The Style of the Gothic Novel (Paperback)

"The Style of the Gothic Novel" is a study focused on the beginnings of English Gothic novel and also on some American Gothic writings. This type of novel is individualized through a certain set of stylistic features that appear applied in writings according to the sensibility of the author and the impact of the epoch respectively. Through various stylistic devices - metaphor, hyperbole, simile, epithets, syntactic rhythm (interrupted structure echoing sudden movements of consciousness), etc - the tension is rather amplified than dispelled. The characteristic of the Gothic style is its ornateness, its hyperbole, its repetition. The repetition of "horror" and "horrible", the "total darkness" and the black-red-and-white "tone" of the writings, the note of half-gasping, half-gloating voyeurism are part of the distinct aura of the Gothic style.