In a podcast where we set out to read every genre (regardless of our actual interest) our second episode features: Gothic Literature.

Listen to hosts Anna Ferri, Meghan Whyte, Amanda Wanner, and Matthew Murray discuss dread, castles, fear of foreigners, just what exactly counts as “gothic” literature, and all the vampires. 

(With a slightly lower sound quality than the first; our apologies!)

Your Hosts This Episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Amanda Wanner | Matthew Murray

Gothic Literature We Read (or kinda):

Recommended

• Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Anna read this one after recording this episode and enthusiastically backs up Amanda’s recommendation)
• Anno Dracula by Kim Newman (not Gothic, just using lots of Gothic references)
• Baltimore, Vol. 1: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, art by Ben Stenbeck
• The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The Beetle by Richard Marsh (for historic / genre interest)

Other Books We Read 

• The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
• Turn of the Screw by Henry James
• Diviners by Libba Bray
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
•   A Great and Terrible Beautyby Libba Bray

Did Not Finish

• The Hollow by Jessica Verday
• Graphic Classics, Volume 14: Gothic Classics edited by Tom Pomplun and Anne Timmons
•   Northanger Abbey Adaptation by Nancy Butler, art by Janet Lee

A few more “books” we mentioned

• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, art by Kevin O’Neill (Recommended)
• Blacula (movie 1972)
• Varney the Vampire; Or the Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest
• Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Recommended) 
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (Recommended)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (the novel that started the comic series)
• Baltimore, Vols. 1-6 (Recommended)
• The Gothic Saga from Joyce Carol Oates
• The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (not Gothic, just good – Recommended)
• Flowers in the Attic (Not Gothic really, just disturbing)
• ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
• Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (t.v. series, 1997-2003) (Recommended)

Other Links

• How to tell you’re reading a gothic novel – in pictures
• Roots and history of Gothic fiction
• Timeline of Gothic
• Key motifs of the Gothic novel from the British Library (9 min video)
• Article we read on Gothic and Horror (from the perspective of film)
• Carmilla – the modern YouTube version
• Our favourite sub-gothics:
• • Southern Ontario Gothic
  • Southern Gothic
  • Tasmanian Gothic
  • Gothic Science Fiction (we weren’t convinced by this Wikipedia article)

Questions

Amanda asks: Where does Matthew find his books? Answer: The Internet!

What was the short story Anna read? …she has noooooooooooooooooooo idea. Sorry. That was more than 5 minutes ago.