Gothic Romance Wave

When I heard about Gothic Romance Wave I knew I HAD to read it. Much to my own grief, no longer being in the halls of academia no longer makes a library of scholarly books accessible. I settled on purchasing the ebook on Kindle which was still $27.00. While this is a low price for a scholarly tome, it is still a higher price than I typically pay for a physical book.

It was a worthy purchase! Romancing the Gothic rouches on numerous aspects of pulpy gothic romance—their history, characters, market appeal from a scholarly perspective. As someone who loves in depth analysis of literature and dipping into cultural studies I found it very engaging. 

No pictures of the covers were featured. That would have enhanced the experience for me. I understand that they might all seem identical with all the women running out of buildings. However, there were a few points in which an illustration would have been beneficial to help demonstrate how the covers were utilized.

I really appreciate the discussion on the tension of the genre of the mass market romance and where the gothic fits in. There is definitely lot of complexity as it Is still stigmatized by scholars but very financially lucrative when they were popular. Also they were considered “low brow” yet the gothic did not have the more sexual components that other mass market romances nursies (romances about nurses) and Harlequins (series romance) had. This Is an example on the nuances that are explored in this scholarly research.

In the exploration of the decline of the gothic I was aware that Katherine Woodwis's The Flame and the Flower changed the marketplace for romance novels. However I had never considered before reading this that Stephen King took a more masculine spin on gothic tropes in The Shining. This point about Stephen King was fascinating and I feel is worthy of an in depth study of it's own. Also, after reading that a lot of the tropes are alive and well and on the pages of Harlequin Romantic Suspense only with sexy scenes I am wanting to grab a few of those titles to see how they compare. But then I really love gothic romance novels and may be looking for an excuse for In depth reading.

I have made these observations because this was an engaging book. My personal enthusiasm made me want to dig into the material even further.

This would be a useful book for a college class on the gothic as well as for enthusiasts of the gothic romance. It was a fun excuse to visit that section of my personal bookshelf to search for the authors and books mentioned with an enhanced insight.