The English Gothic novel

In 1764 an English aristocrat published the story of a giant helmet falling from the sky and crushing an heir, and claimed to have translated an old Italian manuscript: the gothic novel was born, with its castles, its vaults and its lost manuscripts. Ann Radcliffe made of it an art of suspense in which the supernatural is explained at the end, Lewis added blasphemy and rape, Maturin a man who has sold his soul and spends a hundred and fifty years looking for someone to take over the bargain. In 1818 a young woman of twenty drew from it a scientist and his creature.

works 5

• NovelThe Castle of OtrantoHorace Walpole · 1764An enormous piece of armour falls from the sky into a castle courtyard and crushes the heir.Literature
• NovelThe Mysteries of UdolphoAnn Radcliffe · 1794An orphan taken to Italy by her aunt's husband, who will not let her leave again.Literature
• NovelThe MonkMatthew Lewis · 1796A preacher whom a whole city regards as a saint discovers that a woman is living beneath his novice's robe.Literature
• NovelFrankenstein; or, The Modern PrometheusMary Shelley · 1818What does a creator owe to what he has made, and by what right does he turn away from it?LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelMelmoth the WandererCharles Maturin · 1820A damned man who has wandered for a century and a half in search of a soul willing to take on his bargain.Literature