Mean As Custard (calico_pye) wrote,
Mean As Custard
calico_pye

How to tell you're reading a gothic novel – in pictures

When Horace Walpole published his 'gothic story' The Castle of Otranto, he launched a literary movement which has sired monsters, unleashed lightning and put damsels in distress for 250 years. A horde of sub-genres has followed, from southern gothic to gothic SF, but are some novels more gothic than others? We return to the genre's roots in the 18th century for this definitive guide.


Gothic novels: The villain is a murderous tyrant





Gothic novels: The heroine is pious

Gothic novels: It's set in a spooky castle

Gothic novels: There is (probably) a ghost or monster

Gothic novels: It's set in the olden days

Gothic novels: It takes place in foreign parts

Gothic novels: The weather is always awful

Gothic novels: Anyone who isn't a white, middle-class Protestant is frightening

Gothic novels: The laws of the land are brazenly flouted

Gothic novels: People talk funny

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