Authors are continuing to make gothic themes relevant to contemporary readers by using them in new and fascinating ways. So I’ve looked at some of the common themes in gothic horror, and it’s quite simple. Yet people are still hungry for thrilling stories of ghosts, monsters, and other unspeakable evils. We should have cleared any fin de siècle malaise we had by now, right? And needless to say, real life is plenty scary. Roxanne Douglas expanded on that idea in her fascinating lecture about the gothic dinosaur horror franchise. Even Jurassic Park is a retelling of Frankenstein. Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Toni Morrison were key writers employing gothic modes during that time. Did we see it at the end of the 20th century? Sure enough. Among other symptoms, the “syndrome” creates waves of pessimism that permeate culture near the ends of centuries. Others think this cycle is related to fin de siècle syndrome. Some people attributed the lulls to times that real life was scary enough, like entire era of the First and Second World Wars, when society didn’t crave scary books. Rebecca marked an extremely popular blip that led to the gothic romance craze of the mid to late 20th century. Rebecca is a Gothic classic recently treated to a cinematic adaptation.Īgain there was a lull. Hyde, The Turn of the Screw, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Phantom of the Opera come from this era. Some well known classics like Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Again at the end of the 19th century, gothic appetites ramped up. There was a lull throughout the mid-1800s, although Edgar Allan Poe is an enduring gothic horror writer from that time period. Namely, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Jane Austen’s gothic send-up Northanger Abbey. That wave crested, though it produced some of the works of gothic horror that remain essential today. Gothic romance and horror remained popular for a couple of decades. Aubert’s misadventures in a gloomy castle. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe was a hit from 1794, for example, following Emily St. The first big wave of gothic novels came during the late 1700s. To understand the genre’s popularity, first we look back. So the deeper question to ask is why are we in the midst of this gothic boom? Gothic Books Come in Waves With popular gothic horror-inflected titles like Mexican Gothic, The Broken Girls, and The Only Good Indians coming out in recent years, fans of ominous houses laden with festering secrets can rejoice. Richards and Darcy Coates bring us stories that chill us to the bone and keep us up all night reading-haunting reads perfect for Halloween! A hitched ride home in a snowstorm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster in New York Times bestseller Five Total Strangers. From USA Today bestselling gothic horror author Darcy Coates comes The Haunting of Leigh Harker, a chilling story of a quiet house on a forgotten suburban lane that hides a deadly secret.Īs the title of this article asks, are we in the midst of a gothic horror boom? The short answer is yes.
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