Gothic Novel
You will almost certainly have a few questions on the Gothic novel on your exam. Some knowledge of the books below will prepare you for almost any question you are likely to see.
‘Gothic’ came to be applied to the literary genre precisely because the genre dealt with such emotional extremes and dark themes, and because it found its most natural settings in the buildings of this style: Castles, Mansions and Monasteries, often remote, crumbling and ruined. It was a fascination with this architecture and its related art, poetry (see Graveyard Poets) and even landscape gardening that inspired the first wave of gothic novelists: Horace Walpole, whose seminal The Castle of Otranto is often regarded as the first true gothic novel, was obsessed with fake medieval gothic architecture and built his own house Strawberry Hill in that form, sparking off a fashion for gothic revival.
A term to associate with the Gothic novel is gothic explique, which is the logical explanation at the end of the book of an event that at first seems supernatural. This becomes a major component of detective fiction (think Scooby Doo).
Vade Mecum 