The Literary Gothic - the premier webguide to pre-1950 Gothic literature. Novak, "Gothic Fiction and the Grotesque" | University of Pennsylvania | Department of English. A Brief Historical Overview. The Cambridge Guide to Gothic Literature. The gothic. Gothic Fiction (Bookshelf) Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.
The effect of Gothic fiction depends on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of essentially Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses. —Excerpted from Gothic fiction on Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 Wikipedia: Horace Walpole: 4th Earl of Orford The Castle of Otranto (English) Beckford, William, 1759-1844 Wikipedia: William Thomas Beckford Vathek (English) Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823 Wikipedia: Ann Radcliffe Godwin, William, 1756-1836 Carmilla (English)
The history of gothic fiction.