Ogden Nash referred to these books as the HIBK ("Had I But Known") genre. There were a few classics early on (Jane Eyre), and the Mary Roberts Rinehart Gothic-type mysteries, but I have sometimes wondered why the Gothic thriller had a strong revival in the 1960s and 1970s. How many book covers featuring women running over moors in their nightgowns were there, anyway?
I would love to see you write a deconstruction of this type of novel. It would not only be good, but hilarious.
The heroines tend to be in positions that give them few options. Also, the allure of the forbidden in being romanced by your guardian -- there are times when I think paranormal romance is so popular is that the reader can have prohibited love while at the same time not admitting any constraints, even fictional ones, in relations with men.
The empty corridors, however, are a big one. Even when Gothics were contemporaries. Jane Austen went after that one with a bazooka in *Northanger Abbey*.
"The number of servants continually appearing did not strike her less than the number of their offices. Wherever they went, some pattened girl stopped to curtsy, or some footman in dishabille sneaked off. Yet this was an abbey! How inexpressibly different in these domestic arrangements from such as she had read about—from abbeys and castles, in which, though certainly larger than Northanger, all the dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of female hands at the utmost. How they could get through it all had often amazed Mrs. Allen; and, when Catherine saw what was necessary here, she began to be amazed herself."
Jane Eyre is a good one, since forbidden love has been A Thing since Romeo and Juliet, shoot, since Cupid and Psyche. I bet if we had more Sumerian tablet inscriptions from 3000 BC we'd have a father bemoaning his son's foolish marital ambitions. And Jane Eyre is a great read. It helps that it's Jane's story as a whole person, and her relationship comes from understanding that one cannot (pace Zenna Henderson's The Anything Box) trade one's virtue - one's selfhood - for one's heart's desire. But ah! Sometimes, sometimes.. virtue is rewarded. Reader, I married him is a classic for good reason.
I'm going long, but the best modern Gothic for my money is Nine Coaches Waiting, also a novel, I've literally read to tatters. All the tropes, and they all make sense. A bit like Sylvia Louise Engdahl making the Prime Directive work.
Ogden Nash referred to these books as the HIBK ("Had I But Known") genre. There were a few classics early on (Jane Eyre), and the Mary Roberts Rinehart Gothic-type mysteries, but I have sometimes wondered why the Gothic thriller had a strong revival in the 1960s and 1970s. How many book covers featuring women running over moors in their nightgowns were there, anyway?
I would love to see you write a deconstruction of this type of novel. It would not only be good, but hilarious.
The heroines tend to be in positions that give them few options. Also, the allure of the forbidden in being romanced by your guardian -- there are times when I think paranormal romance is so popular is that the reader can have prohibited love while at the same time not admitting any constraints, even fictional ones, in relations with men.
The empty corridors, however, are a big one. Even when Gothics were contemporaries. Jane Austen went after that one with a bazooka in *Northanger Abbey*.
"The number of servants continually appearing did not strike her less than the number of their offices. Wherever they went, some pattened girl stopped to curtsy, or some footman in dishabille sneaked off. Yet this was an abbey! How inexpressibly different in these domestic arrangements from such as she had read about—from abbeys and castles, in which, though certainly larger than Northanger, all the dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of female hands at the utmost. How they could get through it all had often amazed Mrs. Allen; and, when Catherine saw what was necessary here, she began to be amazed herself."
Jane Eyre is a good one, since forbidden love has been A Thing since Romeo and Juliet, shoot, since Cupid and Psyche. I bet if we had more Sumerian tablet inscriptions from 3000 BC we'd have a father bemoaning his son's foolish marital ambitions. And Jane Eyre is a great read. It helps that it's Jane's story as a whole person, and her relationship comes from understanding that one cannot (pace Zenna Henderson's The Anything Box) trade one's virtue - one's selfhood - for one's heart's desire. But ah! Sometimes, sometimes.. virtue is rewarded. Reader, I married him is a classic for good reason.
I'm going long, but the best modern Gothic for my money is Nine Coaches Waiting, also a novel, I've literally read to tatters. All the tropes, and they all make sense. A bit like Sylvia Louise Engdahl making the Prime Directive work.