Sunday, January 28, 2007



Love Those Gothics


Did you watch it? Last night? No, not the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Who cares about that? Jane Eyre. Did you watch Jane Eyre?

I sure did.

Loved it. Loved Ruth Wilson as plain but luminous Jane. Loved Toby Stephens as Rochester, mostly because he made Rochester a little less forbidding and gave him that biting wit that can be so much fun to watch. Loved Thornfield Hall, which was as creepy as it needed to be.

Don’t you love gothics? They have all the elements to make a truly great romance:

· A moody, secret-keeping hero, who may, or may not, also be the villain;

· A vulnerable but strong heroine who is alone in the world and forced, therefore, to rely upon the hero;

· The heroine is often trapped, with nowhere else to go; and, of course;

· The creepy house.

What could be better?

So here’s my question for you—what’s your favorite gothic? Jane Eyre? Rebecca? Anything by Victoria Holt? One of my personal favorites is Holt’s The Devil on Horseback. Anyone remember that great story?

7 comments:

Eve Silver said...

Ooooh...gothics. I love Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, and Rebecca. And Jennifer St. Giles' Mistress of Trevelyan is a fabulous book released a couple of years back. There's a school of thought that points to gothics as the root of the current paranormal stories, except in the case of paranormals, the hero really does turn out to be the vampire, LOL!

Colleen Gleason said...

My favorite gothics are written by Barbara Michaels. She's my absolute favorite.

I think I've read one Victoria Holt, and of course I've read and loved Jane Eyre, but Michaels is my fave.

Some of my favorite Michaels books are Shattered Silk, Into the Darkness, Search the Shadows, Greytower, Wings of the Falcon...I can go on and on.

Kristi Cook said...

Oh no, I MISSED Jane Eyre last night?!?!?!?! Well, that sucks. One of my all-time favorite books, though I haven't yet been entirely pleased with a movie version. Like Eve, I LOVE Daphne du Maurier--Rebecca is one of my all-time favorites, and I LOVE the old movie version with Laurence Olivier.

And our very own Eve's gothic historicals are among my new favorites.

Eve Silver said...

Thanks Kristina! I can definitely say that gothics are as fun to write as they are to read.

Colleen Gleason said...

Oh yes...I just bought Eve's latest last night! I'm saving His Dark Kiss for when I finish my current book!

Ann Christopher said...

I agree, Eve rocks!

Barbara Michaels, huh? I'll have to try her...

Ann

Evangeline Holland said...

The Devil in Horseback!--a classic! I must admit that my first love is the gothic romance and the many, many HTF/OOP, obscure gothics from the 60s and 70s I own are a testament to my obsession. *g*