Gothic fiction

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre refers to the Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which characterised the settings of early Gothic novels.

The first work to be labelled as Gothic was Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, later subtitled A Gothic Story. Subsequent 18th-century contributors included Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford, and Matthew Lewis. The Gothic influence continued into the early 19th century, with Romantic works by poets, like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Lord Byron. Novelists such as Mary Shelley, Charles Maturin, Walter Scott and E. T. A. Hoffmann frequently drew upon gothic motifs in their works as well.

Gothic aesthetics continued to be used throughout the early Victorian period in novels by Charles Dickens, Brontë sisters, as well as works by the American writers, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Later, Gothic fiction evolved through well-known works like Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Beetle by Richard Marsh, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the 20th-century, Gothic fiction remained influential with contributors including Daphne du Maurier, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice, and Toni Morrison.