Gothic ✨Masterlist✨
An Introduction to Gothic Literature
Hello, fellow ghost reader!
Welcome back to my Substack!
Some of you may know that I have a master’s degree in 18th-century literature and that my area of research was the Gothic. Essentially, the purpose of this newsletter was to give me an outlet to continue writing literary analysis (albeit more casually than any of my academic essays required) in an attempt to tune out the horrific reality that is the lack of funding for literature PhDs. As it says on my ‘About’ page, this is the entirety of the mission statement: No reviews, no recommendations, no musings on the reading process. Here at Ghost Reader it’s all literary analysis, all the time!
This is mainly because I simply can’t be bothered to write anything other than analysis, but recently I happened to get into a conversation with the lovely Arbaaz khan about Romantic literature, and in the process accidentally complied two massive lists of reading recommendations that make for good introductions to Romantic and Gothic literature.
So I figured why not just whack them up here! Mid-week so no pressure; my regular Friday newsletter will be published as normal and, yes, it’s more analysis, so if that’s all I’m good for to you then I can promise I’m almost certain to never have enough time to put another one of these together again. It’s a one off! But if my essays have piqued your interest and you DID want to dip your toe into the books themselves, here is a very messy ‘starter-pack’ of sorts to get you going on some Gothic, for anyone who’s not read any of it before.
(You can find my Romantic Literature Starter-Pack here)
✨THIS IS PRIMARILY A LIST OF BOOKS I THINK YOU SHOULD START WITH. FEEL FREE TO DM ME IF YOU WANT MORE SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS!✨
For your browsing pleasure,
A ghost reader 👻
GOTHIC TEXTS
*I’m splitting this up by degrees of gnarly-ness cos there’s some very spicy Gothic literature on this list
My personal faves = 🪩
UN-GNARLY, JUST SPOOKY 👻
*Gentle, fun, spooky weirdness
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole 🪩
This might not be the ‘best’ Gothic text (although it is one of my faves), but it’s a must read because it’s so seminal - generally considered the first Gothic novel, and an absolute hoot)
The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe was the highest paid author (male or female) of the 18th century in the UK - wildly popular at the time, but almost forgotten today, she’s probably the most famous author of Romantic Gothic behind Mary Shelley, and was responsible for the first bit of Gothic literary theory in her conceptions of male horror (shock horror/explicit gore or other imagery) vs. female terror (anticipation/fear). Unlike her male counterparts, Radcliffe wasn’t interested in a true supernatural presence in her fiction, always providing human explanations for the seemingly monstrous precesses in her works, believing that ‘real-life’ (so far as it can be expressed in fiction) were where true gothic lies. Her other novels - especially The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian - are probably more famous (and much longer), but The Romance of the Forest is a good introduction to what she’s all about. [Fun fact: if you google Ann Radcliffe, the fist thing you get is a video called ‘Discovering Ann Radcliffe’ which includes me and my bestie talking about Radcliffe for a project run by our old uni haha]
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
Duh. (Find my post on it here 👀)
Dracula by Bram Stoker 🪩
One of my favourite books of all time. I’m sure you’ve probably come across it but if you haven’t read it yet, this is the ultimate Victorian Gothic novel.
The Vampyre by John William Polidori
If you know anything about the Frankenstein origin story, you might have come across this title as it was conceptualised on that night in 1816 which saw Byron, the two Shelleys and Polidori (and Mary Shelley’s step-sister who no one ever talks about) compete in a ghost writing competition. While it’s subsequently been overshadowed by Frankenstein, this novel was responsible for the modern creation of the vampire as we know it and was the influence for all vampire novels since (including Dracula).
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Honestly, I generally prefer her sisters’ novels, but there’s no denying Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece of Gothic fiction, and probably the best introduction to the Brontë canon.
The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin
This is one of the most written-about pieces of Gothic literature. A fun little weird short story about wealth, immorality and madness.
Hauntings by Vernon Lee 🪩
Another of my faves. Hauntings is a collection of short ghost stories which all deal with perceptions of history (Lee was a historian), and which include very interesting presentations of gender (probably since Lee had a complex relationship to her own gender identity) which incidentally I wrote an essay on a few years back and which I was planning on publishing in my newsletter soon.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
a ghost story about class, gender and some weird little children.
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
More Victorian literature. A nice little introduction to the themes and ideas of Imperial Gothic (I personally prefer She by H. Rider Haggart for this particular Gothic genre, but that’s a wildly polarising text I probably wouldn’t recommend to someone who I’m trying to convince to read more gothic fiction haha).
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier 🪩
A classic spooky tale by one of the best story-tellers of the 20th century (imo).
KINDA GNARLY 😳
*Slowly turning up the gnarl
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
A book about murder and (maybe) Satan.
The Tell-Tale Heart, Bernice and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
The king of American Gothic, these three stories are a good introduction to the Poe canon. His Gothic poems, ‘Lenore’ [🪩] and ‘The Raven’ are also worth a read.
The Blood of the Vampire by Florence Marryat
Another Victorian text, this time about a female mixed-race psychic vampire.
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu 🪩
Kind of similar to The Blood of the Vampire in that it’s another female vampire, but this one is probably my preference, and canonically queer which is fun for a Victorian text. You’ve probably come across Le Fanu - he was basically the king of Victorian Gothic fiction before Stoker came along and published Dracula. I also really like his Uncle Silas, but that’s a tougher read than Carmilla I would say
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Bit of a wild-card: a collection of mid-century feminist retellings of fairy tales. This is a wildly iconic book.
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin 🪩
Arguably scarier now as we witness the erasure of women’s reproductive rights. Ira knows what’s what!
GNARLY AF 😱
*Explicitly crazy shit
The Monk by Matthew Lewis 🪩
SO crazy - I’m not gonna say anything about it, just buckle up
Zofloya by Charlotte Dacre 🪩
A very surprising text from a female author of this time. Deals with race and female desire. Probably my fave of all time.
Mathilda by Mary Shelley
All about incest. I went back and forth over whether this should have gone in the previous section, but on balance I think it belongs here.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
This more modern take on the Gothic is a difficult read for the sheer amount of violence it enacts upon the female body. Never quite confirming whether Patric Bateman’s horrific actions are real or a figment of some gripping psychosis, this book examines 20th century masculinity in its most depraved form. Far from Mary Harron’s iconic, campy adaption, its relentless brutality is just a bit grim to read, but at least with the singular redeeming factor that it makes you feel VERY uncomfortable in the process. This is a book which doesn’t want you to enjoy it.
USEFUL THEORIES
If anyone wants some light theory with their literature, then here are some core ideas and influential texts to help you get to grasps with the Gothic theory.
‘The Uncanny’ by Freud
Literally, you cannot talk about any Gothic text without understanding this theory.
The Powers of Horror by Julia Kristeva
Likewise, this exploration of the ‘abject’ is fundamental to Gothic thought.
Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the ‘grotesque’
Useful for understanding the Gothic body.
‘The Character in the Veil’ by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
A seminal essay discussing presentations of femininity in Romantic Gothic literature.
‘On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’ by Thomas de Quincy
A regency satirical essay considering murder from an aesthetic perspective.
‘A Beauty Wrought Out From Within’ by Walter Pater
A Victorian essay on the Mona Lisa which drew on new Gothic ideas and changed the way we thought about the Gothic in art. (Vernon Lee was a big fan.)
Thank you so much! As a gothic enthusiast, this list is really really cool!
this was a fantastic read!! i agree, The Monk is WILD! also, i didn’t know that The Vampyre was born in the writing competition that also birthed Frankenstein. that’s so cool and makes me even more excited for reading it in my vampire topic next year!!!