Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin

by Richard Davenport-Hines

In this lively and provocative book, Richard Davenport-Hines traces the history of the gothic sensibility, from the seventeenth century to the present day. The birth of gothic can be said to date to the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, an event so powerful it created a new landscape and inspired the desolate and savage scenes depicted by the painter Salvator Rosa. With their precipices, ruined castles, dark caves, and contorted trees, they provided the original visual and imaginative frame of the genre. In England, under Rosa’s influence, William Kent created the first gothic garden when he planted a dead tree on the grounds of Kensington Palace.

Castles and country houses built like castles are another manifestation of the gothic imagination: in real life, in pictures, and in gothic stories. They are usually places of fear and anxiety, none more so than in Mitchelstown in Cork, where one family lived up to their home, inspired by and inspiring stories of murder, sexual degeneracy, eccentricity, madness, decay, and ruin.

Whatever the medium – art, architecture, gardening, literature, photography, filmmaking, music, clothing design – gothic is about exaggeration, about immoderation. This revelator history ranges across genres and eras, taking in figures as various as Lord Byron, Francisco Goya, Edgar Allan Poe, Jackson Pollock, David Lynch, and The Cure as it probes our ongoing fascination with “twisted and punished desires, barbarity, caprice, base terrors and vicious life.”

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Gothic, Horror, Literary Criticism, Art, Reference

438 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

AKA R.P.T. Davenport-Hines

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extraordinarily well-written survey of the Gothic, filled with insights about theme, amusing biographical details, and a profound emotional and intellectual appreciation of the subject. Davenport-Hines is particularly good on the origins of the movement in landscaping and architecture, showing how a habit of ostentatious display by the rich and powerful was soon transformed by Walpole, Beckford and others into a self-amused--almost camp--commentary upon its excesses.

This wide-ranging, inter-disciplinary study begins in 1631 with the effect of the eruption of Vesuvius on the aesthetics of landscape painting and concludes with some sharp observations on the films of David Lynch, the novels of Poppy Z. Brite, the mutilated mannequins of the Chapman Brothers and the music of Robert Smith of The Cure.

My only criticism is that it lacks an overall philosophical unity, but this may be unfair: it is--after all--a wide-ranging work, and it does have a kind of unity in the distinctively crisp style and rich sensibility of Richard Davenport-Hines.

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Elle Maruska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, engaging, and well-written. I wish more space had been devoted to gothic cinema, and perhaps the book was a bit heavily focused on architecture but otherwise I really enjoyed this and it certainly has pushed me to read more literary and cultural criticism on gothic style

[B. Zedan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew. This book is packed with stuff, I had to keep taking breaks. And though by the end it's clear that Davenport-Hines is just a touch, like, obsessed with Poppy Z. Brite and that other than a few things he hates the States, this is a pretty well rounded book. It's like a solid primer to one's self education in Gothic, because after reading it you're gonna wanna read all the books he mentions and quotes from.

Biggest problem for me? Didn't mention Cronenberg (hello, degradation of flesh and constant exploration of power relationships?), didn't mention the rest of the Americas ('cause like, I think that a lot of the writing, magical realism or not coming from Central/Southern America is just as Gothic as anything else).

The thing to remember when reading this is that though Davenport-Hines may be a historian, but he's also a devotee of the Gothic movements in art and culture in the past four hundred years.

[Mahir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotik, ilginizi çeken bir konuysa, bu dev eser, tam da aradığınız kitap. Güzel mi? Harika. Doyurucu mu? Tıka basa. Gotiğin mimaride başlayıp sonra diğer alanlara yayıldığını, resim, müzik, bahçe düzenlemesi, edebiyat şeklinde gittiğini bu kitaptan öğrendim. Köşe taşlarını ve köşe başlarını yine bu eserden öğrendim. Kimisini okuduğum kitapların, kimisini izlediğim filmlerin anlamlarını ve gotik konusunda nasıl bir yer kapladığını bu kitaptan öğrendim. Korku, gizem, yeraltı, polisiye, bilimkurgu gibi türlerin yanında klasikleri de bu kitapla daha iyi anlamaya başladım. Her kitap ve edebiyat severin okumasında fayda olduğunu düşündüğüm bir kitap oldu kendisi.

[Mina Villalobos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is tightly packed with information. As I close it, I am left feeling that even the endless talk about gardens and castles and abbeys was necessary to cement an understanding of the genre, not just in fiction, music and art, but as a social and psychological state.

The analysis on art and literature are what I enjoyed the most, since it gives a political context to all reviews, shining different lights on books I had read with a different context in mind -Sade's, Dracula and Frankenstein's in depth analysis were probably my favorites.

As a tool to understand and recognize Gothic this book is really great. It does have it's downsides, like the extensive chapters on architecture and landscape that even as an architect I found terribly long, especially because there were so few illustrations. A picture is worth a thousand words explaining crenelations or grooves. It also feels like it pushes the readings of the material a little too far -who knows, I'm certainly not an expert, but it does feel like at a certain point he can infer pretty much anything out of any book, given how stories can be searched for meaning. Which is cool as an exploration, but it does get confusing and far-fetching at places.

He also is pretty much a Poppy Z. Brite fanboy, and all this book is missing is a love letter to Robert Smith. As much as I like The Cure, the fanboyish glee felt out of place and not very academic, and it wasn't half as gleeful as the Brite's squealing praise.

It was a slow read for me because of how much information this packed, and that's kind of a good thing. Still, the introduction might be the best part of the book, if just for how exciting it makes the journey ahead feel. And, well, if you're looking to analyze Batman and Gotham City from a Gothic fiction point of view: This is a good book for that :P

[Chris Cangiano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written overview of the Gothic revival movement commencing in the 1630's with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and Salvador Rosa's painting of blasted and witch-haunted landscapes and following up to the edge of the Millennium and looks at the music of The Cure, the writing of Poppy Z. Brite, and the films of David Lynch. Davenport-Hines posits the Gothic as a reaction to Enlightenment values and thus focusing on the irrational, the pessimistic and the anti-human aspects of our nature. He makes stops along the way to explore key artists and works of art and offers interesting mini-biographies and interpretations showing how they fall into his general definition of Gothic but also how the meanings of those key precepts changed over time. His approach is truly interdisciplinary taking in aspects of Gothic revival in the visual arts, literature, music and film. Highly recommended.

[Connor Coyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much love this book though it is deeply problematic; in the tradition of Gothic schlock, the author is given to grandiose, unsupported pronouncements, and clearly gravitates toward the prurience and brutality of a Matthew Lewis over the delicate subversions of an Ann Radcliffe. But I love it regardless: as a survey of the Gothic, this text is sweeping, audacious, impassioned, and fierce. A fitting introduction for those reasons. Just take some of the more outlandish claims with a grain of salt. Gothic *can* be subtle when it wants to be.

[Frank McAdam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written though the author sometimes too hard to impress the reader with his erudition. The book is strongest when discussing the early Gothic movement in England. It descends into cheesiness in the final chapter in its discussion of goth writers and musicians of the late 1990's who are largely forgotten today.

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotların ve gotiğin kökenlerinin, edebiyattaki, sinemadaki, resimdeki, mimarideki, kısacası sanattaki yansımalarının anlatıldığı, örneklerle zenginleştirildiği iyi bir kaynak kitap. Dili biraz ağdalı ve yer yer ağır olsa da okumaya engel olmuyor. Resimlerle desteklenmesi de son derece aydınlatıcı ve yol gösterici olmuş. Konuya ilgisi olanlar gönül rahatlığıyla okuyabilir.

[Amanda Lett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy, if you like reading about English landscape gardening and follies, then this is the book for you (no lie, I DO enjoy reading about that!). The last chapter felt a little rushed, but the interconnected argument that ties gardening to gothic romance was very convincing.

[Knibbs · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Unbearably dry and not cohesively written.

[Matthew Pridham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This long and thoroughly enjoyable history of the Gothic covers everything from garden decorations to novels to the Goth music of the 80’s and early 90’s. Davenport-Hines discusses in depth the arise of interest in Gothic ruins in the 18th century and tracks the evolution of Gothic fiction in the wake of that aesthetic movement. Horror and the Gothic are not completely the same movement or genre, but the latter certainly paved the way for and mutated into the former, and this book gives a sturdy history of that process. I liked that he looks at the music and fashion of Gothicism, as most histories of horror don’t get into those arts. Something his book focuses on is the role the Gothic played, and continues to play, in the lives of people who reject bourgeoise values in one way or another. Punk, both music and style, is often singled out as being centered on countercultural impulses, but as Davenport-Hines argues elegantly, the Gothic was there first making the squares uncomfortable and providing coded criticisms of the ideologies of the time.

I reviewed this book for my list of informative and entertaining histories of the horror genre. If you’re interested in similar titles, check out some of my favorites:

https://matthewpridham.wordpress.com/...

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea why the author starts off announcing this book will cover decay, submission, vampires, inversion and despair...and then launches into a chapter almost entirely about landscaping and architecture. Mmm, grottos and crenellations. Once he gets the gardens out of his system, the book is fascinating and wide-ranging, covering a huge amount of themes and history in interesting ways. Dracula, Frankenstein, Goya, Walpole, Faulkner, Poe, The Cure, Poppy Brite--he does a great job of finding themes and connecting them through time. I ended up appreciating certain things (like splatterpunk and David Lynch) more once given the centuries of context.

[Maryellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

nicely researched ~ interesting & informative!

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this lots, except for the final chapter, when the writer started talking about modern stuff and it slowly dawned on me that he might just be a stinkin' ol' GOTH.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a very compelling argument as to the whys and wherefores of Gothic; more a great big laundry list of things what are Gothic.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slapdash, poorly argued, full of errors, but worth perusing...

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do goths come from, Mommy?

[Ozan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate this book. Yes, it's lots of information about gothic culture but also there is so much unnecessary subjects and infos too

[Sean Kearns]

It's like a friggin textbook. The history of Gothic art and literature from 1500. Impossible to read from cover to cover. I quit.

[Madly Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of The Gothic, which is what I love.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotik sözcüğünün içeriği hakkında a'dan z'ye bilgi sahibi olmak isteyenler için harika bir kitap.