Gothic Romantic Novels

"They told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, of locked inner rooms and secret dungeons, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of footsteps creaking upon staircases and fingers tapping at casements, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman, swirling mists and sudden winds, insubstantial spectres and sheeted creatures, vampires and bloodhounds, bats and rats and spiders, of men found at dawn and women turned white-haired and raving lunatic, and of vanished corpses and curses upon heirs." - Susan Hill
The first Gothic novel is generally agreed to be 'The Castle of Otranto '(1764) by Horace Walpole with the book featuring a haunted castle a brooding atmosphere and an ancient curse. The Gothic novel became very popular in Britain and Ireland in the three decades after 1790 with the most outstanding writer being Ann Radcliffe, with her novels 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' (1794) and 'The Italian' (1797) achieving immense popularity. A pervading feeling of fear and suspense is usually evident in Gothic novels as is an unsolved mystery, evidence of the supernatural and a sense of doom, death or decay.
Often there will be haunted old buildings, madness and hereditary curses. In the novel 'The Castle of Otranto 'Manfred the prince of Otranto, is in a difficult situation he has only one unhealthy male heir, Conrad who must marry as soon as possible to ensure the continuation of the family line. On the wedding day Conrad cannot be found; a servant sent to search for him comes back foaming at the mouth, speechless with horror.... There are elements of the Gothic style in more mainstream writers such as Sir Walter Scott's works, Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights', Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick', Charles Dickens's 'Great Expectations' and Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'. In more recent times authors such as Daphne du Maurier, Virginia Coffman and Victoria Holt have continued the Gothic sensibility with the combination of both horror and romance.
Think of those haunting words:-
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" which open Daphne du Maurier's gothic inspired novel, 'Rebecca.'
Many more modern authors also feature Gothic Romantic elements. Mary Stewart is an outstanding writer in this genre with such novels as Nine Coaches Waiting(1958) and Thornyhold (1988). Then as already mentioned there is Virginia Coffman with her 'Moura' series which mostly feature the sensible Ann Wicklow character. In her novel titled simply 'Moura' Ann is the housekeeper at a girl's school. She journeys to France to see what has become of one of the former students and becomes an inmate of Chateau Moura an ancient edifice in an advanced state of neglect and surrounded by hungry wolves.