A Frighteningly Brief Introduction to the Gothic in Fiction, Music, T.V., and Film
Jackson the Cat "The Gothic tale, characterized by its setting and atmosphere--the former tending toward ill-storied mansions located in remote, rustic areas, the latter toward gloom and impending disaster--flourished for many years: from the age of Horace Walpole and Anne Radcliffe into the early twentieth century, when it died with Edith Wharton. The genre also typically featured an unlikely, melancholy hero who confronts a half-remembered legend concerning a dark presence who once terrorized the region in life and is still rumored to haunt the land in death, or an innocent who was tortured to death sometime in the distant past and who is said to still walk the land after nightfall." -James Person From its awkward beginnings in the late 18th century with Horace Walpole's pseudo-medieval novel, The Castle of Otranto , the literary style known as "Gothic" has grown to become very popular. While there are pure Gothic stories, often elem...
