Gothic Novels

The Gothic novels actually are the horror tales or the novels of terror, which appeared towards the end of the 18th century. Of course, these romances had their development in the early years of the 19th century and the formed the part of the romantic novels that grew up in the first quarter of the 19th century.
Horace Walpole is acknowledged as the founder of the Gothic novel or romance and his Castle of Otronto occupies particularly a significant position in the emergence of the new type of novel. Walpole’s romance is built around the supernatural world, although his supernaturalism appears rather crude and somewhat incredible . Nevertheless Walpole is credited with the innovation of the new fictional technique of the Gothic romance.
The Gothic Novel has definite significance in the history of English fiction. Its deal with and present a realm of the fine fabling that is outside the real world. This is needed for a change from the realistic and sociological novels of Miss Fonny Burney and Jane Austen. The Gothic novel is found to have paved the way for the romantic novels of Walter Scott as also the romantic psychological fiction like Jane Eyre of Charlotte Bronte. In the language of critic “The lineal descendants of the gothic romance are the tales of terror and wonder by living poe and Hawthorne . The romance of crime, such was written by Bulwer and Dickens is the realistic treatment of the gothic melodrama.

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