The Gothic style can lend itself to a romantic, eerie, sweeping tale or a more dreadful and horrific palette, depending on the story and age range. (That is by no means an exhaustive list, here I’m focusing on some of the most famous examples and a few of my favorites.) In the 20th century, Gothic highlights include Leroux’ Phantom of the Opera, Shirley Jackson ( The Haunting of Hill House), Daphne du Maurier ( Rebecca) and Victoria Holt’s massive body of work.
The late 19th century was full of Gothic tales we still read and adapt endlessly today, thanks to the Brontë sisters, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson and more. Edgar Allan Poe truly reinvents the genre with unrivaled genius for the purposes of the short story. The first Gothic novel is widely accepted by scholars as The Castle of Otronto, published in 1764, followed most famously by The Monk (the novel Jane Austen makes fun of in Northanger Abbey), and Mary Shelley takes us into the 19th century as Frankenstein links science-fiction with a Gothic feel. The Gothic is a subgenre within the classic horror, romance and/or thriller genres one that explores an intense psychological narrative propelled entirely by dread, and often involving a paranormal element or supposition.
I also find it an inextricable element of psychological history. I’ve spoken at great length on blogs, passionately at conventions, on writer’s panels and at universities around the country on the importance of the Gothic novel in literary history. The Gothic as a Canary in Fear’s Coal Mine
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