09-19-2010, 04:03 PM
Although I would like to believe in such a resurgence of the gothic romance as you describe, Penfeather, I really do not. I think that the day of the type of story that many of us seem to like ( I'm speaking here of classics like Jane Eyre and Rebecca, and 60's and 70's gothic romances a la early Victoria Holt) is really over.
The main reason is that I feel the values of this world have deteriorated in that what is accepted (and expected) in literature is so different than what it was all those years ago when these books were both written and published.
It's a standard of decency that I am speaking of and a value for purity. In our modern world, a virginal, ingenue heroine such as those in the past gothics would be to many readers laughable. But not, of course, to all. I believe that those who love the traditional romantic suspense/gothic are charmed by the innocence and integrity of these heroines, whether they realize it or not.
Not to belabor the point, but right and wrong in moral issues has become so blurred that there often seems, to me, no line separating them.
So, for now at least, the type of gothics that I search for in used bookstores, book sales and online, in common with others, seems a thing of the past.
But you don't know how much I would love to be proven wrong!
The main reason is that I feel the values of this world have deteriorated in that what is accepted (and expected) in literature is so different than what it was all those years ago when these books were both written and published.
It's a standard of decency that I am speaking of and a value for purity. In our modern world, a virginal, ingenue heroine such as those in the past gothics would be to many readers laughable. But not, of course, to all. I believe that those who love the traditional romantic suspense/gothic are charmed by the innocence and integrity of these heroines, whether they realize it or not.
Not to belabor the point, but right and wrong in moral issues has become so blurred that there often seems, to me, no line separating them.
So, for now at least, the type of gothics that I search for in used bookstores, book sales and online, in common with others, seems a thing of the past.
But you don't know how much I would love to be proven wrong!