Gothic Novels were also incredibly popular in America as well as England. 2 Authors that were famous for their novels are Edgar Alan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both Authors wrote novels that were famous for their Gothic horror stories in that time.
Edgar Alan Poe (1809-1849)
Edgar Alan Poe wrote several novels, all being very popular. “The Masque of the Red Death” is a short story that follows Prince Prospero, who is trying to avoid a plague called the Red Death by secluding himself, and his friends, in his abbey. The story takes place at a masquerade ball the prince is throwing. The story ends with the fitting line, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all”. - Edgar Alan Poe. (1842). The Masque Of The Red Death. Available: http://www.poe200th.com/famous-books-of-edgar-allan-poe/. Last accessed 15/01/14.
One of Edgar's most famous poems is "The Raven". Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American author and poet. His most famous poem, “The Raven”, begins with the often quoted line, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary”. In this poem, the narrator is visited by a talking raven, who squawks the famous reply “Nevermore,” to every question that is posed by the narrator.
- Edgar Alan Poe. (1842). The Raven. Available: http://www.poe200th.com/famous-books-of-edgar-allan-poe/. Last accessed 15/01/14.
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'
But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!"
Poe describes a most paranoid character in his short story
“The Tell-Tale Heart”. In this story, the narrator murders another man and buries him beneath the floorboards in the chamber. At first all is well, but his sanity begins to deteriorate when he is visited by the local police officers. Quickly, the man begins to hallucinate that he can hear the dead man’s still beating heart. Describing it as a,
“low, dull, quick sound -much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”, the man is unable to run from the sound because of the presence of the officers. Driven mad by the incessant noise, he finally screams,
“’Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!’” -
Edgar Alan Poe. (1842). The Tell Tale Heart. Available: http://www.poe200th.com/famous-books-of-edgar-allan-poe/. Last accessed 15/01/14.
Another well-known short story penned by Poe is entitled “The Cask of Amontillado”. This story takes place in Italy, and follows a slighted narrator, seeking revenge. Like “The Tell-Tale Heart”, this story also deals with the burial of the antagonist, except in “The Cask of Amontillado” the man is still alive. The narrator, Montresor, has been mulling over a perceived insult he received from another nobleman, Fortunato. Driven to revenge by this slight, Montresor tells Fortunato about some hidden vintage wine, Amontillado, which is hidden deep in the catacombs. He eventually buries the man alive, and the story ends with Montresor exclaiming, “In pace requiescat!” - Edgar Alan Poe. (1846). The Cask Of Amontillado. Available: http://www.poe200th.com/famous-books-of-edgar-allan-poe/. Last accessed 15/01/14.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories include "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832), "Roger Malvin's Burial" (1832), "Young Goodman Brown" (1835), and the collection Twice-Told Tales. He is best known for his novels The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). His use of allegory and symbolism make Hawthorne one of the most studied writers. - Nathaniel Hawthorne. (1800's). BiographyNathanielHawthorne. Available: http://www.biography.com/people/nathaniel-hawthorne-9331923. Last accessed 15/01/14.
In the puritanical Boston of the 17th Century, a woman gives birth after committing adultery. That woman, Hester Prynne, choses to create a new life for herself in the face of adversity rather than succumb to what is expected of her. She will not name the father. Her decision opens up the tension between religious life and the true grace of God, and between personal guilt, religious sin and legal guilt. The novel is prefaced by a "real" account of the author finding notes on a case similar to Hestor's in a Custom House, from which he fashioned the story. The preface is to be read as fictional. - Nathaniel Hawthorne. (1850). The Scarlet Letter. Available: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/nathaniel+hawthorne/the+scarlet+letter+28ebook29/6929283/. Last accessed 15/01/14
Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1851. Set in mid-19th-century Salem, Mass., the work is a somber study in hereditary sin based on the legend of a curse pronounced on Hawthorne's own family by a woman condemned to death during the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. The greed and arrogant pride of the novel's Pyncheon family through the generations is mirrored in the gloomy decay of their seven-gabled mansion, in which the family's enfeebled and impoverished relations live. - Nathaniel Hawthorne. (1851). The House Of The Seven Gables. Available: http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?ebook=2875. Last accessed 15/01/14.
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