The end-of-October tour will be celebrating the “original” gothic novels, those written during the Romantic era.

I’m defining the era as pre-1840. The following information may give you an idea where to begin as you search for what work you’d like to read for the tour.  You may also want to read the LitGothic page for some additional ideas. Some people may also be interested in the gothic novels that Catherine Moreland references in Austen’s Northanger Abbey. You can find some information about those novels here.

Keep in mind that although the literary gothic extends to present day, we’re only counting books or stories written before 1840 for this current tour.

Other than the year written guideline, I don’t want to be too picky: if the work you want to read is not on this list but if you think it fits the gothic tradition, then go ahead and select it!

The button for this tour is an image I took in September 2005. It is a gargoyle on the side of Notre Dame. Feel free to use it to promote the tour on your blog.
<br /> <a href=”http://classics.rebeccareid.com/tag/gothic-literature” _mce_href=”http://classics.rebeccareid.com/tag/gothic-literature”><img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-1524″ title=”Gargoyle on Notre Dame” src=”http://classics.rebeccareid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/gothiclit1.jpg” _mce_src=”http://classics.rebeccareid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/gothiclit1.jpg” alt=”” width=”200″ height=”126″ /></a>

How the tour works: If you are new to the Classics Circuit, please read this paragraph so you may have a better understanding of how the tour operates. First, make sure you sign up via the form, not in the comments. You must have a blog to be a tour participant. On the sign up form, please indicate either which days you want to post, or which days you are unable to post on your blog. Someone from the Classics Circuit will email you your assigned date. We will post a schedule on this blog linking to all the participating blogs. On your assigned day in your time zone, please post about your selected work. If this is not clear, feel free to email rebecca[at]rebeccareid[dot]com. Thanks for your interest in joining the Circuit! If you do not have a blog, I still encourage you to follow the tour once it begins in October.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert or student of gothic literature at all. I am simply a reader of classics (like the rest of you) that decided to compile a list of what I’ve found classified as gothic literature, pre-1840s. If you are a gothic literature expert, please share what I’ve missed in the comments for those that come along in the future.

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