The Gothic Writers We forgot

 

Good evening my lovely friends. It’s September already, where has this year gone? I’ve been enjoying the end of summer on the agora, sipping tea and reading. I was in Galway recently in a fabulous old bookshop and picked up a delightful copy of a forgotten horror writer, Oliver Onions. That is to say, very few of my friends have ever heard of him. Which is a shame.

That brings me to tonight’s blog, I have thought about this quite a lot since my visit to Galway. What happened that we forgot some of these great writers that have shaped literature? These writers seemed to have just vanished, and it is a pity that we have allowed it to happen.

So, pull up a chair, let’s get comfortable and let’s discuss some of these remarkable authors.

 

Three writers who helped shape the darker side of Literature

Literature, writings in prose or verse, the definition given by Merriam-Webster, but it’s more than that. To me, literature is an escape, a means of travelling beyond your imagination and allows you to dream. In gothic literature there is a darker side, a side that takes you on a psychological journey where the mind plays tricks and the adrenalin pumps through your veins, that’s gothic literature at its finest.  

Regina Maria Roche 1764-1845

Regina Maria Roche was born in Waterford, Ireland and grew up in Dublin. She began writing in her teens, encouraged by her father. Regina was a prolific author of the time, having published eleven books. 

Her novel ‘Clermont’ published in 1798, a story about Madeline, who is a porcelain doll of a Gothic heroine, who lives in seclusion from society with her father. But their solitude is interrupted one night, by a visit from a Countess, who is a friend from her father’s past. 

This gothic romance made her a very popular author, holding popularity along with Ann Radcliffe. Regina has been one of the authors that shaped Irish Gothic literature, along with Bram Stoker, Sheridan LeFanu and Charles Maturin.

‘The Children of the Abbey’ remains her most popular novel.  

Clara Reeve 1729-1807

Clara Reeve was born in 1729 and had a 33-year career as an author. Her best-known Gothic novel, ‘The Old English Baron’, was published in 1777. A man returns home after a long absence only to find his old friend, Lord Lovel, is dead, and the estate has changed hands.  ‘The Old English Baron’ is believed to have been a rewriting of Walpole’s ‘Castle of Otranto’. It is also believed to have influenced Mary Shelley when she wrote ‘Frankenstein’ in 1818. 

Clara was a very prolific writer publishing around 20+ volumes, that included five novels, of which only two, became well known. 

Oliver Onions 1873-1961

Oliver Onions was an artist and a magazine illustrator during the Boer war. His friend, an American novelist, encouraged Oliver to write.

His best known work is the novella, ‘The Beckoning Fair One’ and is considered to be amongst the best of horror fiction. A writer moves into an old house to work on his book, but he becomes increasingly obsessed with the house and a presence. Soon reality blurs with hallucination and the writer slips into madness. Onions masterfully weaves the theme of isolation, along with the supernatural into fear and dread.

How does Literature remember some writers, while allowing others to disappear?

Three very different writers, but very important within the horror and gothic genre, which seem to have been forgotten on the bookshelves. 

I always wonder why some writers are remembered while others, though popular in their time have disappeared. My bookshelves are filled with books that are wild, weird, and wonderful, along with the odd penny dreadful. The joy that I feel when I meet an old book whose author I may not have come across before, but when I read it, it is like finding an old friend once more.

In these times where books are freely available on eBook and through older publications, it is nice and very welcome to pick up an old and possibly forgotten author and enjoy their work afresh.  

Until next time my friends, I hope that you find these authors as enjoyable and refreshing as I have. So, happy discovery, and reading.

Anna xoxo