Hunting Cathy

Today we have a guest post, riffing on the last story 'Out on the wily, windy moors' Cathy and Jane have fought to the death... but not in this version. Here Jane survives. And it's a slightly older Jane. One who married Rochester and who suffered a similar fate to his first wife... The guest …

Epic Goth Battles of History: Out on the wily, windy moors…

The Moors. The moon lours over the rolling desolation of hills. Sickly heather and sparse grass cling tenacious to the dark soil. Gnarled trees, stand isolated, beaten down by rain but still defiantly braced against the wind whose bitter breath chills to the bone. The rain falls, insipid and weary, on the soaked earth and …

A Dragon’s Tear and a Princess’ Last Breath

He’d heard them announce her into the wind. Sounded like a bardic spell the way it carried. ‘Princess Amela’ something something something ‘appease the hunger of the beast.’ Insulting. Humans always make the worst assumptions but he’d hoped that they’d know better. Especially here of all places. They were sending a princess. He hated princesses. …

Art Thou Still Living Wretch? The Early Gothic Vampire

Primary Sources Anon. – ‘The Unquiet Grave’ Anon. -  ‘Political Vampyres’ in The Gentlemen’s Magazine – May 1732 Geoffrey of Burton – Vita Sancte Moduenne Virginis – c. 1140s Lord Byron – August Darvell – 1819 Lord Byron – ‘The Giaour’ - 1813 Samuel Taylor Coleridge – ‘Christabel’ - 1816 D – ‘On Vampyrism’ in …

The Guide to Becoming a Byronic Vampire

Welcome to the vampire life! Now, it may seem rather bewildering that I'm welcoming you to the life. 'But I've been a vampire for so long already,' you cry. But darling, that... that wasn't being a vampire. That was being a shambolic cursed ravenous beast with the sex appeal of a bent spoon covered in …

Marko Yakubovich by Alexander Pushkin

In 1835 Pushkin published a collection called 'Songs of the Western Slavs' and included among its numbers was a vampire poem, featuring the Vurdalak. The poem clearly borrows from or was influenced by Prosper Mérimée.   The following is a very rough translation. Marko Yakubovich sat by the gate, Before him sat Zoya his wife …

‘I ain’t afraid of no ghosts’ – Gothic Spooks, Spectres and Frauds.

Primary Sources Anon. – The Ghost of Guy translated and retold by Richard Scott-Robinson - http://www.eleusinianm.co.uk/olde-bokes/yellow-book-of-calbourne/pdf/ghost-of-guy.pdf Anon. - Anti-Canidia; Or, Superstition Detected and Exposed – 1762 Anon. – Life after Death - 1758 Joseph Addison -The Spectator: A New Edition - (1711/2) – 1860 John Aubrey – Miscellanies - 1696 Daniel Defoe - An Essay …

The Enthusiast’s Guide to Spotting Murder Ladies

Welcome to our discrete guide for the discerning. Many of you will have turned to us because you are simply exhausted by the stream of bland heroes, autocratic and tortured dark lords, and tediously misogynistic villains who one cannot, it seems, avoid in these Gothic times. You have thought to yourself, 'There must be another …

Romancing the Gothic – Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?: Gothic Faith and Monstrous Religion

PRIMARY TEXTS Anonymous  The Libertines  1798 (Jean Barrin)   Venus in the Cloister   1683 Edmund Burke    Reflections on the Revolution in France   1790 Charles Churchill  The Times  1764   http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1764chur.htm T. J. Horsley Curties Ethelwina, Or, The House of Fitz-Auburne 1799 Antonio Gavin   The Frauds of the Romish Monks   1691 Antonio …

The Patented Guide to Becoming a Gothic Dark Hero

Do you struggle with being too bland? Constantly doing everyday activities like 'working' and 'cooking'? Is the number of people who tut under their breaths and mutter in hushed tones as you pass distressingly small? Have you failed to commit even one signal crime to blast your soul for the duration of the withered years …