November 2022 Mystery Kit--Gothic

What is gothic literature? In the most general terms, Gothic literature can be defined as writing that employs dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, and an overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread. Often, a Gothic novel or story will revolve around a large, ancient house that conceals a terrible secret or serves as the refuge of an especially frightening and threatening character. (thoughtco)

Elements of gothic literature (Robert Harris):
• Setting in a castle
• An atmosphere of mystery and suspense
• An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle
• Omens, portents, visions
• Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events
• High, even overwrought emotion
• Damsel in distress
• Distressed male protagonist
• Dreaming/ nightmares

Possible reads:


Other possibilities:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

Please don't forget the wiki here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/MysteryKIT_2022

What will you be reading and recommending?

I am planning on reading Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe.

I think I found a "twofer", Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft that is gothic (Nov. mysterykit) and concerns women's rights.

I'm planning on a Mary Stewart novel, probably Touch Not The Cat

Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt novels would fit here too! Checking out my collection.

I've been thinking about re-reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

I already had My Cousin Rachel chosen for this one.

Not sure how well it fits, but it is tagged "gothic" (I assume by more than one person based on the size of the font in the tag "cloud"):
The Family Upstairs / Lisa Jewell

I'll listen to the audiobook Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

I've just started The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths and although I've only read a few pages I suspect it belongs here. So far a mysterious stranger is telling of his initiation on Halloween into a secret society which has a skull as its sign. Can anyone who's read it confirm whether it fits?

>10 Robertgreaves: I see the description states it is a modern gothic, although I have not read it.

I'm reading The Heiress of Linn Hagh by Karen Charlton. It's the first book in the Detective Lavender series and has elements of gothic, with a crumbling castle, evil step siblings, and a heroine in peril. It's available on KindleUnlimited.

It's set in Regency England.

I am reading Christmas Eve at Cranberry Cross which might not sound like a gothic mystery and is not described as such. However, put together a handsome and mysteriously reclusive author, a young woman editor, a huge mansion with strange nighttime noises in the tower, a little girl who buries her dolls in the snow, a housekeeper who runs the place with an iron hand--sounds like gothic romance to me. The author is doing a great job of mashing up the elements of gothic mystery with a romantic novel. By the way, the kids are named Myles and Flora, the same as those kids in The Turn of the Screw.

If someone is looking for a shorter text to read for this, I just finished The Lifted Veil by George Eliot, a gothic novella. It is a very quick read, and I liked it.

>14 MissBrangwen: What a coincidence, I am also currently reading this!

>15 MissWatson:
>14 MissBrangwen:

It was a freebie on Kindle and I'm going to read it, also!

>15 MissWatson: >16 Tess_W: Ha! I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on it.

Thanks for the tip! Just downloaded from Kindle site.

>14 MissBrangwen: thanks!

BTW, the Touchstone goes to the wrong book.

>19 fuzzi: Thank you, I fixed it!

Hey there! In case you missed it, 2023 Category Challenge is up and running, with host opportunities available. Swing on over to participate.

And I have finished The lifted veil. What a strange, eerie tale this is.

>22 MissWatson: I found that one for free on Amazon, downloaded it for a later read. :)

I read The Lifted Veil by George Eliot. I really liked it!

This was tagged "gothic" so I went with it. I'm assuming someone tagged it that way because of the large old creepyish house

The Family Upstairs / Lisa Jewell
3.5 stars

At 25, Libby has inherited a large house that belonged to her biological parents, whom she doesn’t remember, as she’d been adopted at 10 months old when her parents and one other person had been found (suicide) in the home she has now inherited. An older brother and sister were never found. Now, Libby wants to find out exactly what happened in that house and what happened to her siblings.

The story is told from three different points of view, one of them narrating what happened 25 years ago before “the baby” (Libby) and the three dead people were found. It took me quite a while to figure out all the characters and although it wasn’t overtly mentioned how the characters were related until later in the story, I did eventually figure it out. That being said, to get there took wading through figuring out a bunch of other characters, too. I have to admit the first half of the story wasn’t nearly as interesting as the second half, likely because it took me so long to figure out all the characters. I would probably give the second half a bit higher rating than I’m rating it overall.

I am reading Here I Stay by Barbara Michaels. Any book with a black cat named Satan has to be good.

And speaking of black cats, I just finished Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, and yes, "The Black Cat" was one of the macabre stories.

A tagmash with Gothic and mystery brought up Tregaron's Daughter which I much enjoyed as a romance when I was a teenager. But it also perfectly fits as a Gothic mystery.

>28 MissWatson: oh yes, I read that when I was much younger and devoured gothic mysteries.

My apologies for the tardiness of getting up the December thread. It's here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345957

It was just a very busy week, and I forgot it was my turn to host in all the business.

>30 thornton37814: No worries!

I have finished The dead secret by Wilkie Collins, which is not quite as good as The woman in white when it comes to Gothicness.

>30 thornton37814: No problem, it looks great! Thanks for doing this.

I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I read The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I read Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller.
This story is revealed slowly, developing suspense as it proceeds to a shocking conclusion. From her death bed, Frances Jellico tells the story of the summer of 1969 when she, with Peter and Cara, a troubled couple, were commissioned to survey landscape and buildings of a once-grand country home that is becoming a ruin. Fuller beautifully portrays their fall into a summer of indolence as they neglect duties in favour of the well-stocked wine cellar. It's well-written but the story has too many unbelievable elements such as gourmet cooking when kitchen equipment consisted of tin cups and little else, or a massive furniture move that would have required a team of movers. And while some fanciful tales showed the unreliability of the characters, others were so far-fetched that like hiccups they hindered fluency and reduced the overall effect of a languid, dreamy summer.

I finished Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr, a vintage mystery with all the gothic trimmings -- a sinister castle, a thunderstorm, a gruesome murder, secret passageways, magic, false identities, etc. It's a bit over the top, but I think Carr largely pulls it off!