There were also the books that I never managed to get through. The Picture of Dorian Gray and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are two books that I don't think I'll ever be able to finish, though I've tried. Sometimes "classic literature" isn't to my taste (i.e. I find it boring). Other times, I find that the text hasn't been updated enough into the modern lexicon that I can't figure out what's going on at all.
I'm using quotes around the word "classic" because the term and status has primarily been determined by academia (who are typically of the demographics: wealthy, white, and male). Authors such as Agatha Christie and Stephen King have largely gained "classic" status through their fans and shifts in pop culture attitude. The Phantom of the Opera would have likely been forgotten about if the 1925 silent film starting Lon Chaney and the many remakes hadn't been such a huge success.
One of the oldest genres of "classic" literature that I'm quite fond of is the Gothic novel. Spanning nearly two centuries, Gothic literature was cultivated during late 18th century. Horace Walpole's novel The Castle of Otranto (1764) is largely considered to be the first published work in the Gothic genre.
There's more to the Gothic genre than horror (though there are a lot of horror elements to it). Considered to be the darker, edgier side of the Romantic arts movement, and largely inspired by the actual Gothic ruins found throughout Europe (but mostly the British Isles) are the key inspirations for the Gothic genre. British writers predominately shaped the Gothic style, though they weren't the only ones. French and American writers also heavily contributed to the literary genre, especially the great-granddaddy of modern western horror, Edgar Allan Poe.
But what exactly makes something worthy of the title Gothic?
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| A Gothic story might start out in a place like this... |
- There's a creepy big house
- There's a creepy cemetery
- Creepy religious symbolism everywhere
- Dark and stormy nights
- Mist and/or fog
- Someone mentions the moors of England, Scotland, or Wales
- There's a ghost
- A dark and tragic past that one character can't get away from
- Secret passages
- Did I mention a ghost or two?
- There's the possibility of a curse causing mayhem
- Werewolves, vampires, and/or evil fairies
- Women fainting
- Someone - likely a beautiful young woman - has tuberculosis (also known as consumption)
- Did I freaking mention a ghost?
- There are creepy people around - a butler, caretaker, gardener, etc.
- Someone is brutally murdered
This list doesn't contain every possible trope that makes up the Gothic genre (in fact it seems to have a lot of the Gothic horror genre in it), but it's what I've noticed in the Gothic media I consume. It's not a genre full of sunshine and rainbows. It's dark and full of deep emotions that need to be expressed in the most dramatic way possible, with several chapters in a row dedicated to that character's tragic past.
Gothic literature eventually morphed into the pulp horror fiction of the early 1900s. H.P. Lovecraft has a lot of Gothic elements in his short stories. I would also argue that elements of the genre have managed to stick around, though they are not as frequent as I would like. Genres such as Steampunk and Neo-Victorian all have some elements of the Gothic style.
Movies are far more likely to play with updated versions of the Gothic genre. Hammer Horror, the horrible CGI monster movies of the 2000s, and pretty much everything Tim Burton has ever made has elements of the Gothic aesthetic. Sleepy Hollow is one of my all time favorite Halloween movies and it just oozes Gothic atmosphere. Guillermo Del Toro also released a Gothic style movie, Crimson Peak, that heavily draws on Gothic tropes.
I somewhat blindly stumbled into Gothic literature when I first picked up Dracula. I knew it was a classic Gothic horror story, but I didn't really understand what that meant. In fact, it takes a lot of liberties with Gothic tropes and in many cases subverts them. One example of the subversion comes when the horror that is Dracula follows the character Jonathan Harker home. In most Gothic horror stories of the time, once a character leaves a creepy location, they were safe from it.
The Gothic genre wasn't without parodies. The Canterville Ghost contains the bones of a Gothic tale, but Oscar Wilde chose to take a much more comedic tone by having a very British ghost meet a very American family. While Jane Austen poked fun at the genre in her novel Northanger Abbey as early as 1803 (though the novel wasn't published until after her death in 1817).
This year, I picked up The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. I recently saw it on Broadway and loved it. The music is amazing, the story is interesting, and it has a feel that's reminiscent of a fairy tale. The play also made a lot more sense than the 2004 movie (though I love that too).
I've only just started the book and it's sucking me in. It's quite a bit different from the play or movie, but I can see how they adapted the story. Now, the book itself wasn't all the rage back when it was first serialized (that was a gimmick early news papers did to try and keep sales high), but it has since risen to be considered one of the lesser "classic" Gothic tales.
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| I would totally live in that castle! |
This year, I picked up The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. I recently saw it on Broadway and loved it. The music is amazing, the story is interesting, and it has a feel that's reminiscent of a fairy tale. The play also made a lot more sense than the 2004 movie (though I love that too).
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| I brought this book |
Next week, I'll continue my dive into the Gothic side of literature. Hopefully, The Phantom of the Opera continues to be as entertaining as it so far has been. Until next week!
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