Essential Books: Simply Gothic

In order to understand the themes, elements and devices often used in a number of Gothic subgenera (e.g., American, Southern, Midwest, Mexican Gothic, etc.), it’s a good idea to get acquainted with a few of the best in what’s considered “OG” Gothic.

I’ll go into the history of Gothic literature in another post to keep this clean, so if you’re keen to learn more about that, feel free to dig a little deeper there. But for the sake of understanding why I’m including the books in the list below (in reference to the dollhouse project), I’ll highlight the elements that I find to be important to the evolution of modern Gothic stories, particularly those that give structure and meaning to Southern Gothic specifically.

BOOK1

BOOK2

BOOK3

BOOK4

BOOK5