Classic Gothic Romance

April 25, 2012 by J.E. 4 Comments

In today’s A Very Gothic Week post, we’ll revisit some Gothic authors who are considered the forefathers — er, mothers — of the genre. From Charlotte Bronte to Mary Stewart to Barbara Michaels, here’s a sample of a few of the Gothic Romance genre’s best-known names, so wrap yourself in a fringe-y shawl and prepare to run screaming from a big dark house!

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was hardly the first Gothic romance, but it’s the first modern classic of the genre. Employing nearly every convention that has come to be associated with the genre — the first person narrator, broodingly attractive hero, big scary house, terror and fright — Jane Eyre is the direct antecedent of nearly every Gothic romance that came afterward. While much of the Gothic fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries has lost favor with modern audiences who find the dense, often stilted language hard to parse, the timeless beauty of Bronte’s prose and a plot that’s still fascinating has assured Jane Eyre enduring popularity.

Gothic romance didn’t disappear in the century after Jane Eyre, but it went underground, emerging with a dark and stormy vengeance with the novels of Daphne Du Maurier, whose mid-20th Century classics Rebecca and Jamaica Inn introduced a whole new generation of readers to Gothic drama. Du Maurier’s books found wide audiences both in print and on screen; Rebecca and Jamaica Inn were both made into widely successful films during the 1940s.

 

British author Mary Stewart’s contemporary Gothic tales ushered in the era of the modern Gothic romance in the 1950s and 1960s, paving the way for the contemporary Gothics that flooded the market in the 1960s and 1970s. Her best known novels, Nine Coaches Waiting, This Rough Magic, The Moon Spinners and Madam, Will You Talk?, captivated readers with their exotic international settings, plots packed tight with mystery and mayhem, and the spare, elegant prose Stewart perfected.

No list of classic Gothic Romance authors would be complete without the inclusion of Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr, the two pen names used by Eleanor Hibbert when writing Gothic Romance. Hibbert, a veritable cottage industry who wrote around 200 historical novels, many under the name Jean Plaidy, sold over 60 million books as Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr, a number that leaves no doubt about the ubiquitous nature of the Gothic Romance during the 1960s and 1970s. While the novels wrote under the Carr pen name are largely neglected, several of those Hibbert wrote as Holt have achieved classic status in the Gothic Romance genre, including The Bride of Pendorric, Mistress of Mellyn, and The Shivering Sands.

Dorothy Eden’s books were initially marketed as historical romantic suspense, but as Gothic Romance gained popularity, many were republished as Gothics. In some cases, this was less-than truth in advertising, as a number of Eden’s books actually were true historical fiction. Darkwater, An Afternoon Walk, and Ravenscroft are among her best Gothic romances.

Barbara Michaels’ Gothics gained popularity during the mid-1970s and early 1980s, coinciding with the last gasp of the Gothic Revival. As contemporary and historical Gothics gave way to bodice-rippers and category contemporaries Michaels (the pen name of Elizabeth Peters) tweaked her Gothics to make them fit into an emerging genre, romantic suspense. However, during her heyday as one of the last greats of the Gothic Revival, Michaels produced some classics of the genre, including House of Many Shadows, Witch, and Wings of the Falcon.

A short list, I know — so tell me who I neglected!