Genre Notes and Gothics
I was working on "cleaning up" this photo for my website when I looked at it and realized that it ALMOST was a Gothic Romance cover. The day I took this photo was cloudy, and we stayed a while, so it looks like evening...
Currently the Gothic is out of favor, some of the genre elements for it (in general) was historical (usually England), first person narrative from the woman's POV (usually a governess or companion). Bronte's Jane Eyre, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca would be the major books people would know. Other authors who would have been considered writing Gothics were Elsie Lee, Victoria Holt, Mary Roberts Rhinehart (more of the "had I but known" mystery), Mary Stewart, Jennie Melville, Barbara Michaels. THE GOTHIC ROMANCE IS USUALLY CONSIDERED TO BE THE FORERUNNER OF TODAY'S ROMANTIC SUSPENSE. Which is still a hot genre, folks!
Note the many qualifiers above – that's because, like ALL GENRE WRITING, there may be some common elements, but the best who write in a genre redefine it for themselves and won't necessarily have all the elements and will push the boundaries.
Anyway, Gothic covers usually had a fearful woman prominent in them running away in a nightgown....and a house in the background with one window lit!
Robin
Currently the Gothic is out of favor, some of the genre elements for it (in general) was historical (usually England), first person narrative from the woman's POV (usually a governess or companion). Bronte's Jane Eyre, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca would be the major books people would know. Other authors who would have been considered writing Gothics were Elsie Lee, Victoria Holt, Mary Roberts Rhinehart (more of the "had I but known" mystery), Mary Stewart, Jennie Melville, Barbara Michaels. THE GOTHIC ROMANCE IS USUALLY CONSIDERED TO BE THE FORERUNNER OF TODAY'S ROMANTIC SUSPENSE. Which is still a hot genre, folks!
Note the many qualifiers above – that's because, like ALL GENRE WRITING, there may be some common elements, but the best who write in a genre redefine it for themselves and won't necessarily have all the elements and will push the boundaries.
Anyway, Gothic covers usually had a fearful woman prominent in them running away in a nightgown....and a house in the background with one window lit!
Robin
posted by FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens | 8:24 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Robin. I grew up reading Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Phyllis Whitney. Did you ever see the Hayley Mills version of the Moonspinners? I wish they had made movies based on more of these books.
Oooh. Forgot Phyllis Whitney. Yes I saw the Moonspinners at some point in time. I don't think that they massacred it too badly, but I think I only saw it once.
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