With summer somewhere between full swing and distant memory depending on where you were on the globe, in August we retreated from the sunshine of the Southern Gothic to the dimly lit cityscapes and natural wilds of 19th century Europe. As you may have read here, August was all about monsters and the monstrosity of… Read More Duality: ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’
Before the dust of the departing circus train settles, there is time for a post or two more. June, which was dedicated to the Circus of Horrors (that is, the horror of the circus) certainly lived up to the name. Rather than head into July leaving no trace of the circus behind, I’m bending time… Read More Guest Post: ‘Geek Love’, An Intimate Portrait of a Nuclear Family
With a light brightly shining on the ugly face of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States of America, the whole world has stood up, has begun to question systemic racism across the countries of the world, has pledged to stay standing until we achieve an anti-racist normality. Against the bleak backdrop of… Read More Curate a Library to Help You See: in Maya’s Words
Born on Halloween, 1795, John Keats (d. 1821) was a tragic character, a romantic, and a poet. Considered a key figure amongst the second generation of British Romantic poets following in the footsteps of William Wordsworth, William Blake, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Keats and his young contemporaries were more open to exploring the space in… Read More A Poet’s House, Pleasure’s Temple: Keats’ Gothic, Epic, & Sublime
Leaving the modern glass front on Evans Way, Boston, behind, a dimly lit tunnel transports its visitors deep into an inner-city oasis. An opulent garden blooms under a glass roof far above. Walls rise on every side with windows and archways beckoning to the inside beyond. Everything is lavish, palatial, and foreign to Massachusetts. This… Read More Deliriously Glorious: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
In the Middle Ages, medical physicians favoured academia and aristocracy, working at universities or in private residence for the castle-dwelling wealthy. They offered consultations, but turned their noses up at surgery. With Europe frequently in battle during this long era, however, soldiers required more than consultation. ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐-๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ Out of necessity, barbers, with their steady hands… Read More Medical Men and Murderers: The Barber-Surgeons, Burke & Hare
Born in Yorkshire, England, on the 21st of April, 1816, Charlotte Brontรซ was the third of six Brontรซ children, and the longest surviving. Along with her younger sisters Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849), Charlotte remains a popular author to this day. She completed four novels in her lifetime, three of which she saw published (the… Read More An Unutterable Wretchedness of the Mind: ‘Jane Eyre’
January has been dedicated (half-absently, thanks to a vicious virus) to the exploration of the Gothic Muses, to historical and artistic influences on our beloved genre. For today’s post, I am delighted to hand the keyboard over to the delectable Decadence and Dark Ages; a professional spooky nerd and devout medieval gothicist! I am particularly… Read More Decadence and Dark Ages’ Guest Post: Medieval Gothic
Hello, spooky nerds!I’m back – I think…โจThanks so much for bearing with me whilst I’ve been absent in illness, and for all the well wishes.โจI had wanted to announce this last Sunday, on Poe’s birthday, but alas I was the unwilling partner of the dancing Red Death. To celebrate having found 500 fellow spooky nerds… Read More Half K Giveaway
Welcome to 2020! It is the year of the rat, and so I begin by rummaging through the dark corners of my bookcase for the texts that I have hoarded this past year, but not yet read. “๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ท๐ท๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ป๐ญ๐ผ ๐ฌ๐พ๐ป๐ต๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ถ๐ธ๐ด๐ฎ ๐ป๐ธ๐พ๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ญ๐ช๐ป๐ด๐ท๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ – ๐… Read More Words Curling Round Me: 2020 Reading List
Whilst some of you are still making your way through Little Sister Death for the #generallygothicbookworm read-along which Gothic Bookworm and I have been hosting throughout December, we’ve decided to postpone our final, spoiler-filled blog posts until after Christmas… Having finished the novel ourselves, however, we’re both too filled with feelings to stay silent until… Read More Generally Gothic Bookworm Readalong: Lore in ‘Little Sister Death’
Generally Gothic 