07-26-2010, 02:01 AM
(07-26-2010, 12:41 AM)AliceChell Wrote: Creature of habit that I am, I like basically the same type of story told over and over again in much the same way with variations that are clever, engaging, admirable in style and rich in mood and atmosphere . . .
Same here. I admit to being a one-trick pony when it comes to my Gothic reading. Sometimes the plot structure (formula, if you must) of one book to the next is identical, almost scene-for-scene. Yet those variations are what keeps the experience fresh.
My ideal Gothic novel (and I have yet to read it) would contain all the elements we've enumerated but would they'd be much more keyed-up, amplified, brought into sharp focus. The suspense should make my palms sweat. The repartee between the heroine and hero should sparkle enough to make me chuckle outloud. The atmosphere should be so thick it could be all but handled. And when the sinister plot is revealed at the climax, there should be a magnificence to the villainy. Even while I breathe a sigh of relief that the heroine is at last safe from harm, I should feel a pang of sorrow for the villain's own tragedy, the pathos of his foiled plot, the toppling of his great evil work of art. And after closing the book, I should miss the characters with the same bittersweetness of missing old friends.
Many books provide a much more subdued, low-key version of the experience I've tried to describe. I enjoy these books, but I wish I could somehow turn up the intensity. I know it's a tall order -- many an author would rather keep to understatement than risk lapsing over into melodrama. But mind you, it isn't melodrama I'm after, but just an acute heightening of the tension and "Gothic" mood.
Evelyn Berckman has come close in several of her books, but sometimes her storylines can be a little convoluted.
