Read any good Gothic fiction lately?

[Mississippienne]

I recently decided to read Wuthering Heights, which is really good once you get to the Cathy and Heathcliff parts. Once I got well into the book, I could see stylistically why Bronte had narrators tell almost the entire story, but man, it does make it hard to start.

I then picked up an anthology of classic Gothic literature, and staying up all night reading them probably wasn’t my brightest idea (I had to leave the bathroom light on and crack the door before I could fall asleep). Bret Harte’s “Selina Sedilia” is hysterically funny once you’ve read a few Gothic romances and have become familiar with their conventions. Selina’s monologue once her beloved Edgardo is safely out of earshot is hilarious.

“Ah!–what if he should know that I have another husband living? Dare I reveal to him that I have two legitimate and three natural children? Dare I repeat to him the history of my youth? Dare I confess that at the age of seven I poisoned my sister, by putting verdigris in her cream-tarts,–that I threw my cousin from a swing at the age of twelve? That the lady’s-maid who incurred the displeasure of my girlhood now lies at the bottom of the horse- pond? No! no! he is too pure,–too good,–too innocent, to hear such improper conversation!” and her whole body writhed as she rocked to and fro in a paroxysm of grief.

She considers blowing the western tower (where her children are hidden) and the parish church (where the record of her first marriage is kept) but is stopped by the ghost of her great-grandfather, who complains that there’s too many ghosts already and not enough room in their Gothic manor for more.

Edgardo has some secrets of his own.

“It wants but a few minutes of the hour,” he said, consulting his watch by the light of the moon. “He dare not break his word. He will come.” He paused, and peered anxiously into the darkness. “But come what may, she is mine,” he continued, as his thoughts reverted fondly to the fair lady he had quitted. "Yet if she knew all. If she knew that I were a disgraced and ruined man,–a felon and an outcast. If she knew that at the age of fourteen I murdered my Latin tutor and forged my uncle’s will. If she knew that I had three wives already, and that the fourth victim of misplaced confidence and my unfortunate peculiarity is expected to be at Sloperton by to-night’s train with her baby. But no; she must not know it. Constance must not arrive. Burke the Slogger must attend to that.

Burke the Slogger is a ruffian whom Edgardo hires to destroy the bridge, so that the train carrying Wife #4 and Edgardo Jr. will plummet into a chasm. But, um, things don’t go according to plan.

But the next moment the train leaped across the chasm, striking the rails exactly even, and, dashing out the life of Burke the Slogger, sped away to Sloperton.

The next scene, with Selina getting the news, is maybe the funniest moment I’ve read in months.

“An accident has happened on the railway, and a man has been killed.”

“What–not Edgardo!” almost screamed Selina.

“No, Burke the Slogger your ladyship.”

“My first husband!” said Lady Selina, sinking on her knees. “Just Heaven, I thank thee!”

I won’t give away the ending, save to say it’s explosive, and rife with enough coincidences and cliches to please anyone.

[AuntiePam]

That’s hysterical! Did Harte intend it as a parody? Holy crap.

I think the last gothic novel I read was The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I wouldn’t call it understated or subtle, but it sure didn’t rise to the level of Selina Sedilia.

Wiki lists The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill as gothic. I guess I don’t know what gothic means, because I thought it was just a nifty little ghost story.

[Mississippienne]

Oh yes, “Selina Sedilia” is an over-the-top parody of over-wrought Gothic romances.

I haven’t heard of either of the Hills, I’m afraid.

[lissener]

I just reread one of my life’s favorite books, Sigrid Undset’s The Master of Hestviken. It’s a thousand pages of medieval Norway. Just, astonishing. I’ll never be able to understand how she creates such a real, solid world around the reader, with ZERO exposition: all the details are folded naturally into the dialogue and action. And you can still smell every smell and hear every sound.

[Walloon]

The original gothic novel: The Castle of Otranto (1764), by Horace Walpole. Followed by Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). For dessert, treat yourself to Jane Austen’s genre parody, Northanger Abbey.

[AuntiePam]

@lissener

I just reread one of my life’s favorite books, Sigrid Undset’s The Master of Hestviken. It’s a thousand pages of medieval Norway. Just, astonishing. I’ll never be able to understand how she creates such a real, solid world around the reader, with ZERO exposition: all the details are folded naturally into the dialogue and action. And you can still smell every smell and hear every sound.

I haven’t read this one but you describe Undset’s writing perfectly. When I was reading Kristin Lavrandsdattar, I was sure she was channeling or drawing on past life experiences. It’s not Gothic though, is it?