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meganbmooreA while back, I picked up Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, which I am informed is the first gothic novel as we think of Gothic Novels. More recently, I got Horace Wadpole’s The Castle of Otranto, which I am informed created the genre. Naturally, I haven’t read either book yet, but I have them, and so there is hope! prozacparkhas also had me watching heavily gothic-inspired horror movies with her lately*, and so gothic fiction has been heavily on the brain the last few months.
Anyway, when you think of gothic fiction, what do you think of, both as far as trappings/tropes, and specific books?
I started out with the Old School Nancy Drew mysteries** which frequently featured Nancy getting involved in the mysteries of an old house and its tenant, and discovering secret passages and such when I was about 8, and then moved on to the Brontes (very, very briefly), Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and anything else I could find in the High School library when I was 14, and tend to be prone to inquisitive young women exploring spooky houses, boyfriend optional.
I also now have the stacks of historical fiction (and other things, but mostly HF) that I got super cheap from various Black Friday (and extended) sales. I think you can probably track popular trends in publishing by what ends up in sales like that, as the bulk tend to be remaindered or overstock books. There’s a stack of Greek history and mythology books, scads of Tudor books (including 2 about Anne Boleyn*** and 2 about Katherine Parr), a decent stack about The War of the Roses and at least involving Richard III (though I’m not sure how many are acrually focused one him) and a stubborn showing of the Plantagenets, with HF about purely fictional leads and mostly-fictional events leaning towards being set in the 19th century.****
Though technically Tudor books, I also have two about Grace O’Malley, an Irish pirate who supposedly drove Elizabeth Tudor to seething distraction. Grace O’Malley is sadly unknown despite being an authentic historical pirate queen, and I really only know about her because the heroine of Bertrice Small’s most famous rapefest series, Skye O’Malley, is based on Grace O’Malley. That rather unfortunate circumstance***** rather kept me from looking into Grace O’Malley much. I plan to change that. Hopefully these books let her be a pirate for more than 5 minutes and don’t have her in bed with virtually every man she meets. And I pray that neither Robin Maxwell nor Alan Gold shares Bertrice Small’s serious hatred for any actual historical woman, because Small had some serious venom there.
*The horror, romance and mystery genres as we know them largely sprung out of gothic fiction. Mysteries and romances I read and watch. Horror I’m exceptionally picky about, due to the tendency towards lovingly posed-often mutilated-female corpses, women being “ravaged” and/or lovingly murdered while scantily clad to let us know The Villain has arrived, and women running around in their underwear. The last is OK if she’s running for something big and heavy to use to bash The Villain’s brains in.
**I have mixed feelings regarding Old School Nancy, in that whee! Nancy and her girlfriends are out having adventures and exploring spooky houses and solving mysteries. On the other, I swear one of them got caught and/or kidnapped in almost every book, though my memories are admittedly murky. On the flipside, I half suspect that version of Ned only really existed so there’d be a bit of variety in who did the rescuing. (Later versions of Ned and Nancy/Ned I found rather unappealing in the “updated” books.)
***Fear not! One is the book about Anne Boleyn, angels, and street waifs that I recently mentioned!
****These results, BTW, are skewed to the majority sounding likely to have major or central female characters, and mostly to not sound depressing, so it’s not exactly all inclusive.
*****Objectively, I realize that certain aspects of Skye are revolutionary for when she was created, but I found her to be horribly prejudiced and unlikable. Plus the whole bit with her being the self-proclaimed “most sensuous woman in the world.” Which, you know, I suppose she was as literally every man she met wanted to have sex with her. And unless they were old, crippled or a dwarf, they did, either consentually or by raping her until she liked it. And 9 out of 10 times that she proclaimed her intelligence, strength or independence to a man, it ended in sex, due to her "rousing" him beyond control with her passion and defiance. Or something. I still have nightmares.
prozacparkhas also had me watching heavily gothic-inspired horror movies with her lately*, and so gothic fiction has been heavily on the brain the last few months. Anyway, when you think of gothic fiction, what do you think of, both as far as trappings/tropes, and specific books?
I started out with the Old School Nancy Drew mysteries** which frequently featured Nancy getting involved in the mysteries of an old house and its tenant, and discovering secret passages and such when I was about 8, and then moved on to the Brontes (very, very briefly), Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and anything else I could find in the High School library when I was 14, and tend to be prone to inquisitive young women exploring spooky houses, boyfriend optional.
I also now have the stacks of historical fiction (and other things, but mostly HF) that I got super cheap from various Black Friday (and extended) sales. I think you can probably track popular trends in publishing by what ends up in sales like that, as the bulk tend to be remaindered or overstock books. There’s a stack of Greek history and mythology books, scads of Tudor books (including 2 about Anne Boleyn*** and 2 about Katherine Parr), a decent stack about The War of the Roses and at least involving Richard III (though I’m not sure how many are acrually focused one him) and a stubborn showing of the Plantagenets, with HF about purely fictional leads and mostly-fictional events leaning towards being set in the 19th century.****
Though technically Tudor books, I also have two about Grace O’Malley, an Irish pirate who supposedly drove Elizabeth Tudor to seething distraction. Grace O’Malley is sadly unknown despite being an authentic historical pirate queen, and I really only know about her because the heroine of Bertrice Small’s most famous rapefest series, Skye O’Malley, is based on Grace O’Malley. That rather unfortunate circumstance***** rather kept me from looking into Grace O’Malley much. I plan to change that. Hopefully these books let her be a pirate for more than 5 minutes and don’t have her in bed with virtually every man she meets. And I pray that neither Robin Maxwell nor Alan Gold shares Bertrice Small’s serious hatred for any actual historical woman, because Small had some serious venom there.
*The horror, romance and mystery genres as we know them largely sprung out of gothic fiction. Mysteries and romances I read and watch. Horror I’m exceptionally picky about, due to the tendency towards lovingly posed-often mutilated-female corpses, women being “ravaged” and/or lovingly murdered while scantily clad to let us know The Villain has arrived, and women running around in their underwear. The last is OK if she’s running for something big and heavy to use to bash The Villain’s brains in.
**I have mixed feelings regarding Old School Nancy, in that whee! Nancy and her girlfriends are out having adventures and exploring spooky houses and solving mysteries. On the other, I swear one of them got caught and/or kidnapped in almost every book, though my memories are admittedly murky. On the flipside, I half suspect that version of Ned only really existed so there’d be a bit of variety in who did the rescuing. (Later versions of Ned and Nancy/Ned I found rather unappealing in the “updated” books.)
***Fear not! One is the book about Anne Boleyn, angels, and street waifs that I recently mentioned!
****These results, BTW, are skewed to the majority sounding likely to have major or central female characters, and mostly to not sound depressing, so it’s not exactly all inclusive.
*****Objectively, I realize that certain aspects of Skye are revolutionary for when she was created, but I found her to be horribly prejudiced and unlikable. Plus the whole bit with her being the self-proclaimed “most sensuous woman in the world.” Which, you know, I suppose she was as literally every man she met wanted to have sex with her. And unless they were old, crippled or a dwarf, they did, either consentually or by raping her until she liked it. And 9 out of 10 times that she proclaimed her intelligence, strength or independence to a man, it ended in sex, due to her "rousing" him beyond control with her passion and defiance. Or something. I still have nightmares.
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Date: 2009-12-16 06:58 am (UTC)I am speechless.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 12:18 pm (UTC)