My favorite local indie bookstore is doing a book club where for three months, we read books of the same genre, one per month, starting with the book My favorite local indie bookstore is doing a book club where for three months, we read books of the same genre, one per month, starting with the book that started the genre, then a book that falls between then and now, and finally a book that best shows off that genre now. It’s a great idea.
So we’re starting with The Castle of Ortranto as the first gothic novel. Another reviewer points out that when this book was published in 1764, the novel as a form was still very, very new, so I suppose we can forgive it a great deal. However, I will say that it’s best to read this imagining it as one of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons that brings culture to little kids. It’s so melodramatic and at times silly to a 21st century woman. It doesn’t help that Walpole has all the women in this novel agree that of course they should just be pawns in the plans of the men because it is their duty to do what they’re told. Ooof.
I look forward to seeing what others in this book club have to say about this book. ...more
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