The Gothic Lineage

Themes

What the books keep returning to

A closed list of 19 themes, set by the research brief. Ordered by how many works on the timeline carry each one.

The supernatural

Ghosts, curses and powers outside nature, real or explained away.

  1. 1764 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole
  2. 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe
  3. 1796 The Monk Matthew Lewis
  4. 1819 The Vampyre John Polidori
  5. 1820 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Maturin
  6. 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
  7. 1890 Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
  8. 1897 The Beetle Richard Marsh
  9. 1898 The Turn of the Screw Henry James
  10. 1901 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle

Confession and documents

Novels assembled from letters, diaries, testimonies and found papers.

  1. 1818 Frankenstein Mary Shelley
  2. 1820 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Maturin
  3. 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
  4. 1859 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
  5. 1868 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
  6. 1886 Jekyll and Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
  7. 1890 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen
  8. 1897 Dracula Bram Stoker
  9. 1898 The Turn of the Screw Henry James

Science

Experiment, invention and the laboratory as the source of horror.

  1. 1818 Frankenstein Mary Shelley
  2. 1886 Jekyll and Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
  3. 1887 Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
  4. 1890 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen
  5. 1895 The Time Machine H. G. Wells
  6. 1896 Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells
  7. 1897 The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells
  8. 1897 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells

Women in peril

A heroine trapped, pursued or imprisoned, and how she survives it.

  1. 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe
  2. 1819 The Vampyre John Polidori
  3. 1845 Varney the Vampire James Malcolm Rymer or Thomas Peckett Prest
  4. 1847 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
  5. 1859 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
  6. 1871 Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu
  7. 1890 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen
  8. 1898 The Turn of the Screw Henry James

The house

The castle, abbey or mansion as a character with secrets of its own.

  1. 1764 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole
  2. 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe
  3. 1839 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe
  4. 1845 Varney the Vampire James Malcolm Rymer or Thomas Peckett Prest
  5. 1847 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
  6. 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
  7. 1898 The Turn of the Screw Henry James
  8. 1901 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle

Madness

Minds that break, and narrators who cannot be trusted.

  1. 1839 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe
  2. 1847 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
  3. 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
  4. 1859 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
  5. 1897 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells
  6. 1898 The Turn of the Screw Henry James
  7. 1899 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
  8. 1909 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux

The double

A self split in two, or met again in another body.

  1. 1818 Frankenstein Mary Shelley
  2. 1839 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe
  3. 1847 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
  4. 1871 Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu
  5. 1886 Jekyll and Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
  6. 1890 Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
  7. 1909 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux

Inheritance

Wills, bloodlines and the sins of the fathers.

  1. 1764 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole
  2. 1839 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe
  3. 1847 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
  4. 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
  5. 1859 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
  6. 1868 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
  7. 1901 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle

Sexuality and desire

Forbidden longing, and the respectable surface it threatens.

  1. 1796 The Monk Matthew Lewis
  2. 1871 Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu
  3. 1890 Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
  4. 1897 The Beetle Richard Marsh
  5. 1897 Dracula Bram Stoker
  6. 1909 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux

Empire

Colonial power, and what comes home from it.

  1. 1868 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
  2. 1887 Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
  3. 1897 The Beetle Richard Marsh
  4. 1897 The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells
  5. 1899 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

The city

London, Paris and Edinburgh as labyrinths of fog and crowds.

  1. 1841 Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe
  2. 1886 Jekyll and Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
  3. 1887 Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
  4. 1897 The Beetle Richard Marsh
  5. 1909 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux

The undead

Vampires and the dead who will not stay buried.

  1. 1819 The Vampyre John Polidori
  2. 1845 Varney the Vampire James Malcolm Rymer or Thomas Peckett Prest
  3. 1871 Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu
  4. 1897 Dracula Bram Stoker

Detection

The mystery solved by evidence, method and a detective's eye.

  1. 1841 Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe
  2. 1868 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
  3. 1887 Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
  4. 1901 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle

Religion and sin

Monks, damnation, temptation and the bargain for a soul.

  1. 1796 The Monk Matthew Lewis
  2. 1820 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Maturin
  3. 1890 Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
  4. 1896 Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells

The unseen

What cannot be seen directly, from invisible men to ghosts at the edge of sight.

  1. 1890 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen
  2. 1897 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells
  3. 1899 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
  4. 1909 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux

Degeneration

The fear that people, families or nations can slide backwards.

  1. 1895 The Time Machine H. G. Wells
  2. 1896 Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells
  3. 1899 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

Evolution

Bodies shaped by deep time, the beast within and the species to come.

  1. 1895 The Time Machine H. G. Wells
  2. 1896 Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells
  3. 1897 The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells

Invasion

Something from outside arrives and will not leave.

  1. 1897 The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells
  2. 1897 Dracula Bram Stoker

The sublime

Mountains, storms and ice that overwhelm the mind with awe and terror.

  1. 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe