Best Gothic Books Of All Time
Making its debut in the late 18th century, Gothic fiction was a branch of the larger Romantic movement that sought to stimulate strong emotions in the reader - fear and apprehension in this case. Gothic fiction places heavy emphasis on atmosphere, using setting and diction to build suspense and a sense of unease in the reader. Common subject matter includes the supernatural, family curses, mystery, and madness.
When adding books to the list, please make sure "gothic" is listed on the book's main genre page.
When adding books to the list, please make sure "gothic" is listed on the book's main genre page.
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That said, I don't think that "Gothic" is the most accurate description of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Wells was a writer of the Romantic school (in his own time, his novels were called "scientific romances"), and he certainly evoked fear and dread in that novel. IMO, though, it doesn't have a traditionally Gothic setting or subject matter. But maybe I'm just nit-picking! :-)
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Thanks... good to know.
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One thing... As much as I love Germinal - I wouldn't consider it Gothic in any way. If I'd want to put a label on it, I would rather say it's realist, naturalist or socialist.
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Noel, I haven't read Solaris (so, of course, I'm not the person who added it here!). But I have read a friend's review of it, and I'd have to say that while it's not traditionally Gothic, the plot and premise DO make use of some basic Gothic tropes. The lonely, isolated research station with its handful of humans functions as a sort of haunted house, and the protagonist sees hallucinations (or are they hallucinations?) of a dead love interest while he grapples with an ominous-seeming mystery. I could see how whoever put it on this list could reasonably argue that it's appropriate.
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I hope someday my novel Mara, Book One of The Roses of the Moon will make this list!
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It's mostly about the elements no matter when or where the story takes place. There is also Gothic Horror as sub genre.
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message 36:
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[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars
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My guess is that putting it on this list was somebody's idea of a joke. I'm a Goodreads librarian, so I can delete it, if you'll tell me what number it is on the list. (That'll save me some time hunting for it!)
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Since this comment was posted, I've discovered that there are LOTS of books on this list that don't have anything especially Gothic about them, not just this one! In the last two days, I've probably deleted at least two dozen improperly added books, and expect to delete a lot more.
"Gothic" might be a hard term for many modern readers to define, but the list description gives you a convenient rule to follow: add only books that list "Gothic" as a genre on the book's main Goodreads page. Not every book set in the historical past, or every book that involves a murder mystery, or even every book with a supernatural premise, is automatically "Gothic!" (And just because an author wrote one Gothic novel doesn't necessarily make everything else that he/she ever wrote automatically "Gothic," either.)
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Jon, good question! There is; but one person can't do it alone. When you join Goodreads, the program automatically sets your bookshelves up with three basic shelves (read, currently reading, and to read). But many people go on to create customized shelves of their own, sometimes by genre (including "Gothic"). Some very simple, generic shelf names, like Gothic, are used by a LOT of people, even though they don't coordinate with each other.
On the book records, where a list of "Genres" is supplied, the Goodreads program apparently lists every customized shelf name (like "Gothic," "Fiction," "Horror," etc.) that a certain number of people have all shelved the book as. (I don't know how large that number has to be.) The more people who have a "Gothic" shelf (I don't myself) and list a particular book on it, the more likely it is that Goodreads will list "Gothic" as one of the book's genres.
"Gothic" can be a relatively subjective term, not as cut-and-dried and easy to define as such even for people who know literature; and many other people are relatively clueless about what it is (as some of their list additions demonstrate!) I don't know the list creator, Rachel; but I'm guessing she set up that criteria as a way of bringing in an objective yardstick, and replacing idiosyncratic individual judgement with the collective perspective of many readers (in the hope that the latter would be more likely to be accurate).
All of that said, I can see Gothic elements in Dracula, though I personally usually associate "Gothic" with something set strictly in or around one particular sinister building. If you want to re-add it, I won't delete it again, even if it's not on the requisite number of people's "Gothic" shelves. :-)
Hope this helps!
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Here at Goodreads World Headquarters, we sort through a lot of books each month. Our monthly Readers' Most Anticipated Books feature is...
Anyone can add books to this list.
But, if we're talking "Greatest Gothic Novel of ALL TIME" one would be a fool to limit oneself only to authors who have published in the last 10 - 25 years. To be truly considered for the crown of "Greatest of All Time," a book must stand toe-to-toe with those known to have stood the test of time: Shelley's Frankenstein; Dracula; some of Edgar Allen Poe's works, to name only a few.