Some New Thoughts on the Gothic

Reviews Some New Thoughts on the Gothic DAVID GATES William Patrick Day. In the Circles of Fear and Desire: A Study of Gothic Fantasy Chicago: University of Chicago Press '985. 208. us $17.50 In recent years critics have interpreted the Gothic novel as increasingly modern in tone and concern, heralding twentieth-century themes of alienation and anxiety and leading the way to the psychological theories of Freud. William Patrick Day'5 problematic new survey of the genre, In the Circles of Fear and Desire: A Study of Gothic Fantasy, continues this trend. His stated purpose is to illustrate how 'this style of fiction that began as middle-class escapism becomes an important part of the whole imaginative life of the nineteenth century and a shaper of that life in the twentieth,' That he has bitten off more than he can properly chew, given this intention, for a volume of just over two hundred pages is hardly surprising. Day views the Gothic as 'a fable about the collapse of identity: a parody or inversion of traditional romance. In examining the conventions of character, atmosphere, and plot, he defines the relationship of the protagonist to the Gothic world as a state of enthralment, a combination of fear and desire. The second part of his study extends this idea to consider the relation between reader and novel and argues that the real power of this type of fiction lies in its ability to create pleasure out of fear. The final section of the analysis focuses on the current life of the Gothic through the medium of suspense and horror film and through modern literary and psychological theories. While his book is provocative and stimulating at some points, it is unsatisfactory and maddening atothers. Thereare a number of reasons for this curious state. Evident first ofall, not just to the student of the Gothic but to any reader, are the errors in spelling and punctuation. The book is riddled with them. Some of these clearly crept in during the typesetting process and some can only have originated from theauthor himself.There are typographical slips: 'wll,' 'charaters,' 'adrogynous ,' 'purusing' for either pursuing or perusing, 'essentailly,' 'villians,' and 'Represseion: There is wayward punctuation: 'it's' for the possessive form its, 'Jame's' for {Henry] James's, and commas dividing subject from verb, as in 'Her devotion to death and the world beyond death, is an enthrallment to the Gothic world ... 'There are sentences that have picked up an extra word along the way UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, VOLUME 57, NUMBER 2, WINTER ]987/ 8 THE GOTHIC 347 which does nothelp their sense: 'At the same time, the her actions at Bly...' or 'Our purpose is, not be to answer ... I There are sentences that inadvertently have a Gertrude Stein-like sound: 'Narrative is fundamentally action is a meaningful sequence.' More serious, and more surprising in the light of Day's explanation of his experience teaching and studying Gothic fiction in various contexts, are the inaccuracies involving his subject. On the very first page of his Introduction one finds The Castle of Otranto being published a year early and Mrs Radcliffe's first name sprouting an unexpected 'e,' which it retains through the book. In the second endnote one meets the author of The Secular Scripture, 'Northrup' Frye. In his discussion of Otranto, Day writes that 'Manfred marrys [sic] his dead son's fiancee, thus metaphorically transforming himselfinto his own son through an act of technical incest.' Clever as this idea is, it is unsupported by the actual events of the novel since Manfred never marries Isabella. The names of several characters somehow go astray: Ellena in 'Radcliff's [sic] last novel' becomes 'Elena: the Wilkie Collins heroes Walter Hartright and Franklin Blake become 'Walter Hartwright and Franklyn Blake: and Mina's husband in Dracula is named 'Johnathan Harker.' Victor Frankenstein's mother is called 'Charlotte' twice before she is correctly called Caroline. Almost all the proper names cited from Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas are wrong: Madame de la Rougierre becomes 'Madame Rougerrie: Dr. Bryerly is 'Dr. Breyerly: and Knowl, the heroine's home, is called 'Knollys,' which is really the name of her...