18th century

A young woman is sitting in a chair reading a story which has made her nervous. Source: Wellcome Images

I Waked One Morning From a Dream: What Is Gothic Literature?

Posted on by The Gothic Dispatch

There have been many nights when I’ve laid awake wondering: What makes a book Gothic? Who decides what is and isn’t Gothic fiction? And why, why, why do I keep reading them?

It’s time to reveal the truth about Gothic literature. Together, we’ll unravel the fragments, falsehoods and frame narratives to separate fact from fiction. Interrogate Gothic literature’s most renowned writers – including Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. And find out why this obscure, 200-year-old genre is still haunting us today.

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The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

Quite at Home in Hell: A Eulogy to Gothic Master Painter Henry Fuseli

Posted on by The Gothic Dispatch

If there’s a word for the sensation of recognising something from a dream, I’m sure I don’t know it. But the proliferation of Henry Fuseli’s work means we all know the feeling.

Tonight, light a candle for Henry Fuseli, whose painting The Nightmare has influenced 250 years of Gothic imagery. See his dark and obscure interpretations of some of English literature’s greatest characters. Uncover the lies that inspired some of his finest and most Gothic work. And wonder, much like Fuseli’s own tormented dreamer, where you’ve seen all this before.

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The white exterior of Strawberry Hill House as seen from the gardens. Gothic battlements, towers and spires cluster as though for warmth; windows and finials fight for space.

Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole’s gothic plaything

Posted on by The Gothic Dispatch

Few things suggest hereditary power in England like gothic castles – although receding hairlines come close. Fortunately, Horace Walpole chose to poke fun at the former.

Greetings from Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole’s “little gothic castle” and inspiration for the first gothic novel. Join me to discover the ironic origins of gothic literature’s essential inversion – that of the dominator and the subordinate. And peek behind the walls of England’s greatest castles to find power as flimsy as cardboard.

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A cobbled stone path winding through Père Lachaise Cemetery. Enormous stone tombs, protected by iron doors, line the path. Bright green foliage hangs overhead.

Making famous friends in Père Lachaise Cemetery

Posted on by The Gothic Dispatch

Welcome to Père Lachaise – where there’s plenty of room for the living but the dead face stiffer entry requirements.

In this dispatch, join me as I search among more than one million residents for the best company in the afterlife. Meet the great French writers Molière and Jean de La Fontaine. Pay tribute to lovers Abelard and Heloise. And find out how they came to be buried here and how I might hope to, too. Because, while I have plenty left to do, see and lose in this life, one can never be too prepared.

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