Summer's Guilty Pleasures: in Praise of the Gothic Novel

Lying out on a blanket in the backyard, a Shasta pop near at hand. The scent of Johnson's baby oil (for getting a tan-no sunscreen in those days).  A good friend to share the blanket with.  And a book, most likely some gothic romance. These are the things that marked summer days when I was growing up.

With the warmer weather of summer beckoning,  many of us turn to lighter reading.  Beach lit.  Chick lit.  The romance novel.  Fantasy. We all have our guilty pleasures and summer is the best time to indulge in them.  One of mine is the gothic novel.

What is a gothic novel?  They have a few characteristics.  They generally have a real sense of place-most often a house-the more run down the better.  The protagonist is isolated, physically or metaphorically. There is a sense of decay, either in location (the aforementioned house) or circumstance (a family that has come down in the world).' Wuthering Heights' is a classic gothic novel.  Other, newer examples include:

     'Rustication' by Charles Palliser.  The protagonist is a young man who has returned home after being kicked out of Oxford for mysterious reasons, only to find murder and suspicion rife among the village's inhabitants.

 'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice.  If you've been reading this blog awhile you will know that his is one of my favorite books.The story takes place in modern day New Orleans The heroine is a brilliant young doctor who returns home after the death of her mother and learns about her family and the strange hauntings of their decrepit Garden District home.

     The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  Set in post war Warwickshire, England , not only is the family house, Hundreds Hall, in decline, but a whole way of life for the upper classes of England is on the brink.

But I have to admit that my favorite guilty pleasure is still the gothic romance novel. I was first introduced to this genre with the book 'My Brother Michael' by Mary Stewart. It has all the hallmarks of the.gothic romance:

 the Young Heroine-Camilla Haven, British subject;
 the Exotic Locale-Delphi, Greece;
 the Handsome Stranger-Simon Lester, searching for his brother who has gone missing;
 and, of course, a mystery to be solved by our heroine.

To a 12 year old this was all pretty sophisticated stuff. Romance, mystery, British dialogue. Like Nancy Drew, but all grown up. I wanted more. I devoured Ms. Stewart's other novels: Nine Coaches Waiting, Touch Not the Cat, This Rough Magic and more.  I also discovered M.M. Kaye and her 'Death in' series: Death in Zanzibar, in Kashmir, in Kenya, in Cyprus.  Today when I see a battered paperback with a fuzzy drawing of a young woman sneaking around I am invariably drawn to read it.  I stash these away for vacations or long twilight evenings on the porch.

 

Whatever your guilty reading pleasure, get out a blanket, pour yourself a beverage, and settle down for a good read. And don't forget the sunscreen.