A Classics Club Event: Gothic Fiction in October.

It's only the 5th of September, but it seems like everyone is starting to get in the mood for Gothic Literature for October! Readers Imbibing Peril VII has started slightly earlier than normal, and I've seen so many references to it on blogs and Twitter. House of Bronze is also preparing Romanticism in Autumn, which sounds wonderful as well, and Jean from Howling Frog Books is working on something (and I know what! And I'll be signing up as soon as she posts!).

And I can see why people are in the autumn mood. These are the last days of summer, but somehow, summer, and indeed The Victorian Celebration seems far away. The season is changing. On the way home tonight, we drove in a pink gold sunset, and on the Scottish Borders, the farmers were setting fire to the corn fields. Burning fields, with leaves turning slightly yellow, the rich brown moors spotted with purple heather, smoke from people's chimneys, and that wonderful gold autumn air - "powdered gold" as Wharton described it in House of Mirth... I'm ready for the dark nights creeping in, the fires, the icy mornings, brilliant, cool sunshine in the afternoons, long shadows with the setting sun, and those chilly evenings, tucked away and listening to the wind and the rustle of the trees. I love the energy of autumn, the last stand before the sleep of winter. And this is the time so many people crave Gothic Literature. Evenings are longer, colder, filled with the ghost of smoke and jumping shadows from the coal fires or bonfires, and we're in anticipation of winter. Hallowe'en is upon us, too (and I believe Americans do it particularly well). 

Do we need any more reasons to read Gothic Literature in October? No, we don't! And, as everyone seems to be preparing early, I think I should prepare the Classics Club October event before everyone commits themselves away! 

I have two ideas. Firstly: a readalong of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, written in 1794. I've been wanting to read this for a year, ever since Jillian wrote about it last October and gave it a glowing review, but I was determined to read it in October, and I'd rather missed the boat when I read her review at the end of October 2011, so October 2012 is my time. At over 600 pages long, this may be quite a commitment, but I am so desperate to read it in October! There are so many references to it in other classics, the most obvious being Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. It also is mentioned in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, to name just a few. It had great cultural impact: Sir Walter Scott (who mentions it in Waverly, I believe) loved it, as did Samuel Coleridge and Lord Bryon. It is said to have inspired The Eve of St. Agnes by Keats. You can see why I want to read it, and I'd love you to join me, regardless of whether or not you're in The Classics Club.

Another idea I had for October (for the books I want to read in this month are quite staggering!) is to think about Gothic Fiction and poetry over the centuries, and perhaps pick one (or more if you dare!) from the 18th, the 19th, and the 20th Century (and if you want to go for this option, it goes without saying The Mysteries of Udolpho would count for your 18th Century read).

The Gothic Literature time line goes a little something like this (and if I've missed anything, do pick that for the relevant century, this isn't supposed to be exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination):

18th Century

The Castle of Otranto, Henry Walpole (1764)
Vathek, William Beckford (1782)

The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe (1794)

The Necromancer, Ludwig Flammenberg (1794)

The Monk, Matthew Lewis (1796)

The Castle Spectre, Matthew Lewis (1797)

The Italian, Ann Radcliffe (1797)

Wieland, Charles Brockden Brown (1798)

19th Century

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen (1818)
Berenice, Edgar Allan Poe (1835)
The Fall of the House of Asher, Edgar Allan Poe (1839)
The Pit and the Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe (1842)
The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
Varney the Vampire, James Malcom Rymer (1845 - 1847)

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (1847)
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins (1859)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydge, Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
The Horla, Guy de Maupassant (1887)
The Black Monk, Anton Chekov (1894)
Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)

The Turn of the Screw, Henry James (1898)

20th Century

The Lair of the White Worm, Bram Stoker (1911)
Collected Ghost Stories, M. R. James (1931)
Jamica Inn, Daphne Du Maurier (1936)
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier (1938)
Psycho, Robert Bloch (1959)
Don't Look Now, Daphne Du Maurier (1970)
The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter (1974)
Carrie, Stephen King (1974)
The Woman in Black, Susan Hill (1980)
It, Stephen King (1986)
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)

So, to recap:

Option 1: Join me in a readalong of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

Option 2: Read one book for the 18th, the 19th, and the 20th Century, which you can pick from my list or look elsewhere (which, seriously, I would recommend that you do because my list is very brief, and I may have missed some fantastic titles).

Option 3: Both!

Whatever you're up for, sign up below with a link to your post announcing your intentions, and leave me a comment if there's any problems with Mister Linky :)

And, updated to add, here are some buttons! Thanks to aobiblioclassique for help, and for designing the first button :)