The Female Uncanny: Gothic Novels for Women

Unlike Harlequins, popular Gothic novels are not restricted to one publisher, but are sold by a number of large publishers such as Ace and Fawcett. As a result, the Gothic formula is not quite as rigid as the Harlequin formula. The term "Gothic" is often used loosely to designate "suspense." Thus, Gothics tend to shade off, on the one hand, into the classical detective story and, on the other hand, into something like a Harlequin Romance which contains a little mystery thrown in for added spice. We will be concerned with neither of these, but with what the ex-editor of Ace Books calls "'pure' Gothics."' Gothics can be identified by their cover illustrations: each por-' trays a young girl wearing a long, flowing gown and standing in front of a large, menacing-looking castle or mansion. The atmosphere is dark and stormy, and the ethereal young girl appears to ,) be frightened. In the typical Gothic plot, the heroine comes to a , mysterious house, perhaps as a bride, perhaps in another capacity, and either starts to mistrust her husband or else finds herself in love with a mysterious man who appears to be some kind of criminal. She may suspect him of having killed his first wife (one recalls Catherine Morland's suspicions of General Tilney in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey) or of being out to kill someone else, most likely herself. She tries to convince herself that her suspicions are unfounded, that, since she loves him, he must be trustworthy and that she will have failed as , a woman if she does not implicitly believe in him. Often, but not always, the man is proven ifiruicent of all wrongdoing by the end of the novel, and the real culprit is discovered and punished. A casual reader might at first suppose that the romantic formula and the Gothic formula are very similar. Indeed, even Kathryn