THE GOTHIC ROMANTIC NOVELS

The word "Gothic" brings to mind everything from architecture to vampire novels to depressed teenagers. But the original "Goths" were barbaric Germanic tribes from 376 to 410 C.E. who caused the destruction of Roman culture. People started referring to anything savage or medieval as "Gothic" until the term became synonymous with anything extravagantly horrifying or irrational. The beginning of the Gothic literary movement was in part a reaction to the rationalist thinking of the Enlightenment.
Gothic fiction began with the Gothic novel. Horace Walpole and William Beckford introduced a new genre of literature with "The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story" (1765) and "Vathek" (1786) respectively, a style which later writers, such as Matthew Lewis and Anne Radcliffe, would imitate and perfect. Gothic novels take place in medieval settings and isolated locales, such as Italian castles or monasteries. Chaste, fainting heroines, corrupt, scheming monks and chivalric, knightly heroes drive the plots. Because many of these Gothic novelists published during the era of Romanticism, a literary movement also characterized by excess, sensibility and imagination, Gothic writers during this period are also considered Romantic.