Let's Go Goth, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Oh, darlings, the perils of Matilda!  From Castle Wolfenbach, on a dark and stormy night, winds rattling the trees--yes, it is that kind of Gothic girls--a young girl flees from an avaricious uncle who would claim her for his own.  A loyal servant, friends, trips to Scarborough and Vienna, murder and grotesquerie--all within 203 pages of this neatly written Gothic, first published in 1793.  Jane Austen read it, the first of her Northanger Horror novels, and I would not be surprised if those Bronte sisters got their hands on them since, more than Jane, it foreshadows so much of what came to figure in their work.

                             Granted, Eliza Parsons is not the stylist either Jane or the Brontes were, but she can tell a story.  Because of stylistic deficiencies, and the time period, keep in mind that this is not a quick read.  It won't galumph like "Drangonwyck," by Anya Seton, or the Susan Howatch "Estate" novels ("Penmarric," "Cashelmara") , all excellent examples of twentieth century Gothics.  This one is verbose, lugubrious, and densely written, so it is a more difficult, challenging read.  But to go with it, is to discover an eighteenth century pleasure that helped in the evolution of English literature.

                             I did not have an easy time with "The Castle Of "Wolfenbach," yet I would not have missed reading it for the world.  I look forward to further exploration of Gothic literature, by reading the remaining seven.  I would have finished this sooner, but for illness.

                             Don't dress Goth, girls!  It is SO last year!

                             Reading genuine Gothic, however, never goes out of style!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!