenstein, but I also absolutely love Carmilla and The Moonstone - they're both worth checking out! :)
Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are my favourite gothic novels if I had to choose one. Gothic literature is my favourite genre and have read all the books you mentioned expect for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Thanks for this video! So great :) Love the collection you've chosen here.
love this!!! i need to read more classic gothic novels
"The Woman in Black" is definitely my favorite gothic novel as well as one of the best plays I've seen. The movie was good, but took some artistic license in telling the story. I've been searching for a novel that captures me the way "The Woman in Black" does when I read it. No luck so far.
I studied Frankenstein at University and fell in love with it, I believe the narration is referred to as multiple framing narration.
Love this video! I love Gothic novels and since it is coming to fall, I want to read some more. My favorite Gothic novels are Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and Turn of the Screw, but I still need to read Wuthering Heights, Dracula, and many others. I learned about the story within a story style in my English Literature Cross Atlantic Survey Course. If I remember correctly, Chaucer started it with Canterbury Tales, but I could be wrong about that, but I do love that style. Dante does similar story telling style in The Inferno where you learn more the deeper you go down into hell and then you slowly come back up towards the surface.
my favourite is defo Dorian Grey and I agree with you about Jekyll and Hyde
Edgar Allan Poe, without a doubt. I like Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher.
This is perfect! I just saw Crimson Peak by Guillermo del Toro the other day, which was all about the Gothic, which lead me to look into the topic. This is a great reading list to start with!
You should read The shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, it's kinda gothic and a great novel
i 100% agree with you on jekyll and hyde! i read it some years back all hyped up for this iconic classic, and ended just being like ???? well that was disappointing. i guess it's just one of those quintessential novels you just gotta read if you're a fan of the genre!
In a related vein, many people complained the film "Crimson Peak" wasn't scary or a horror film, that's because it was clearly a Gothic tale. All of the requisites you mentioned were there, even Mary Shelley and Jane Austen's names were dropped.
I never fully understood what was meant by Gothic Novel so thank you for helping me understand! I adore Jane Eyre!!
Loved this, and your lipstick!
The different narrative layers (the story-in-a-story-in-a-story thing in Frankenstein) are called extradiegetic (1st layer), intradiegetic (2nd), hypodiegetic (3rd), etc. :)
Also, I never really thought abour Jane Eyre as gothic, but now that you say it I definitely see it!
A story inside a story is a framing narrative, eg Rime of the Ancient Mariner where the wedding frames the Mariner's tale, whereas a more complicated structure like Wuthering Heights is a Chinese box structure narrative :)
I had the exact same thoughts about Jekyll and Hyde - thought I was the only one!!
Awesome video, I love the framing devices in gothic fiction and the untrustworthy narrators. If you like elements of nature in gothic fiction I think you would enjoy Australian gothic as it draws from the isolated, desolated and sometimes dangerous landscape of the Australian land.
Love your video and channel. Gothic is my favorite genre. I've read all of these. 'Frankenstein' is my favorite. Have you read 'The Castle of Otronto' which is generally considered the first Gothic novel?
The Picture of Dorian Gray is in my top 10 favorite books! I actually haven't read most of these and I'm a huge fan of the Gothic! I have most of them so that counts in some way. I also LOVE Edgar Allan Poe! His short stories and poems are so macabre! That's the best word to describe Poe!
Frankenstein is the next book I want to read, and I am also going to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde soon, but now it sounds disappointing with the narration. Dracula is also a book I want to read soon. :)
Oscar Wilde is by far my favourite but I also love Phantom of the Opera
I really love the Gothic :) I wrote my dissertation on the Female Gothic and how the heroine and the villain were portrayed in Ann Radcliffe's novels. The Mysteries of Udolpho is a good one ;) but very chunky! I liked Northanger abbey very much! And I would like to read Nightmare Abbey as well some day.
i wonder if Beloved by Toni Morrison would be considered a gothic novel... there's TONNES of supernatural qualities to it. one of my favorite books of all time, hands down
Best gothic novel is Dante's Inferno.
The Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation is the best.
Also, a companion book which brings the Inferno to life is Michael Herr's, Dispatches.
That's a good thought rather. We at Batweb Gothic Reviews do well...Gothic reviews and could not find many Gothic novels either. Well some horror series have macabre elements, but still the founding fathers of the genre are often the most Gothic, which was one reason we chose to review Frankenstein ourselves over most other candidates. Anyway, we found your video interesting to watch and subscribed to your channel
Jane Eyre is definitely the first that comes to mind when i'm thinking of gothic novels. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is reminiscent of Jane Eyre, but it is set in a different period. Interestingly, A Series of Unfortunate Events came to mind as well, mostly because of the setting i think. Although, i doubt it would be classed a truly gothic.
i've read all of them :) awesome selection!
I LOVE Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it did take me a while to get to love it, definitely wasn't a fan the first time round (the epistolary-esq narrative probably.) I think you should definitely try to read it again :)))))))
I love Romanticism and Gothic Romanticism! Oscar Wilde is by far my favourite writer, but Wuthering Heights is genuinely one of the most beautiful and enrapturing novels ever written. I will always adore Jane Eyre, but personally prefer Anne's writing to Charlotte's!
i think you are going to love dracula
Just thought you might like to know our English teacher showed this in class. So your videos are literally school material
have you read "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu? i read it because there is a youtube series continuation thing out of it and its a cool novella really! its the first documented vampire story written even before dracula and i fairly enjoyed it, do reccomend!
great video! i didn't know a lot of these were considered gothic novels. i have been educated.
I have read almost all of these, when I was a kid, lol. I was one of those, yes. But, don't forget to check out the last Bronte's sister's book, The Tenant of, um, Wild fell Hall? Check out everything they wrote. Also, Charles Dickens may not fit the mold, but my favorite old classic, if not gothic, was Great Expectations.
You should check out The Keep by Jennifer Egan. It's a very modern gothic novel set in a castle, and it's very atmospheric and sinister.
The castle of Otranto for some reason I can not finish reading, I like The Woman in White, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Carmilla and the Vampire by Polidori
Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are probably my favourite gothic novels or even novels- especially because I live near to where they are set. But I do love Frankenstein an awful lot. I'm not sure if you have read it or not but give the Woman in Black a read. It's set in the gothic period although it is wrote in the 80's. It contains tons of nature related horror and Eel Marsh house is arguably the main character. It has some really likeable characters, a great structure and wonderful themes like revenge, love, hate, isolation and prejudice. It also feels very small and intimate to read.
omg you helped me so much with my lit exam. I don't really like reading the novels but you helped me sort of understand the genre better!!! I 'm a guy btw
Gothic novels are my favorites - but I tend to favor the ones with women as the main character, rather than Dr. Jekyll or Frankenstein, etc.
My favorite, and a wonderful American one is A Woman Named Smith. I mean, I heard about it from Guillermo Del Toro - it's gotta be good right? I love it so much. It's about a woman who inherits a good ol' southern mansion from her horrible old aunt-by-marriage. It was Aunt Sophronisba's last dig at her relatives and neighbors to will what was left of her money and mansion to a yankee. The house is the most amazing, wonderful house and there are strange happenings, disembodied music, secret passages! It's wonderful.
Dorian Gray is my JAM.
the monk!
My favourite is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.
Wuthering Heights is a good choice. One of my favourites is The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins. Quite a meaty novel but very well written 😊
Yay! Hope I don’t get trouble with my dirty secret on my books
Have you read Carmilla? It's the earliest vampire novel written, and definitely worth a shot!
You should read Jamaica Inn it's a great classic for this genre :)
I loved this video.
I love Project Gutenberg! It's the best!
Rather funny that I read Dr Jekkyl and Mr Hyde when I was only a child. The very first Gothic novel I've ever read, to be sure. I loved it. haven't read it in ages, But I've gotten a copy of it, and sooner or later I will read it again. I don't know if I quite have a favourite, but I really loved Carmilla by Le Fanu. It was an amazing novella, and I personally enjoyed it much more than Dracula. What it lacked in atmopshere and horrific tension, it made up for in its beautiful and well-done homoeroticism!
Frankenstein was tough to get through. i cant get through it. Dracula is one of my favorites. easy read. but Frankenstein...i cant. i honestly cant