gothic-revival

1764 is an important year for gothic novel : first of all the first « roman noir » is published (Horace Walpole – The castle of Otranto) but it's also the birth of Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) who will set up this fashion of gothic novel. She wrote The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 1789 and one of her most famous writing is The Mysteries of Udolpho published in 1794.

The raise of gothic novel is taken with Lewis but also Mary Shelley (1797-1851) . In 1816, the Shelley family travelled to Geneva to spend the summer with Lord Byron, Mary's sister's fiancé, and John William Polidori. Due to the bad weather they stayed inside and talked about the naturalist Erasmus Darwin who was experimenting on the resuscitation of matter and ghosts stories. It is then than Byron suggests they create their own fantastic story. Mary Shelley will write Frankenstein, published in 1818 and Polidori will create The Vampire in 1819.

The influence of gothic novel will extend trough centuries, breathing life into ghosts, horror stories and gloomy atmosphere.

At the end of the nineteenth century, a writing regains all gothic novel elements : Dracula, published by Bram Stocker in 1897. There is indeed a dreary atmosphere : the main character visits a cemetery and then lives in an old castle in Transylvania. In addition Jonathan Harker, the main character who needs to regulate a real estate business, has visions : beautiful women haunt him at night. Last but not least the novel is filled with supernatural creatures like vampires (Count Dracula) and werewolves (at the beginning of the story when Jonathan Harker is lost in the woods).

Bram Stocker will inspire many film makers such as Friedrich Murnau who created Nosferatu in 1921 ; Tod Browning with Dracula in 1931 ; Terence Fisher with The Nightmare of Dracula in 1958 ; and finally Francis Ford Coppola with the most famous Dracula in 1992. 

This video is an introduction to Gothic literature. The author presents is through several sections.

She starts with a definition of gothic literature : we learn about its nature ( it's a sub-genre of writing), the period of its creation (in the late eighteenth century) and its creator (Horace Walpole with The Castle of Otranto). Moreover she explains how in the gothic tale romance, horror and the supernatural are mixed up.

Then she evokes Romanticism as the movement which made gothic novel famous due to the distance it creates with Reason, according much power to imagination.

In another part she describes the elements of gothic literature. According to her the setting is essential and most of the time the story takes place in a castle or a mansion with labyrinthic corridors and cellars. A sense of mystery is experienced and there is often a prophecy linked to the place where the fiction takes place. In addition there is a large part granted to dreams, rêveries and surnatural things like ghosts. There is significant pomposity in the expression of feelings (like in Romanticism where passion is exaggerated.

Concerning the characters, she explains that the woman is often at the centere of the story, sometimes needing help or being threatened by a man : she is in a position of inferiority. Last but not least the author shows that the « roman noir » uses figures of speech like metaphors to link a feeling with an atmosphere.

Then, she develops the idea of romance in gothic novel with intricate love story, like unreturned love , the choice between love and reason...

William Thomas Beckford (1760-1840) was the son of the mayor of London, William Thomas Beckford, whose clossal fortune he inherited. He travelled in Italy in 1782 and a year later published a book called Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents. Then came Vathek, a gothic story published in French in 1787. it's a fictionalized version of the caliph Al-Wathiq's life : it's the chronicle of the fall of a caliph who abjures Islam to engage himself and his friend Nouronihar in activities to acquire supernatural powers. But he finally failed and ended up in a hell governed by the demon Eblis, where he is condemned to wander with no way or end..

Following the fashion, Beckford also ordered his own gothic villa : The building of Fonthill Abbey by James Wyatt started in 1796. Fonthill Abbey is a replica of the Portuguese monastery of Bathala . Some of the decorative items in the villa were authentic, like a case for relics bought by Beckford from the Louvre. The style of Fonthill Abbey will later influence the hall of Westminster by Barry and Pugin. This building doesn't exist anymore but it is well known thanks to two books published in 1823 :

• The Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey, by John Rutter

• Illustrations Graphical and Literary of Fonthill Abbey, by John Britton

This is the website of Strawberry Hill described as « the most elegant and eccentric Gothic houses ».There is a first section about the house with a description of the rooms, the garden, the restoration and the history. The garden also has another dedicated section. We learn that the research about restoration began with the work of Kevin Rogers of the World Monuments Fund in 2004. In addition many rooms have been restored by E Bowman and Sons and conservation() specialists. Stained glasses and the exterior of the building have also been ()restored.

A second section, called « visit us » presents the different guided tours that you can take at Strawberry Hill and all the information you need : opening times, accessibility, admission fares, … It is also possible to buy your ticket online.

Then in another part you can find the monthly events.

As the operation of Strawberry Hill is funded on donations, there is a mitre called « get involved » which invites you to participate as a volunteer or to become a member of the friends of S. H.. Moreover there is another part of the website called « support us » which invites you once more to become a member of the friends of Strawberry Hill.

There is also a whole event-driven part since you can hire some rooms of the castle for private events, lectures or weddings. 

During the last part of the eighteenth century, some authors perceived the links between gothic architecture and the feeling of terror. Indeed the count of Clarendon described the scary aspect of Winchester Cathedral and Thomas Gent spoke about the « frightening ruins » of Kirkstall Abbey which inspired serious and deep meditations.

That's how gothic elements will be used as dreary places for gothic novels. Fanciful literature abandons urban places to set place into old abbeys and houses of the past. Thus, the gloomy nave of an abbey creates feeling of terror and triggers daydreams, reveries, and meditation on the flight of time. In the same way, ruins induce reflection on death and spectres. In short, gothic architecture has the specific power to beget dreams and chimeras. Horace Walpole was the first author to discover this link between gothic architecture and the feeling of terror. He had a gothic villa built and wrote the first gothic novel.

                                                                                                    Horace Walpole 

Horace Walpole is one of the prime minister sir Robert Walpole's sons. He was a Member of Parliament. He discovered medieval antiquities during a trip in Italy in 1739 and became impassionned about it. We know about his life thanks to the abundant correspondence he left. He was that kind of English gentleman endowed with a vast culture.

He wanted a gothic manor to live so he ordered the construction of Strawberry Hill from 1747 to 1753.It combines elements of gothic churches like pointed arches and of medieval castles like crenels. Horace Walpole allowed four people per day to visit the villa . It was also used for parties and to welcome foreign ambassadors because of Walpole's function : he was a politician.

                                                                                             Strawberry Hill

The villa still exists nowadays but it has undergone a few restorations. We know what it looked like thanks to a book written in 1774 by Horace Walpole himself : A description of the Villa of Horace Walpole .

                                                                                              Strawberry hill after restoration

Horace Walpole not only lived in a neo-gothic villa, he also imagined the first gothic novel : The castle of Otranto. The characteristics of gothic novel also called « roman noir » in French is a gloomy atmosphere and the use of medieval and horror places as a background : castles, ruins, cemeteries, crypts … foremost there are recurring characters : the femme fatale, the devil, the vampire, the religious man... The castle of Otranto was published in 1764 and met immediate success. Thomas Gray (1716-1771), an English poet, describes it as «  masterpiece of fiction ». Walpole used a medieval environment coupled with supernatural effects. The castle of Otranto is considered as the first gothic novel, initiatior of a literature which will open out during more than () half a century in England and France and which influences today'swritings. His work takes as a starting point the melancholy of death present in Gray's, Edward Young's (1681-1765) and James Macpherson's (1736-1796) poems. Walpole, through his work, undertook to move away from rationalism.

The novel takes place in Italy, in Otranto. It starts with the death of Manfred's son, Conrad, on his wedding day, killed by the fall of a giant hamlet from the sky. For political reasons, Manfred decides to break up with his wife Hippolita and to mary Isabella, Conrad's fiancee. His second wedding will be disturbed by surnaturals events, ghosts and a real prince. 

                                                                                           William Stukeley (1687-1765)

To understand Gothic revival we need to go back to the history of taste in the fields of architecture and works of art. Following Wickelmann's analysis, the 18th century was still inspired by greek and roman styles. But some personalities will bring radical changes. William Stukeley (1687-1765) is one of the first defenders of gothic architecture with Thomas Hearne (1678-1735) and Browne Willis (1682-1760). He wrote Itinerarium Curiosum in which he described architecture which raised enthusiasm, or indignation when they were in ruins. In 1738 he built a retreat place with ogival windows and five years later drew the plans of a gothic bridge for the duke of Montagu's park. He initiated the fashion of gothic buildings parks would soon be invaded with. In parallel, sciences of the Middle-Ages developed through learned societies like the London Society of Antiquaries, created in 1718. Moreover some topographs published drawings and works about medieval ruins such as « prospect views of most famous ruins, abbeys and castles of York countee » by S. and N. Buck. Stukeley and Willis will continue this work by drawing and counting old medieval buildings and ruins in Great Britain between 1726 and 1742.

                                                                                                Caspar David Friedrich

Some people pushed the taste for gothic atmosphere further and built gothic ruins : in the middle of the 18^th century Sanderson Miller, an architect, built a gothic castle ruin called Edgehill, described by the poet William Shenstone. He constructed a similar castle for Sir Thomas Lyttelton in Hagley's park and another one for Sir Edward Turner. This taste for ruins will cover all the nineteenth century, representative of the passage of time as explained by Chateaubriand in Le génie du christiannisme, published in 1802 in France. Chateaubriand wrote during Romanticism, an artistic movement based on the emphasis on emotions, which will continue to move away from reason. Transmitting a romantic and imaginary vision of the Middle Ages through painting by Caspar David Friedrich for example or Schinkel once, through poems by Byron ... it will lead to a revival of this period, through art. As a consequence, the Gothic revival refers to a radical change in the History of styles, where the Middle Ages are rediscovered and brought to a parangon in architecture, art and literature. In addition this taste takes on a political connotation : it was a sign of nationalism. 

In medieval times great buildings were created to impress the Almighty. By the eighteen hundreds the industrial revolution was steaming full speed ahead but not everybody appreciated what was happening. Admirers of the older traditional gothic-style sought to revive it. They believed society needed more meaningful buildings.

The Church of England was growing and the nation needed more churches. Sir George Gilbert Scott built so many Gothic Revival churches he lost track of the ones who were his. Gothic revivalists championned high-pitched roofs,tall spirals,pinnacles and pointed arches. They adored cluster columns and quatrefoils, repeating patterns and holy Crosses. They even appreciated the old dead-animal. The wealthy bought into gothic in a big way.

William Beckford, an exentric millionaire, built Fonthill House. This grandiose country mansion had a tower as high as a cathedral which... Bedford used as a dining room !

Gothic Revival grew in popularity eventually influencing every level of society from what people wore, to the newspapers they read and the garden benches they sat on.

Without Gothic Revival, Lewis Carroll might never have taken us down the rabbit hole ; the British government would be homeless and some teenagers would probably never have learnt the carnal pleasures of applying too much eyeliner...

Are you ready to get your goth on ? 

Gothic art goes from the middle of the XIIth century to the middle of the XVIth century. The word « gothic » has been invented during Renaissance and took on a negative connotation because Goths was considered as barbarians. The gothic style finds its origin in Ile-de-France, indeed the choir of the Saint-Denis' basilica marks the origin of gothic style, it was constructed near 1140.

In architecture the buildings of gothic period present wider dimensions. Churches are more lighted than in romanesque art and offer a slender aspect. It's the triumph of vertical lines.

The characteristics of gothic style is the use of pointed arches instead of semi-circular arches used in romanesque architecture. Moreover there is an addition on gothic architectures : the flying-butresses. It's arches affixed on the outside of the buildings to reinforce it. It becomes essential because of the bigger and bigger height of gothic churches. On the contrary of the sobriety of romanesque architecture, gothic buildings are very decorated with pinacles and gargoyles for exemple. Walls are openworked and pierced with large windows. The orgival arch is also one of the great invention of gothic art. It's the intersection of two orgives, it's an arch in ribbed linking two reference points, passing by the kee. The climax of the gothic style is reached with a period called blazing or flamboyant gothic during which the verticality is ever-present and the decoration is particularly luxuriant.

In addition by piercing large openings for windows, gothic style caused the rise of the art of stained-glass windows. In paintings it's the research of depth and effects of matters. Giotto is an example of gothic painting, he gives back the expression of figures.  

My blog will deal with the history of gothic revival and its influences on architecture and litterature in France and in the United Kingdom.

Following Wickelmann's analysis, the 18th century was still inspired by greek and roman style.

Romanticism, an artistic movement based on the emphasisis of emotions, will bring some radical changes. Transmiting a romantic and imaginary vision of Middle Ages trough painting of Caspar David Friedrich for example or Schinkel once, trough poems of Byron ... it will lead to a revalorization of this period, through art.

As a consequence, The Gothic revival refers to a radical change in the History of styles, where the Middle Ages are rediscovered and brought to a parangon in architecture, art, literature. Even if the gothic revival concerns a wide range of different types of works, we will focus on architecture and literature.