08-27-2010, 05:53 AM
I discovered the gothic romance when I was about 15. Till then I had been exploring all the genres the library could offer besides the well-known children's literature. I had just finished the Angélique-series by Anne and Serge Golon and was falling back to the regular Mills & Boon books, but as always missed the excitement and adventure in them. Then I came across Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt and this kind of novel was exactly what I craved. There's an easily identifiable heroine, intelligent and never at a loss for exactly the right words. People like her and confide in her. She gets her adventure when she starts living in an big and interesting house, which she needs to explore in order to solve a mystery. There is a love interest, but it doesn't get as much attention as the mystery, which suited me fine.
So to answer your questions one by one:
The appeal is reading about an adventure I myself would love to experience and being rewarded by having a mystery solved. Having the story in first person narrative helps the identifying with the heroine tremendously. And the house, be it a castle, monastery or mansion, holds an enormous appeal as well.
I think the gothic romance appeals more to older (I'm 51) people because they grew up reading books that didn't necessarily contain hot and steamy sex. I read a review on another forum with a younger population where one of Philippa Carr's books wasn't considered a historical romance because there was no sex in it....
Gothic romances can be either serious literature or a light, enjoyable read, whichever you like.
Novels with vampires, werewolves etc. are not, IMHO, gothic romances, though they can have a gothic setting. When I think of the word "gothic" I see am enormous cathedral with gargoyles and irregular nooks and crannies where you might find surprises. The gothic novel should also have such a setting: odd, interesting, mysterious, scary and beautiful at the same time. This setting is just as important as the main characters of the book. I realize this narrows the genre down at lot; neither Dracula nor Frankenstein qualify for me: they are horror stories. And I think the twilight series most definitely is not a gothic romance. So no worries of spoiling the genre. These books have their own genres: paranormal, supernatural, whatever.
I don't think the classic heroines of the gothic romance can be put in either the damsel in distress or the femme fatale boxes. She is a real woman who experiences distressing situations but can handle them herself. She can be a femme fatale if she wants to and can use this to her advantage, but that isn't what the story is about.
So to answer your questions one by one:
The appeal is reading about an adventure I myself would love to experience and being rewarded by having a mystery solved. Having the story in first person narrative helps the identifying with the heroine tremendously. And the house, be it a castle, monastery or mansion, holds an enormous appeal as well.
I think the gothic romance appeals more to older (I'm 51) people because they grew up reading books that didn't necessarily contain hot and steamy sex. I read a review on another forum with a younger population where one of Philippa Carr's books wasn't considered a historical romance because there was no sex in it....
Gothic romances can be either serious literature or a light, enjoyable read, whichever you like.
Novels with vampires, werewolves etc. are not, IMHO, gothic romances, though they can have a gothic setting. When I think of the word "gothic" I see am enormous cathedral with gargoyles and irregular nooks and crannies where you might find surprises. The gothic novel should also have such a setting: odd, interesting, mysterious, scary and beautiful at the same time. This setting is just as important as the main characters of the book. I realize this narrows the genre down at lot; neither Dracula nor Frankenstein qualify for me: they are horror stories. And I think the twilight series most definitely is not a gothic romance. So no worries of spoiling the genre. These books have their own genres: paranormal, supernatural, whatever.
I don't think the classic heroines of the gothic romance can be put in either the damsel in distress or the femme fatale boxes. She is a real woman who experiences distressing situations but can handle them herself. She can be a femme fatale if she wants to and can use this to her advantage, but that isn't what the story is about.
