You Say 18th Century Literature, I Say 1970s Paperbacks

One of the delights of Norwescon 2025 was catching up with old friends and chatting about Gothics. Evan Peterson and I crossed paths when we both worked in academia. We've since put a little distance from higher education and concentrated on writing. Evan wrote Better Living Through Alchemy (Broken Eye Books), an "occult noir Seattle" novel, and numerous other scary stories. He also moderated a very interesting panel on Gothics and their influences today on fantasy and science fiction at Norwescon.

Of course, when Evan says "Gothic," he means the literature of the late 18th century and early 19th century, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre as prime examples.

When I say "Gothic," I'm mostly talking about the rise of woman in peril novels in the mid-20th century, those contemporary and historical romances featuring a woman running from a dark house with one lighted window or descending a staircase with a single candle clutched in her hands. These were hugely popular and almost every paperback house had a Gothic line. So many variations were published that the trend burned itself out by the 1980s. A major influence from the earlier "Gothic literature" era on these writers was Jane Eyre but 20th century publishers probably were more inspired by the success of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, a stunner of a spooky book released in 1938 which became an equally unsettling movie by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940.

I discovered my version of "Gothics" in the bins of a local junk shop, where these dusty but intriguing used paperbacks from 1950s through 1970s could be purchased for twenty-five cents each or five for a dollar. These second-hand treasures (and most looked third or fourth hand) could then be hauled home and read at night, under the covers with a flashlight. Or during the summer days in the garden or on the beach when my mother instructed me to "walk the dog, get some fresh air."

In short, I fell in love with the paperback Gothic in my early teens. Whenever Mom headed to the town with the junk shop, she was willing to drop me off to rummage around while she ran her errands. Then it was home with five to ten books, more if I was willing to trade some books for credit, followed by a few glorious weeks of reading about women arriving at dark spooky houses and overcoming challenges found there for their happy ending.

So I amassed a sizable box containing Gothics by Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Dorothy Eden, Jill Tattersall, Elsie Lee, Charlotte Keppel, and more.

Eventually I matured (maybe) to other forms of spooky literature but the Gothics still hold a special corner of my heart. Because many of my paperbacks died of sheer old age or were lost in moves, I've upgraded some of my favorites to hardbacks or bought on Ebay a "new" copy of beloved paperback.

When I was eventually offered the opportunity to write a book set in a graveyard by Wizards of the Coast, I folded in a few of my favorite Gothic elements including ghosts and treading down a staircase with a candle held aloft. The result was City of the Dead, a book that I suspect 13-year-old me would have read under the covers with the flashlight. 

I find parts of my Arkham Horror novel The Nightmare Quest of April May has a similar vibe as well, with the danger being as much psychological as physical, another trait of the Gothic. Apparently a teenage cousin found it a compelling read according to her grandmother, disappearing into her room to finish the story during a recent visit to grandmother's house. So that's a nice review too!

 

Evan and the other panelists kindly let me list off a few of those mid-century writers I adored as my contribution to a wide-ranging discussion of the appeal of the Gothic in literature and modern pop culture. 

We've all noticed a fantastic uptick in the number of Gothics being published in the fantasy and science fiction realm in recent years. Several people on the panel mentioned the fabulous Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia as a don't miss addition to the genre.

I'm very fond of the novels by Simone St James starting with The Haunting of Maddy Clare (2012). Many of St James' novels are set in the first decades of the 20th century, particularly the period following the end of World War I. These days, her most recent "historical fiction" has moved into the 1990s (I'm still reeling from the fact my library classes 1990s as historical!). 

As I dug out my older paperbacks to illustrate another article on writing influences, I found myself cracking my Gothics open and settling down for a read lasting well past bedtime. Some things never change. 

If you like Gothics and want to see some of my recommendations for recent publications in the genre (usually with a fantasy twist), follow me on Goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/259250.Rosemary_Jones

*Names in bold are in my current collection and you may see pictures of my copies on Instagram at lost_loves_books.