1. Origins
1.1. Gothic Novels have their beginnings in the 18th century
1.1.1. During social, political and economic unrest
1.1.2. Modern Values from progress causing reflection of Medieval values
1.1.3. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the Agarian Revolution
1.1.3.1. Victoreans rewrote medieval history to how the country came to be what it was
1.1.4. The Theatres Act of 1737
1.1.4.1. Drama disappeared as a popular genre, many dramatists turned to novel writing
1.1.5. 1649 - Execution of King Charles 1 and his replacement by Oliver Cromwell and then Cromwells son - they quickly bought back the king (period called "The Restoration")
1.1.5.1. A replacement of political system
1.1.5.1.1. Cromwells body was dug up and beheaded (as Cromwell had done to the king)
1.1.5.2. From 1600 through the Victorean Era and into the 20th century people were scared of more political revolutions so literary production was untreatening, rational and unemotional, reflecting the political reality society wanted!
1.1.5.2.1. Then Gothic Novel comes along and changes everything,it appeals to sensationalism, imagination, the sublime. Its exaggerated, transgressive and beyond societies norms
1.2. Most of the earliest Gothic writers were women or were gay men! The attraction for many readers was the female disobedience and also identifying with "outsiders"
1.2.1. Charles Maturin wrote "Melmouth the Wanderer (published 1814) and When Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) was released from prison in the 19th century he took on the name of the hero of the book, Sebastian Melmouth, he became the wandering outsider!
2. Authors
2.1. Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
2.1.1. Castle Of Qtranto: A Githic Novel - 1764
2.2. Aphra Benn (1640 - 1698)
2.3. Daniel Defoe (1660 - 1731)
2.4. Jonathon Swift (1667 - 1745)
2.5. Samual Richardson (1689 - 1761)
2.5.1. Wrote the novel Clarissa
2.5.1.1. His novels, along with others were read by middle class young women
2.5.1.1.1. Informing how young women how to behave correctly and what was an acceptable mode of behaviour (many readers reacted against the patriarchal expectation of how to behave
2.6. Charles Maturin (1782 - 1824)
2.6.1. Wrote "Melmoth the Wanderer"
2.7. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)
2.7.1. Wrote "This is the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (published 1886)
2.7.1.1. seemingly repectable Dr Jekyll transforms into the utterly criminal Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde who is a killer and very very dangerous!
3. Late Victorean Gothic
3.1. Gothic had become very "Fashionable" in its architecture.
3.1.1. Gothic had become mainstream, a liviong part of society
3.1.1.1. Led on to argueablythe most important single book in the 19th century...."The Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin. It produced the theory of evolution, it changed the entire worlds belief system and up until then Gothic had been mainly female it caused a load of men to become "The new Gothic"
3.2. Gothic novels of "Frankenstien" and "Heathcliffe" were both written and their content was combined to become the main focus of "This is the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson
3.2.1. Creates a new kind of Gothic, a Psychological Gothic!
3.2.1.1. examining the split nature of all hiuman personality. Its fiction with science, NOT science fiction! Its fiction with psychology, a world where psychology can be applied to the peculiar, to the unnatural and to the supernatural.