5 E l e m e n t s o f H o r r o r , R o m a n c e , a n d Su p e r n a t u r a l
i n G o t h i c N o ve l s
(H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, M. G. Lewis, and M. Shelley)
H o r a c e W a l p o l e ( 1 7 1 7 – 9 7 )
L i f e :
-b. Horatio W., son of the PM Sir Robert W. (1676 – 1745) and the 4th Earl of Orford
-received uni education
-undertook the 2 y. Grand Tour on the Continent with his homosexual lover, the poet Thomas Gray (1716 – 71) > quarrelled with him > returned to En. to take a seat in Parliament
-a politician = an MP, devotee of King George II (1683 – 1760, reign 1727 – 60) x but: politically unambitious
-an architectural innovator = began a new neo-Gothic architectural trend with his mock castle at Strawberry Hill (near Twickenham outside London) filled with an extraordinary eclectic coll. of art and a small press
-a connoisseur, antiquarian, art historian,… a figure of considerable cultural importance
-coined the term ‘serendipity’ [= sth interesting or pleasant happening by chance] for E from a Persian fairy tale
W o r k :
F i c t i o n :
The Castle of Otranto (1764):
-= a Gothic novel
-supposedly a ‘translation’ of the manuscript of a medieval Ita. tale of improbable catastrophes
-blended ‘two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern’
-orig. accepted rather favourably x but: vilified by the press when revealed to be no transl. x but: a contemp. creation of the politically and socially well-connected son of the PM
-> set a Gothic lit. trend to go with the architecture
D r a m a :
The Mysterious Mother:
-= a Gothic drama
-conc.: the incest
-the mother seduces her ignorant son and gives birth to a daughter whom the son marries, not aware who her mother (let alone her father) is
-avoids the supernatural, but: incl. the character of a wicked monk
-> unperformed in his lifetime
N o n - f i c t i o n :
Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762 – 80):
-in 4 vol.
-> still a prime source for the study of the early pictorial arts in Br.
Historic Doubts on Richard III (1768):
-attempted to rehabilitate the character of Richard III (1452 – 85, reign 1483 – 85)
Letters (posthum.):
-a prodigious writer of letters: corresponded with many of the most important cultural and political figures of his time (incl. T. Chatterton, & oth.)
-one of the most brilliant writers of the Deistic school: freely admitted his scepticism about immortality and his distaste for priests and churches
Memoirs (posthum.):
-portrayed the Georgian (= the reign of George II and George III) social and political scene
-> still a useful primary source for historians x but: a heavily biased one
A n n R a d c l i f f e ( 1 7 6 4 – 1 8 2 3 )
L i f e :
-started writing when found herself in a childless marriage < encouraged by her husband
-increasingly famous and financially successful x but: quit writing suddenly
-in her later life reclusive < possibly as a result of a nervous breakdown and an acute lifelong sense of propriety, decorum, and reserve
-> enormously pop. in her day, esp. with upper / middle class young women
W o r k :
“On the Supernatural in Poetry” (1826, posthum):
-= a serious essay
-presented her view of her own work:
(a)terror = ‘expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life’
(b)horror = ‘contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them’
(c)terror = the source of her own fictional sublime
-< her notion of the sublime = closer to Edmund Burke (1727 – 97, statesman and philosopher) (whom she read) x than to the supernatural sensationalism of the later Gothic novelists
-< her sensibility = formed by the wild and perilous landscape paintings of Salvator Rosa (1615 – 73)
-centred her sublime on descriptions of imaginary scenery > pioneered the fictional use of landscape
-typical setting = an imaged Ita., with frequent impressions of solemn or ‘peculiar grandeur’ both to elevate and awe the spirits of her protagonists: The Italian, the F protagonist imprisoned in a convent overlooks a plain fringed with a ‘vast chain of mountains’
-typical protagonist = a decorous and sensible woman finding resource in her reasonableness
-typical technique = introd. apparently supernatural events x but: explains them afterwards carefully by natural means
-> = a ‘founder of a class or school’ of ‘a peculiar style of composition affecting powerfully the mind of the reader’ (W. Scott)
-> = a bridge btw the Augustans with her rationalistic explanations x the Romantics with her emphasis on the imagination and the supernatural
-> a blend of moralism, aesthetics, and drama the Romantic period: definitive for a more genteel strain of Gothic fiction x now: a subject to challenge
-> a subject to many imitators of her style, incl. J. Austen’s burlesque of The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) in Northanger Abbey
The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789):
-set the tone of the majority of her work
-preocc.: innocent x but: heroic young women finding themselves in gloomy castles ruled by mysterious barons with a dark past
The Sicilian Romance (1790)
The Romance of the Forest (1792)
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
The Italian (1797)
M a t t h e w G r e g o r y L e w i s ( 1 7 7 5 – 1 8 1 8 )
L i f e :
-= ‘Monk’ Lewis
-educated for a diplomatic career
-the ethical demerits of The Monk (1796) did not interfere with his reception into the best society (noticed favourably at court, served as an MP, etc.)
-inherited estates in Jamaica > undertook a journey to that place to improve the condition of the slave population > died of a fever caused by the tropical climate
W o r k :
-emphasis on the supernatural, the horror x A. Radcliffe’s emphasis on the sublime, the terror
F i c t i o n :
The Monk (1796):
-= a Gothic novel
-< the poems of Gottfried August Bürger (1748 – 94) and oth. early romantics, the drama and fiction of F. Schiller
-< the example of A. Radcliffe in inserting verse into novels: “Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene”, an inserted ballad, showed his gift and an influential command of rapid rhythm > W. Scott’s early poetry
-< W. Shakespeare: prefaced with an epigraph from his Measure for Measure (1603), echoes the monument scene from his Romeo and Juliet (1623)
-set in a Capuchin friary in Madrid = a small world of repression, obsession, ambition, and intrigue x the calm reflection of A. Radcliffe’s convents
-investigates a tormented soul, semi-pornographically exploits incidents and images suggesting the labyrinthine nature of the protagonist’s life x but: in no psychological depth
-plays with hidden chambers, subterraneous passages, sealed vaults, etc. = concealed passion
-protagonist = Ambrosio, a saintly monk to become a rapist and murderer led into a life of depravity by a fiend-inspired woman
-his Faustian compact with the Devil terminates in his being physically and spiritually broken, his agonisingly slow death described in great detail
-aesthetic demerits = messy, badly constructed, extravagant in every sense x but: incl. some scenes of power
-> achieved an immediate celebrity x but: threatened to have its sale restrained because of its ethical demerits > the 2nd ed. omitted objectionable passages x but: retained its horrific character
D r a m a :
The Castle Spectre (1796):
-= a musical drama, the best known of his melodramatic plays
-of little lit. merit x but: enjoying a long popularity on the stage
T r a n sl a t i o n s :
The Minister (1797):
-= a transl. from F. Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe (1784, = Intrigue and Love)
The Bravo of Venice (1804):
-= a transl. from a Ger. romance, his 2nd best known novel besides The Monk
M a r y Sh e l l e y ( 1 7 9 7 – 1 8 5 1 )
L i f e :
-daughter of M. Wollstonecraft-Godwin and William Godwin (1756 – 1836), wife of P. B. Shelley
W o r k :
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818):
-< orig.: the lit. circle in Switzerland incl. P. B. Shelley, G.G. Byron, & oth. discussed philos. and nature, orig. and meaning of life, the myth of Prometheus, and the enterprise of modern science > each member wrote a ‘ghost story’
-= a study of the consequences of experiment and of moving into the unknown
-a morally probing exploration of responsibility and science
-narrative layers:
(a)the 1st person account of the solitary explorer Robert Walton
(b)the confessions of Dr Frankenstein
(c)the confessions of the creature
-a parallel btw classical myth and modern experiment:
(a)Frankenstein Prometheus: both punished, P. by a jealous heaven, F. = the ‘modern Prometheus’ by a challenge to his authority on the part of the monster
(b)the monster Adam: both ruined and questioning, turn to accuse their creators with an acute and trained intelligence, both insist on their loneliness and wretchedness
(c)the monster Satan: overhears and grasps sth of J. Milton’s Paradise Lost, realises how much he has in common with his Satan
-concl.: envy, defeat, and unhappiness lead to a jealous destruction
-ends where it began = in a polar wasteland landscape with the shifting ice allowing for the opening of new perspectives and uncertainties
-> the power lies not only in its ‘terror’ x but: in its prophetic speculation