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When I first discover goth I was reading about Mary Shelly, the parties she would host in her parlor, and she held critique book clubs as well (usually to flush out plagerist) hers writing was a genre of noir in an artificially bright world, where people mocked them selfs ,by trying so hard to be "original and modern".

I'm not sure where you're going with this thread. Please can you give it some purpose.

Thank you.

The last thread on pioneers of goth brought this question to mind. relating to things other then just music,and fashion that goth adopted. Like the early Noir authors like Bram Stoker has a strong following among contempmery goth. I am curios of other era related influences on goth.

I see, Dabbler...for example, many writers during the turn of the century were goth, in my opinion - look at Oscar Wilde and Toulouse Latrec, for example. Drugs and absinthe were a big part of the scene too.

true - not forgetting Sheridan Le Fanu. and Byron. these people invented Gothic Romance.

i think some of the "bitterness" present in gothic literature and art stems from the theatre - in shakespeares time it was not considered appropriate to be an actor or and entertainer, as they were very low down on the social scale.
but the intense creativity and imagination of the gothic genre has led somewhat to its being outcast in society and having a somewhat different approach to literature.
gothic writing is beautiful i think and deserves to be appreciated in its own rite!
im more into gothic poems myself, but the odd gothic novel can never go amiss ^_^

"Carmilla" is good - it was the story that inspired the Mircalla Karnstein films that Hammer made (yes, that's why i use that name) and was written before Stoker penned Dracula. "Green Tea" is also very good. i have always been fond of Poe too. a little later, but undeniably a Gothic master.

would it be a little outre of me to mention "Justin" or "Venus in Furs"? okay, maybe thats a little too exotic. oh i don't know though. it's gothic, it's romance - of a sort.

The Gowns and Spats , as well as costumes are well documented in such works, Dresier had a flare for writing such references to fashion with just enough detail, journalist that attended parlor entertainment, the theater criques circles(taking to task the trite reproduced theater of the time. Putting a realistic darker role on the stages and in books. Simuliar to what HP Lovecraft did for the Early Horror/suspense Genre.

oh, now i just love HP Lovecraft. i didn't mention him because he was rather later, but his writing really captured my imagination - so descriptive and prosaic.

He also ghost wrote a lot of other works as well. He blended the society talk into "Things-that -scare-the-academic."

For me, my first literary immersion into Gothic or dark style was Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."

The in depth discussion of the dark and damp. The despair of the characters. The underground architechrue.

Add that to the sick sense of revenge, and I was hooked.

The Story of O' Had a part in peeking into the culture around the lifestyle, I found connections to goth as well in the lifestyle.

Let's not forget the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, one of the earliest forms and piece of gothic literature and reeking with dark and gloomy settings and elements- a staple of "Goth".

And all along I thought it might have all stemmed from the Visigoths...

I think Poe was a genius ahead of his time.

As playwright of Fall of the House of Usher
he really cements himself as a master of the Gothic medium.

Can't forget about Nathaniel Hawthorne either, ie "The House of Seven Gables" and 'The Birthmark", to name just two. Talk about Dark 'gothic' stories!

Edgar Allen Poe also wrote The Raven. That is definatly one of my favorites. It talks about how a man can go mad over something as simple as a bird that can only say "Nevermore".

Poe made fun on the dark side.. did you know that he uses acrostics?

No, I didn't. I do know that Poe married one of his close family members.

I have sought out a verified account for that. As well as the writer of Alice in wonder land being of questionable intent with the character that Alice was based on.

Let us remember how slander seeks those not considered "pickette fence" people" in the community.

Every body likes a good "dark"writer until he alludes to something others find insulting or unbecoming .. usually in a psuedo-moralistic way.