Literary trends are nothing new. In the past thirty years, we’ve seen floods of “wizard school” novels, teenage paranormal romances, dystopian science fiction, and psychological thrillers with featuring troubled young women (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train -- you get it).
In the late 18th century, the most sensational literary trend was the "Gothic novel." In the late 18th century, the most sensational literary trend was the "Gothic novel." Building off the popularity of the emotionally-driven “sentimental” and “romantic” novels, this genre distinguished itself by including supernatural elements, historical settings, and high levels of drama. One contemporary writer described the genre in a satirical essay:
- Take--An old castle, half of it ruinous.
- A long gallery, with a great many doors, some secret ones.
- Three murdered bodies, quite fresh.
- As many skeletons, in chests and presses.
- As old woman hanging by the neck; with her throat cut.
- Assassins and desperadoes 'quant suff.'
- Noise, whispers, and groans, threescore at least.
- Mix them together, in the form of three volumes to be taken at any of the watering places, before going to bed.
This project attempts to visualize some of these trends by processing the data gathered by Ann B. Tracy in her 1981 reference guide, The Gothic Novel 1790--1830: Plot Summaries and Index to Motifs. Using the two hundred and eight novels and chapbooks featured in this work, we will explore the kinds of data visualizations, maps, and textual analyses a bibliographic index can provide.
While investigating the corpus of texts featured in Tracy’s work, we will take a closer look at the four novels that played a key role in shaping the Gothic genre for decades to come (which we will refer to as our “key players):
The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole
Widely acknowledged as the first official Gothic novel (mostly due to its second edition bearing the subtitle “A Gothic Story”), this short, melodramatic, action-packed novel combines medievalism, long-lost relatives, and supernatural armor.
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe
Udolpho is probably better known today as the book Catherine Morland is obsessed with in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (which is a contemporary satirical look at the Gothic genre). In any case, this novel cemented Radcliffe’s status as a best-selling author.
The Monk
Matthew Gregory Lewis
In contrast to Udolpho, which emphasizes terror (anticipatory dread) and the sublime (awe-inspiring beauty), The Monk is pure horror (shock and revulsion at experiencing something dreadful). The author was a teenager when he wrote the first draft, and throughout the rest of his writing career could not shake the nickname of “Monk” Lewis.
Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
This novel needs no introduction: it remains popular to this day. It is commonly taught in American public high schools, and is considered to be one of the first science fiction novels.
Why does this matter?
To modern eyes, these novels are melodramatic, bordering on the ridiculous. But like over-the-top runway looks that rarely make it to department stores as-is, selected elements can be used to great effect in other works. We would not have Wuthering Heights, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and hundreds of other popular stories without the influx of Gothic tales in the late 18th century.