Thanks for commenting! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the post!

Hi Evelina,

Thanks for commenting! It’s so lovely to hear that you are also a fan of gothic novels. Let’s hope that the genre keeps evolving and doesn’t disappear for good!

It’s a brilliant novel but depending on your definition of romance I think your description is more accurate than just ‘romance’ as a genre ❤

Hi and thanks for commenting!

Yes, Wuthering Heights is most certainly a gothic book (as is Rebecca)! Wuthering Heights presents another great example of an old, potentially haunted building. Like the Castle of Otranto, it also focusses on issues of the family and inheritance.

Brilliant! Thank you for letting me know! ????

Hi Shaz,

Thank you for reading! Sorting books into two separate categories sounds like a good idea. I haven’t personally read either of the two books that you have mentioned, although from what I know of them, I would probably class them both as “gothic”. This is not to say that they don’t also belong to other genres, because they certainly do (e.g. historical fiction and horror).

Hi Rosie,

Thanks for reading! The Gothic can often be seen in the romance genre; thank you for pointing that out!

I shelve books on Goodreads as either Gothic or Horror. Some books fit both shelves, although it can get confusing when I try to decide whether a book is Gothic is not! Do you think that “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” and “Flowers in the Attic” are modern Gothic novels?

Hi Rhonda,

Thanks for reading my post! I read Northanger Abbey a couple of years ago, and I certainly found it interesting; it is my favourite of Austen’s novels, particularly as it is so ambiguous. I’m glad to hear that it is your favourite novel – good choice!

Hi James,

Thanks for reading and commenting; I’m glad that you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the gothic novel. Matthew Lewis’ The Monk and Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho are two more fantastic examples of gothic books! They both contain the threat of illegitimate power, the destabilisation of societal norms, and many more tropes that can be associated with the gothic genre.

I would argue that Jane Eyre and Rebecca are both gothic novels, as are many similar romance novels published around the same time (such as the works written by the Brontë sisters). Yet I would argue that they are gothic because of their content and not because of the time in which they were published; it just so happens that, during and around the Victorian Period, the Gothic was a very popular genre. This is why it can be seen in most of the works published in this time, even in novels by authors whom you might not expect – like Charles Dickens!