Page "Gothic fiction" Paragraph 40

The 1880s saw the revival of the Gothic as a powerful literary form allied to fin de siecle, which fictionalized contemporary fears like ethical degeneration and questioned the social structures of the time.

Classic works of this Urban Gothic include Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ( 1886 ), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray ( 1891 ), George du Maurier's Trilby ( 1894 ), Richard Marsh's The Beetle: A Mystery ( 1897 ), Henry James ' The Turn of the Screw ( 1898 ), and the stories of Arthur Machen.

The most famous Gothic villain ever, Count Dracula was created by Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula ( 1897 ).

Stoker's book also established Transylvania and Eastern Europe as the locus classicus of the Gothic.

Gaston Lerouxs The Phantom of the Opera ( 1909 – 1910 ) is another well-known example of gothic fiction from the early twentieth century.