Gothic Reading Challenge

My first reading challenge — I’m so excited!

I’m ready to delve further into drafty/creepy castles, puzzle over unexplained events, root for the damsel in distress, and explore further a genre to which I am no stranger, but would like to get to know better.

There are four levels of epic in the Gothic Reading Challenge:

1. A Little Madness – Read 1 novel with Gothic elements
2. The Darkness Within – Read 5 novels with Gothic elements
3. A Maniacal Frenzy – Read 10 novels with Gothic elements
4. Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know – Read 20 novels with Gothic elements

I’m going for A Maniacal Frenzy. The challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2011, so I’ll be bringing you those 10 reviews throughout the year.

Here’s my tentative list (in no particular order):

1. The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole
2. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (re-reading)
3. Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
4. The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
5. The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill
6. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (re-reading)
7. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
8. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (re-reading)
9. Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
10. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice (re-reading)

Alternate options include the poetry and short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

Anyone else interested in joining up? Head on over to The Gothic Challenge website and sign up. If you know of any Gothic novels that just have to be added to my list, drop a note in the comments — I’m always willing to read more!

Bonus books:

Well, my tentative list was apparently very tentative. I’ve tried to stick to it, but the idea of “way leading on to way” has sent me down a different path. Here are some books that have gotten added to the list over time.

1. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
2. The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett
3. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs