Gothic Romance Message Board

Yeah I got a member! Looks like we have a whole one book in common right now! I still have many, many books to put in though. So do you have any favorite authors in the Gothic realm?

Hi, devilbuny. I'm pleased as punch to join your group! I have a lot of Gothics published by Paperback Library, Ace, and Lancer -- most are from the sixties, I think. In the late eighties and early nineties, Zebra put out a number of Gothics; but I don't think they were quite as good as the older ones, though I haven't reread many of the old ones in years.

My favorite writers of Gothics were/are Anya Seton (Dragonwyck), Phyllis Whitney (The Quicksilver Pool), Dorothy Daniels (Darkhaven, which I notice someone else has, too), and Victoria Holt, of course. I liked plenty other one-off writers, but I can't think of the titles right now. I'll have to search my catalog!

I think when my entire library is finally loaded up I should have close to 1000 paperbacks that are just the old fashioned Gothics! I'm not really sure how I got hooked to them, I think it may have been when I was very young and saw them in the stores, I remember I was always fascinated with the covers.

I'm not sure if I have any of the Anya Seton ones? I shall have to check her out. I know I have a ton of Phyllis Whitney, Dorothy Daniels and Victoria Holt. I also really like Charlotte Armstrong altough she is a toss-up in the debate if she is a true Gothic writer or more of a suspense author. I also remember that I have quite a few books in a line that were called Satanic Gothics. They had the standard Gothic setup but also included some elements of witchcraft. One was excellent but I can't remember the author or title right now (I will hunt it down when I get home and load it in here!).

Wow! 1000 Gothic paperbacks! And I thought I had a lot of 'em.

I was very young, too, when I got hooked on Gothics. It was nearly always the house on the cover that attracted my attention -- that one lighted window, especially! Do you have a favorite house on a cover? The cliffside mansion on the cover of the Paperback Library edition of Mystery House by Kathleen Norris is one that always fascinated me. There was a particular artist that I always recognized -- I knew his name at one point but have since forgotten, but he did the covers for many of the Paperback Library gothics and I think Ace and Lancer, as well. The earlier covers were quite artistic, but as time went on they became cliche and cheesy, IMO.

I noticed that the tag "gothic" means different things to different catalogers. I've included some of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothics, but generally, for me, the tag means the kind of stories that you described above: the ones that were published in the 1960s and 1970s. I'm not sure if I ever read, or had any, of the witchcraft-type gothics, so I'm looking forward to seeing the titles you have, devilbuny. Will you be tagging them as "Satanic Gothics"? I'm just wondering because I'm not sure I could distinguish them.

Yes I am a horrid collector. My husband always makes fun of me that I have more books than I could ever read in my lifetime! I just tell him I will keep trying. :) But then I come home from the flea market or book sale with a whole new armfull!

There are soo many great covers - I just love them. It's funny I have taught my mom to recognize a Gothic by the cover, so if she is out shopping she can grab them for me. I love the old Victorian mansions - I have always hoped to one day have one. Ha Ha Ha. I am actually lucky enough to own the original painting that was turned into the cover of one of my books. And I also have the book. I would love to collect the paintings but I don't have that much money. My painting is the cover for The Embroidered Sunset by Joan Aiken - I will put that book in the database and scan the cover in as soon as I'm done here so you can go see it.

Yes Gothic has so many meanings but it has always been the "damsel in distress" paperbacks for me too. On the Noir board someone has said that the old Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White is considered French Noir! I always considered that one a Gothic too but it is one of the older ones.

Yes I'll add the Satanic Gothic as a tag. I ransacked my bookshelves and found two of them that I have read. They were put out by Avon and have a little goat head on them that says "Satanic Gothic". The one that I read that was great was Her Demon Lover by Louisa Bronte. I will also put that one in with a review and the cover when I'm done. It is different from most of your gothics because it has a lot of love scenes that are really hot. Most of your gothics gloss over those, I remember I paid a lot for that book. I found the auction on Ebay for it and three other Avon Satanic Gothics and ended up fighting someone for it. By the end of the auction I had finally won it but I paid $50 for them! I'm used to not paying more than a dollar or two at the most and more likely about 25 - 50 cents. Oh I have some other gothics that also have witchcraft in them - I'm tagging them as "Occult Thriller" with "Gothic Romance".

I'm not really a collector of Gothics; I just have a lot left over from the 1960s -- plus my mother gave me hers. But occasionally when I run across one, I snap it up. Have you noticed that they aren't as common in used bookstores as they once were? I remember when there were shelf after shelf of secondhand Gothic paperbacks.

Thinking about it, I guess Jane Eyre and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Jamaica Inn were the first damsel-in-distress-type Gothics I read. They are still some of my favorite novels that I reread quite frequently.

The very first Gothic paperback I bought for myself was Edward Crandall's White Violets which I reread fairly recently. It didn't stand the test of time, unfortunately, IMO; but I keep it for nostalgic reasons.

I remember really liking Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting and several of her others, but I'm thinking now that those others of hers were more romantic suspense (or intrigue, or whatever you call it) than true Gothics. Same with some of Phyllis A. Whitney's books -- though I only really liked her early stuff: for instance, Seven Tears for Apollo.

Recently I read Sally Beaumann's The Sisters Mortland which is touted as a Gothic; but I was disappointed because, although it does have Gothic elements, it wasn't really what I wanted it to be. Do any writers nowadays write in the old-fashioned-style? Probably not, things have to evolve, I suppose; but I'm expecting a resurrection of interest in the genre any day now -- after all, it has gone through several cycles already!

Do you have any new(er) favorites?

The Woman in White is one of my favorite books of all time. (and you're right, it's definitely gothic, though it's also labeled a sensation novel because of the Victorian time period.) my other favorites are Uncle Silas, Dracula, and anything by Ann Radcliffe. I also recently read (and loved) Zofloya by Charlotte Dacre; it's wordy in the early 19th century way, but you may like seeing a one of the great-great-great-grandmothers of your Satanic Gothic collection. :)

anyway, I've enjoyed reading all about the favorites in your collection(s). :) it's given me some good suggestions. I've been looking to begin my own collection of newer gothics to compliment my beloved older texts. I just bought my first two yesterday, in fact. *excited* watch, it will turn out to be a red-letter day in my library history. I already have space issues for storing my books--this could be dangerous.

Ohhh newer favorites - they don't really seem to write them like they used to. All I can think of is I know Harlequin has an intrigue series that are similar in the damsel in distress way. The one author that I know is still writing is Nora Roberts - I have some older novels of hers that are gothics. Not sure if she still writes any in that field though?

Zofloya sounds like fun! I'm going to have to find that one. I like reading the older ones too but yes they can be wordy! I love Wilkie Collins but he is very wordy. I think somewhere in the Woman in White he takes three pages to describe a sunset!

Ohh yes Phyllis A. Whitney I have many of hers, I think its been awhile since I read one though! My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart was one of my favorites. They are really on the borderline of the genre. I know in the 70's when gotihcs were the most popular they would try and take anything that was even remotely gothic and give it the correct cover image so it would sell. I have a horrid example of that in The Tulip Tree - it had gothic elements but was just not the genre and wasn't even a good book.

it's a shame about The Tulip Tree...I like the cover art for that one. hehehe.

Zofloya is a very interesting book if you're interested in the history of gothic novels (which fascinates me, I admit), especially when you consider it was written by a woman. I don't doubt that it was scandalous at the time it was published. it's definitely been one of my favorite reads of the year thus far.

the books I got were of the 60s-70s gothics--The Hermitage and Opal Street. I liked the covers and they are (I think) both historical novels, so I predict I'll enjoy them. heheh.

Speaking of Dracula earlier and just vampires altogether, I recently picked up 20 paperbacks in the Dark Shadows series. They are based off the old T.V. series. I haven't read any of them yet - I've been trying to figure out what order they go in and it is confusing. But the interesting thing is many of them are written by the same authors that have written my Gothics.

Oh, yes, Marilyn Ross wrote some pretty decent Gothics, as well as the Dark Shadows books. I think I have a couple of the latter, though I wasn't particularly enamored with the television show and have no idea of the proper order of them.

I have The Tulip Tree, but I don't remember ever reading it. Maybe I started it and it was bad that I put it down. I'll have to take another look at it because, now, you've piqued my curiosity, devilbuny.

I'll have to look for Zofloya, too. I did read several early Gothics, including The Castle of Otranto and The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I may reread the Radcliffe, but I don't think I want to wade through Otranto again!

silverwraith, Uncle Silas is one of my all-time favorites. Have you read any of J. Sheridan LeFanu's other books or short stories? "Carmilla" is a short story about a female vampire that gives me serious creeps every time I read it. Now we are shading into horror & ghost stories -- but with Gothic elements, definitely. Have either of you, devilbuny and silverwraith, read Dorothy Macardle's The Uninvited? I adore that book -- the film adaptation (with Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey) is also quite good but not nearly so frightening as the book, in my opinion.

Hi, I'm a new Library Thing user and just stumbled on your board. And I'm so glad I did! I grew up on Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt (my grandmother's doing) and The Uninvited (novel and movie) was truly one of my favorite.

Tell me would you consider some of Barbara Micheals books to be Satantic Gothic? It seems like many of hers have ghostly / unexplained events, or would it need to be more in the realm of vampires/witches/zombies/etc.

I too, am attracted to those great covers, but I have no where near your collections! I think I need to get to some more book sales...

hi Carminowe,

yes, I have indeed read Carmilla. I loved it. :) I also have the Dover collection of LeFanu's Ghost Stories and Mysteries (which I haven't read yet), and The Rose and the Key, which I happened upon at the used bookstore this past weekend. I'm excited to begin that one, but I have no idea when I'll get to it--my To Be Read pile has gotten out of control. not that I mind, of course. ;)

I don't know of Dorothy Macardle; I'll check her out. but in a strange book-world coincidence, I had just put a couple Marilyn Ross paperbacks on my ebay watchlist before I stopped by this message board.

Really, really don't bother with The Tulip Tree, sometimes it is fun to read a bad book just to make fun of it. But this one is really a waste of time. His style of writing is really good, he paints lovely gothic locals but the story goes nowhere. You just keep reading going - okay something is going to happen now right, and then five more chapters later you are saying something is going to happen right? It's like he wanted to write a gothic story but just didn't have a really good plot in mind so just kept throwing in random elements hoping it would work. Also it's a pretty long book, not your average quick read.

I'm ashamed I have never stumbled upon The Uninvited - now I have a huge list of more books to hunt down. I like getting older paperback copies so it makes the hunt a wee bit harder! From what I have read about The Uninvited it would be classed as a Gothic Romance.

I figure there has to be certain elements in a story to class it as the Gothic Romance. I list them as the following:
**Must have a gothic setting - such as old house, castle, or even town - this location is almost a character in itself
**Should but not always has a female lead who finds herself in danger
**Some mystery that needs to be solved
**A romantic element thrown in somewhere
I figure if it has those in it it is a Gothic Romance, even if it includes vampires, ghosts, voodoo (I have quite a few of these), etc. If you have the romantic element with the vampires or ghosts with no mystery or danger of death for the lead then you have a supernatural/fantasy romance (there is a board for that one too).
I do own several Barbara Michaels books but haven't read any of them yet. From the synopsis on mine I bought them because they did sound like Gothic Romances to me. Damn now I have some more books I have to read next!
Ohhh The Rose and the Key looks good! There goes another book added to my list!
Oh question - as I go through my collection and finally catalog it on here, I know I am going to run into duplicates - are any of you interested in them? I'd be willing to send them to you for just the price of shipping.

I am delighted to report that I just bought The Rose and the Key yesterday. I wasn't even looking for it, but there it was! And thanks to this group that I recognized it immediately. I'm looking forward to settling down to a g-o-o-o-d read.

Devilbuny, I like your list of Gothic "requirements." I think in the past I've tagged books with obvious supernatural elements differently even if they had Gothic elements -- I've gone back and added the Gothic tag to a few, but not all. I don't know where I got the idea, but I expect the Gothics to have rational explanations no matter how illogical the circumstances might seem at first. Obviously, though, that doesn't apply to stories such as The Uninvited which has definite ghostly manifestations. And the narrator of that book is male.

So many Gothics get compared to either Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Jane Eyre. And so many times Du Maurier's books are all lumped into the Gothic category, though really only two are what I consider to be Gothics: Rebecca and Jamaica Inn. Her other novels are mainly historicals. My Cousin Rachel and The Scapegoat are borderline, perhaps, though I don't personally consider them Gothics. Have any of you read them?

I think some of Barbara Michaels' books are Gothics -- such as Ammie, Come Home and Greygallows and The Master of Blacktower -- though I'm not sure of her others.

Most of them will have the rational explanation at the end but I have quite a few where the ghosts/witches/voodoo is real. I actually really enjoy those because they are different. When cataloging some of mine yesterday I came across a short story collection by du Mauier - I put that one aside to take a closer look at. I have both Jane Eyre and Rebecca and enjoyed them I will have to take a look at the other two you mentioned. You know I have a book by Angela Du Mauier - I wonder if that is a relative or just someone trying to use the name to sell more books??

I have all three of those Barbara Michaels novels and just haven't read them yet. Aye -soo many books, soo little time! I would agree that they seem to be gothics - sometimes it's hard to tell until you start to read them. I also have Wait or What Will Come which seems to be a gothic but again still haven't read it. I've been on a mystery/noir/crime kick recently, I will have to start picking these ones up and reading them!

Hi! I will admit that I haven't read a lot of gothic novels recently, but I'm definitel getting interested in them again. My problem is that I read so many different genres, I often lose focus on one (gothic novels, per se) and forget how much I loved them until I stumble across a message board like this one.

Rebecca is probably one of my favorite books of all time. Love love love the movie, too. I also read a lot of Victoria Holt/Phillipa Carr when I was younger, and at one point I think I had read just about every Barbara Michaels book I could get my hands on.

A lot of the specific plots elude me, but if I remember correctly, her older novels tended to be more along the traditional gothic lines. As time progressed, she became more of a mystery and historical author. I don't know if that has anything to do with the enormous success she has under her alter ego, Elizabeth Peters. I know she's very popular under both names.

I recently acquired a lot of old books, including a lot of vintage gothic and historical romances, from my grandmother's house. I was really excited about them, and couldn't wait to get my collection started and to read them--- I remember the covers were great, especially on the Victoria Holt ones--- but then my house was flooded last month. Most of my books were undamaged because they were on the second floor, but all of the books from my grandmother's and most of the books I had recently acquired from library book sales were still downstairs, unpacked, and I lost them all. :(

One title I recently got for free as a library discard is The Bluebell Pool by Susan Sully. It's newer, copyright 1993, and the jacket describes it as "romantic suspense" "in the tradition of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca", but the description sounds more like a gothic. I don't know when I'll get around to reading it (my TBR pile is enormous).

I also have out from the library right now The Shadow Players by Linda Sole, which is copyright 1992 and described as "a chilling Gothic atmosphere in an exciting contemporary setting." We shall see, we shall see.

I'll also be sure to join this group under my other name, marcia_g, which is where my real catalog is; this I just use for talking and keeping track of all the books I've read in the last couple years, whether or not I'm actually still in possession of them.

marcia_g: ack...I cringed just reading about your lost books, especially with that sort of sentimental value. :( that's right out of a bibilophile's nightmare.

devilbuny: I read your review of Garden of Satan and am quite keen to read it...if you happen to find a duplicate of that one, let me know and I'll be glad to pay the postage via paypal or something. I had no idea there were so many of that genre still in the used marketplace--I spent a week wading through ebay's selection and choosing a measley 10 or so. I got another by Miriam Lynch, as well as several others by various authors. one of them is a Satanic Gothic, though--I saw the little goat's head on the cover and remembered that being discussed in this group. I can't wait to get them in the mail. :)

Ohh a flood and no more books! That's horrible. I always worry about something like that happening to all of mine. They have taken me soo long to get and I know I could never find a few of them again.

I will keep an eye out for my dupes and I will post which ones I come across. Last weekend was me putting in my catalog the entire mystery/other shelf in the huge book closet. This weekend I am going to start on the gothic shelves - I have three shelves that are about four book stacks deep, 10 - 12 books high and about 5 book stacks wide!

As time progresses they are getting harder to find. A few years ago I would be able to walk through the flea market and find a few gothics at every other seller. Now it seems most people are tossing the older books they have and just selling the newer ones - which is a shame! I remember there used to be a huge used book store in my town that had to have 1000's and 1000's of used paperback among them a ton of gothics. About 8 years ago they moved and the used book collection went down to just 1/8 of what it used to be. I have always wondered what happened to all those poor books. I'm guessing they ended up in some land fill - :(

Now the easiest place to find them is on Ebay and you can usually pick up a lot for not too bad.

I haven't read many gothics recently either but I'm going to pick some up here next. Garden of Satan was the last one I read. Miriam Lynch seems to be a very good author, I have a lot from her.

I wonder how many books were in the Satanic Gothic line? I wonder if there is any way of finding that out?? I know they were put out by Avon which is still selling books I think?? I should find a number for them and call them and bug them.

I actually got two Miriam Lynch novels--The Devil's Mirror and Moon of Darkness. I'm still waiting for that second one to arrive. *eyes the mailbox*

there was another Satanic Gothic that I saw and was very interested in...except there was a large tear in the spine and the cover was all beat up. it was still 6.99 though, which makes me think they're getting somewhat rare. it was called Red Wine of Rapture. (that's the worst thing about ebay shopping--most sellers don't include the summary on the back of the book. for shame. :P)

I'm in awe of your gothics library. how long have you been collecting them?

I have five Miriam Lynch gothics, so out of curiosity I sat down and read one today: Night of the Moonrose. It has some satanic elements...but that's all I'm going to say.;-)

Devilbuny, above you wondered about Angela du Maurier. You and I share Treveryan. Angela was Daphne's younger sister. They had an older sister, too. They were the children of Gerald du Maurier, a very successful theatre manager and sometime actor. Their grandfather was George du Maurier, who is probably best known for writing Trilby, the story of a young singer who found herself in the clutches of one "Svengali." Trilby is sort of gothic-like, come to think of it, but perhaps the missing element is the impressive old house -- I don't know.

Oh that is very cool about the du Mauier family. It doesn't look like anyone has ready Treveryan yet. I might have to make that my next one. I'm interested if she was as good a writer as her sister. Trilby sound interesting too.

My huge collection - I've been amassing my Gothics for about 8 years now. Every time I go to a garage sale/resale/junk store I keep my eye out for them. And I also have bought several lots of them on ebay. I remember about seven years ago, a used book store was closing and I took a gamble and bought about four lots of 100 gothics each. He didn't even give the titles so it was kind of like Christmas. I actually got a few really rare ones in that lot along with some things that weren't gothics but very interesting. I remember I got Stepford Wives with got me interested in Ira Levin and I also got We have always lived in the Castle a very creepy, haunting novel with gothic elements but no romance.

I am also frustrated when they don't give you the synopsis of a book. I really hate it when the modern authors put out a book now and if they are at all popular, their picture is on the back and nothing else - so you have no idea what it is about except what you can guess from the cover.

I'm also intrigued by Trilby. good grief, there's another to add to my wishlist on amazon... *sigh*

anyway. Devilbuny (or anyone else), have you read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson? it's one of my favorite contemporary (as in post-WW2 era) novels. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a cool book, but I thought Hill House was even better. there are romantic elements but it's not a true 'gothic romance' in the sense of Victoria Holt & that ilk. the supernatural encounters are real, too...I guess that makes it more of a plain gothic or (perhaps) horror. in any case, I recommend it.

Has anyone read Madeleine Brent? My favorite was Tregaron's Daughter. That was THE book that started me on Gothic Romances, I think I was 12 years old, and read exclusively Gothic Romances for two years.

Oh, yes, I enjoyed the Madeleine Brent books. Did you know that "Madeleine" was one of Peter O'Donnell's pseudonyms? He wrote the Modesty Blaise books under his own name. There were actually several male authors who used feminine pen names for their gothics and regular romances. "Dorothy Daniels" was actually a writing team -- if I remember correctly, they were husband and wife...anyway, I know they were one man and one woman.

Yeah! I was totally shocked when I learned that as a teen! But I did not know that he wrote the Modesty Blaise series and will rush out and get them immediately! Just Wikipedia'd him, looks like the MB series is similar to The Saint Series by Leslie Charteris, which I hope they reprint soon. Oh, does anyone here count The Angelique series by Anne Golon as Gothic? Or would it be Historical Fiction/Romance?

Yes there were a lot of male authors writing gothics and using female names. One that I discovered by accident doing internet searches is Dean Koontz wrote about 4 gothics in the 70's - he used the name Deanna Dwyer - If you come across any of them they are worth some money. They usually go for at least $100 +.

silverwraith - yes I have read The Haunting of Hill House - excellent book. I love Shirley Jackson's writing. Yeah I wouldn't classify any of her books as Gothic Romances - maybe just call them Gothics, because many of them do have the other elements in them.

I didn't know that about Dorothy Daniels - I have a toooonnnnn of her/his/their books.

Well, I just received and read The Hundredth Door by Rae Foley, I thought because I saw it recommended on this message board, but now I don't see it. A fun old-fashioned little book, but I changed the tag to mystery from suspense after reading it, cause it had such a strong whodunnit element.

The Hundredth Door did have a strong mystery element but that is also what makes a gothic. There is always a mystery factor in all of them. That one had your young lady in danger, not knowing who to trust and a love affair with a big old mansion. So to me at least still very much a gothic. I found that one enjoyable.

Added several gothics that I have extras of to bookmooch.com if anyone is interested - I put up the following:

Blue Devil Suite by Dorothy Daniels
Castle of Terror by Caroline Farr
House Above Hollywood by Velda Johnston
The Gresham Ghost by Willo Davis Roberts
Bride of Thunder by Jeanne Rowan
The Quicksilver Pool by Phyllis A Whitney

Come on and mooch my books so I can get more! :)