What are the characteristics of the Gothic Romance?

[Heathcliffe's girl.]

Interesting. You could say that some of the turmoil can be inside the heroine as well. Fears of the past, etc.

Agreed.

I think that the film What Lies Beneath (2000 staring Michellle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford) follows some of the conventions of the gothic romance novel quite closely in this regard. I watched it not long after reading Rebecca and couldn't help but make comparisons.

[black tulip]

Can I just point out that you can have a gothic romance without a male!!! If anyone has read any Sarah Waters such as Fingersmith and Affinity, she replaces the byronic hero with a strong female. Its an interesting element but I think it works. Although Waters is a lesbian I would like to point out that I am not typically drawn to lesbian texts but I just think her plots work.

[black tulip]

Interesting. You could say that some of the turmoil can be inside the heroine as well. Fears of the past, etc.

Agreed.

I think that the film What Lies Beneath (2000 staring Michellle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford) follows some of the conventions of the gothic romance novel quite closely in this regard. I watched it not long after reading Rebecca and couldn't help but make comparisons.

I totally agree. A truly great gothic movie/ghost story. Loads of comparisons with Rebecca there as you say, loved the twist that he (Harrison Ford) didn't really love his wife but wanted to kill her, Du Maurier and Poe in there surely.

[GothicLover]

I ran across this post by gothic/paranormal romance author Jane Toombs that may be of interest to those following this thread:

http://www.romconinc.com/index.php/conve...s/post/282

[MaMiller]

I always had this vision of a Gothic romance including some form of a sinister mansion/house, and the setting seems to be perpetually dark. I write romantic suspense and there's always a storm breweing, or plenty of 'night-scenes' in my books. My heroines continually find themselves in peril and inevitably end up running along ocean cliffs to flee whatever terror that's after them. (I don't know how they get themselves into such situations!)

Anyway, that was my formula for Gothic romance. Sinister house. Beautiful woman in danger. Hot, eccentric guy who must overcome all the nasty storms I put in the book. Yep. That's it

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

[quote='MaMiller' pid='1962' dateline='1270245739']

Hi everyone, I'm new here!

The key to a good gothic book (in my opinion) is the right balance of romance, and horror, but another ingreidant commonly overlooked is tragedy. This theme seems to crop up CONSTANTLY. For example, in Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" Quasimodo falls madly in love with Esmerelda (spelling.....oops) only to watch the captain of the guard whisk her away and then get killed. He commits suicide in some ghastly way or another (dont trust the Disney cartoon!)
Obviously, Wuthering Heights is built around Heathcliff's and Catherine's intense affair, only to leave Heathciff heartbroken and alone in a massive manor house.

One classic that i'm afraid has vanished into the abyss (it was made into an incredible movie and Broadway musical, but im afriad no one has bothered to read the book anymore!) is Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera". I must admit however, this was the only story that i felt made a better movie than the original book. Lloyd Webber's music adds a richness to the story that is somewhat lacking in the book.
I still love the story thoough because the Phantom (Eric) is groomed to be the villain right from the start, but the reader soon realizes that the line between love for Christine and his obsession with music becomes blurred. If the characters were cut and dry, or stock, it would be a tale of the triumph of good over evil. But since we sympathize with the Phantom, it becomes a tragic romance.
Despite the fact that the climaxes seem to be in all the wrong places, Leroux managed to weave elements of Dracula, Heathcliff, and Frankenstein into one character. If the tapestry of characters wasn't as rich, the book could have fallen flat, but because of the different elements, it stayed afloat for nearly a century.
By the way it will be exacly 100 years old next year! (2011!)


But i have a question - how many people think the story would have ended happily if Christine had chosen the Phantom over Raul, or would it have ended worse? I can't decide.