Gothic Book Club: Oct 31.
Aug212010
No, I did not forget the Gothic Book Club. Some other stuff came up. We’ll start Oct. 31 (because that’s creepy) and then meet on the first of every month in the Cherry Forums Gothic Book Club thread. The first nine months schedule is below, and then along about month six when we have a firm grasp of what we’re doing, we’ll choose the last three. Or four. Whatever.
The books are:
1. Intro to Course, Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe (1794)
2. Northanger Abbey, Austen (1818)
3. The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe (1839) [Link is to book of short stories that "Usher" appeared in.]
4. Jane Eyre, Bronte (1847)
5. The Turn of the Screw, James (1898)
6. The Circular Staircase, Rinehart (1908)
7. Rebecca, DuMaurier (1938)
8. Nine Coaches Waiting, Stewart (1958)
9. Mistress of Mellyn, Victoria Holt (1960)The first meeting will be about the gothic in general and Udolpho in particular, but you don’t have to read that one to participate. After that, we’ll be focusing on that month’s book, so you’re welcome to come by if you haven’t read it, but really, everything on that list is good except for Mellyn and it’s had a huge influence on the genre so you should read it anyway. (I read it in a book club edition while I was babysitting for somebody four or five years after it came out, and I was impressed then. Not so much later as an adult.)
The idea is similar to #PopD and the romcoms: Study these stories to see what makes a gothic work. We’re not trying to do abstract literary criticism or decide what book is best, we’re trying to figure out what it is about this genre that makes it so riveting that it never dies out. The first six books are available for free on the net (click on the links in the list), so you can read them any time. And we can talk a lot more about the book club and what we’re all hoping to get out of it, etc, when we’re closer to starting it. You’re about to be inundated with Maybe This Time stuff on the blog–pub date in ten days, so brace yourself for more MTT than you ever wanted–and then after that I’m on the road for the book tour plus finishing Lavender (please god), so really, October for Gothics. It’s a good month to talk about things that go bump in the night.
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50 Comments to 'Gothic Book Club: Oct 31.'
On August 22, 2010 at 12:35 am Barbara (you don't have to call me Barb) said...
I called my favorite bookstore today to pre-order some books. I said, “I want Jennifer Crusie’s new book, I want Anne Stuart’s second book of the current series, I want…” the bookseller was so happy. He said, “Yes, next?” with great excitement. SO looking forward to getting them. I don’t care if I eat that week. Heck, the doctor wants me to diet anyway…(Kidding. Not about the diet. About not eating. It would be like being without a good book by a favorite author. Or not breathing.)
On August 23, 2010 at 6:57 pm Meredith B. said...
Hey, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t eat peanut butter and tuna fish for a week every once in a while in order to get a new book by my favorite author.
On August 22, 2010 at 2:55 am Nasus said...
Glad to see “Nine coaches Waiting” on the list. One of my favourites.
On August 22, 2010 at 6:49 am Kira said...
I read Mysteries of Udolpho already, on my Kindle – I find that it’s a different experience reading a classic that way, because you don’t get the “old font” vibe of an old book, and you approach it as if it were published yesterday. Anyway, she took her time with this one, sharing descriptions of landscapes and poetry – I can easily imagine women reading it outloud to each other.
On August 22, 2010 at 10:50 am Linnea said...
Could you please link to the Cherry Forums Gothic Book Club thread? As a new lurker I have no idea where to find this page and I would love to participate.
On August 22, 2010 at 12:49 pm Jenny said...
Linnea, I’ll link to the book club page in October; it’s not up yet. But the Cherry Forums are at http://www.cherryforums.com/
On August 22, 2010 at 11:15 am Alis said...
I’m really looking forward to this. After years of believing I was a “romance” fan only to be disappointed in every other book I picked up, I’ve finally realized that I’m a GOTHIC fan. Something about the dark and stormy night-ness of them all just does it for me. I guess the Mary Stewart shrine shelf should have given me a clue, but hey–if my favorite heroines can miss big fat clues then so can I, right?
On August 22, 2010 at 12:22 pm Betty Fokker said...
Do you feel a lurking since of dread as you lift the veil of your shower curtin? Becasue that’s when you are deep in the Gothic baby! :0)
On August 22, 2010 at 12:55 pm Jenny said...
That’s more romantic suspense in general. Gothic has some more stringent requirements. But the dread part is good in general.
On August 22, 2010 at 2:49 pm Betty Fokker said...
“since” of dread? Damn Mercury in retrograde!
On August 22, 2010 at 12:51 pm Jenny said...
I read Mary Stewart and Georgette Heyer for years without realizing they were romances. I’m not throwing stones at anybody.
On August 22, 2010 at 3:08 pm LilyC said...
I read Welcome to Temptation, Faking It, Fast Women, What the Lady Wants, Crazy for You and Getting Rid of Bradley before I realised that you wrote romance. It was when I read Bet Me and no one died that I finally twigged…
On August 22, 2010 at 4:09 pm Jenny said...
My masters thesis was on mystery fiction. Big mystery fan. But it takes me FOREVER to get to the part where somebody dies.
Oh, and in the original version of Crazy For You, the BP died. I forget why we changed that.
On August 22, 2010 at 9:34 pm Moth said...
BP?
On August 22, 2010 at 11:43 pm Jenny said...
The Boy Principal. I forget what his real name was; Quinn called him the BP.
On August 23, 2010 at 12:17 am marly said...
I think it was Bobby – a perfect name for the BP.
On August 22, 2010 at 12:07 pm Betty Fokker said...
I still think some (not all) romantic suspense falls under the category of Gothic. Especially the Female Gothic. They just aren’t called Gothic anymore. I’m thinking of the ones where, like Udolpho, the danger plot is even more of the story arc than the romantic plot. The heroine is falling in love (often with a dangerous man) but is also in danger and must escape it (sometimes with the help of the dangerous man/lover). Confession? I love those, especially if the hero might BE the danger.
On August 22, 2010 at 12:54 pm Jenny said...
The hero as danger is one of the classic plot points of the Gothic. We’ll get into that a lot more once we start batting it around the way we’ve been analyzing romcom, but the fact that the kiss can kill you is pretty much the underlying tension of the whole genre.
I did an academic paper once where I argued that film noir is the male version of the Gothic romance; the big difference is that the dangerous kiss is from a woman, not a man, that noir heroine that you have to turn into the police or shoot in the stomach (how much do I hate Mickey Spillane’s I, the Jury?).
On August 22, 2010 at 12:09 pm Betty Fokker said...
The Fokker is in moderation?!? Outrageous! When I come to your book signing I’m gonna where a skirt and get glitter on your shoes for this insult. *stomps off sulking*
On August 22, 2010 at 12:54 pm Jenny said...
I don’t know why, either. You didn’t have any links in there. Oh, wait, you’re posting under a new name, right? As far as the blog is concerned, you’re in disguise.
On August 22, 2010 at 1:33 pm Betty Fokker said...
same name, new email. I’m all covert & stuff, cause it’s Gothic …
On August 22, 2010 at 1:32 pm Betty Fokker said...
“where” a skirt? I’ve lost my mind …
On August 23, 2010 at 11:26 am Ginny said...
Well, I was thinking if you were going to leave glitter it might mean “where is the skirt” but I could be wrong. I so frequently am.
Unless it is a bedazzled skirt with glitter.
On August 22, 2010 at 1:06 pm Gin said...
Just a note for people who are new to the Cherry forums — you can read the posts there without registering (assuming the book club is in the public area, rather than the writing area), but you can’t post your own comments without registering, and it’s not automated, but has a real, live person doing the registrations, so it would be a great help to her if you registered at least a few days ahead of time (maybe even now, so there’s no sudden rush on October 30th).
On August 22, 2010 at 5:01 pm Katy Cooper said...
And everyone’s very nice on the Forums, so it’s a lovely place to hang out even when you’re not talking Gothics.
On August 22, 2010 at 7:14 pm Jenny said...
This is true. It’s a nice place to discuss stuff, much easier than on a blog.
I know it seems like we’re trying to drag people over there, but for a real discussion, the forums are just better. There’s no advertising over there, we don’t need to get people posting for any ulterior reason, it’s just a better place to take ideas apart in detail.
On August 22, 2010 at 6:52 pm Clever Cherry said...
Jenny – OT question. My first reaction to the Penguin books thing was – gotta take advantage of that opportunity. Now I’m having second thoughts. Maybe my novel isn’t far enough into revision to warrant a query. Does your book need to be one hundred percent ready before you submit a query like the Penguin one?
On August 22, 2010 at 7:12 pm Jenny said...
In general, your book should be as good as you can make it before you submit it. In this case, there are two mitigating factors:
1. It’s a query. All you’re sending is the synopsis and a cover note. So your plot has to be as good as you make it, and the writing of note and the synopsis have to be as good as you can make them, but they’re not looking at the actual book yet.
2. This is a limited time offer. After October, no more unagented anything.
So write like the wind, as a friend of mine used to say. Note and query first, then book.
On August 23, 2010 at 1:54 am Clever Cherry said...
Very very very helpful response. Thanks!
On August 22, 2010 at 8:41 pm robena grant said...
Yes, the forums are great.
I love Gothics. One of my stories placed first in a contemporary Gothic category a couple of years ago. An editor from SMP judged it and liked it but said my heroes journey should be more fantastical. One of these years I might go back in and fix him. I mean it, the story. Hey, maybe I’ll do that after this book club. There’s an idea.
On August 22, 2010 at 9:08 pm Jenny said...
It’s supposed to be a reader’s club, but you know me. I drag everything into writing. But really, knowing what readers want in a story is so crucial that I think it can do both.
On August 23, 2010 at 1:57 am Julie said...
I thought I liked Gothic, but then I read Rebecca with another on-line book club, and it was so ploddingly terrible, I realized that maybe I didn’t know what Gothic really was. I’ll try again though, with one of those other titles.
About the forums, I resisted, but then for the last contest I signed up, and it was not too bad to navigate. (Glowing endorsements tonight huh? Sorry. See Fokker’s reason, it’s the Mercury.)
On August 23, 2010 at 3:08 pm Jenny said...
You know, I do understand. I hate signing up for places and navigating new communities. And basically for this, there’ll be one dedicated topic, so you don’t need to go anywhere else, although there are a lot of good threads on there.
On August 23, 2010 at 1:58 am Clever Cherry said...
I have never been a fan of gothics but I think I’m going to participate anyway. I am too technically challenged to make the podcasts work but even I can engage in an online forum. (Famous last words.)
On August 23, 2010 at 1:02 pm jude said...
Ridiculously excited. Thank you.
On August 23, 2010 at 2:15 pm followingtheroad said...
Well- I had to google the definition for gothic novel before I could get excited about this idea. Now I’m properly excited. Strangely enough, I’ve never read any of the book list. Not even the Austen. So, new (old) books. Whee!
On August 23, 2010 at 3:14 pm Jenny said...
We’ll make it our own, too. I don’t really care too much about the classic definitions as I do in finding out what works for readers in different genres and then getting the definition from that. And I think gothic romance is a narrow enough genre that we can have some interesting give and take on why those things work so well for us as readers. I’m excited, too. After MTT comes out and the book tour is over. ARGH.
On August 23, 2010 at 9:54 pm Betty Fokker said...
But the wonderful thing about the book tour is that you are going to meet me! Just think of all the fabulous that will rub off on you!
On August 23, 2010 at 5:12 pm Betty Fokker said...
I think “The Yellow Wallpaper” should make the cut. It is a great example of a subtle Gothic/feminism connection. Plus, it’s creepy. Really, really creepy.
On August 23, 2010 at 8:58 pm Jenny said...
It’s not a gothic romance novel.
Of course neither is the House of Usher, but The Yellow Wallpaper is very much feminist literary fiction. I think it’s amazing, but it’s not really part of our discussion. I think.
On August 23, 2010 at 9:53 pm Betty Fokker said...
You are right, no romance! It’s just so good … and so freaking creepy!
On August 23, 2010 at 9:45 pm Kelly S said...
I just finished MTT (a very lucky LibraryThing winner) and I would call it a gothic as a simple description. Thoroughly enjoyed it btw.
On August 24, 2010 at 12:34 pm Alyssa Goodnight said...
I’m excited!! I haven’t read too many Gothics, but they always leave me wanting more, so this will be great!
On August 24, 2010 at 5:42 pm Alis said...
I’ve wondered recently about the huge influx of paranormal romances on the market–are they the modern manifestation of the Gothic? While they may not be desolate and isolated (moors or coasts or islands) or grotesque (thank you Frankenstein) they do often manage to tie that ghastly fascination with the occult that was often strongly represented in the Gothic romance genre into modern stories that are socially and linguistically more accessible. The creep factor of the supernatural can’t be undone by Google and a cellphone as easily as the other factors. Just thinking out loud, but it seems like there has to be an evolution to a genre to keep it interesting and this might be the evolution of The Gothic.
On August 24, 2010 at 5:56 pm Jenny said...
I think the turn of the century always brings out interest in the supernatural. There’s a real pattern if you look at literary history.
On August 24, 2010 at 7:59 pm Alis said...
Well, if I see one more alarmist Discovery or History channel show about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world come 12/2012 I think I’m going to write a sternly worded letter to some Cable Execs. Assuming of course that they can read….
On August 24, 2010 at 8:00 pm Alis said...
Darn it. I failed to nest. Phooey.
On August 24, 2010 at 8:21 pm Jenny said...
My take on the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 is that they were working on it and one of them said, “You know, we’re a couple thousand years ahead here, let’s break for lunch,” and they did and then something came up, and it was a low priority because of the couple-thousand-years-ahead thing and they just never got back to it.
On August 24, 2010 at 9:22 pm Alis said...
I know that if *I* were a couple-thousand-years ahead, um… no. I have NO idea what would happen if I were ahead.
None.
Sheesh.
On August 26, 2010 at 7:11 pm floramac said...
Have not read Reinhart, I have read all the other books. Really looking forward to re-reading. Mary Stewart is almost an annual staple, but it took me years to get all her books (this was pre-internet, and I had to spend hours in charity shops seeking and searching).