Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer Agnes and the Hitman

[perkinwarbeck2]

This is an unusual book in the genre of gothic, which I had thought defunct.

The gothic is what Jane Austen was mocking in Northanger Abbey and I believe the first examples were The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Castle of Otranto. It continued to thrive until the seventies, with examples being written by Mary Stewart (Nine Coaches Waiting) and Joan

Comments

[oursin]

I think Barbara Michaels was still publishing more or less gothics well into the 1990s, though it's hard to tell as her earlier novels keep being reprinted. And does tend to play with genre conventions. (Don't read gothics particularly much, make exception for Michaels, who also publishes as Elizabeth Peters.)

[rivka]

I immediately thought of Barbara Michaels too. She wrote some gothics as Elizabeth Peters, too - they tend to be shelved as mysteries.

[kate_nepveu]

How fascinating! This would never have occurred to me. Gothics are not my thing, but you don't think the flamingos disqualify it?

(And I'm glad you liked it.)

[perkinwarbeck2]

I can't think of any flamingos in canonical gothics, but I don't think they disqualify it by definition -- there's a swan in one of the Anya Seton ones.

There are gothics with humour -- all Joan Aiken's better ones are as funny as Agnes and the Hitman. What really makes a gothic is the mysterious house full of secrets and plotting people who are Not What They Seem, and this has them in spades.

I'm very glad you mentioned it.

[kate_nepveu]

Huh. I guess this is one of those things where the popular conception and the formal genre definition are at odds. Learn something new every day!

[thistleingrey]

Oh, interesting--I was interested by kate_nepveu's post as well, but this post bumps it up a bit on the to-find-and-read list. Thanks.

[oracne]

That is so cool!

This is in my to-be-read piles, waiting for a day when I can read it all in one go.

[lenora_rose]

I vaguely remember hearing a theory (Which i am not sold on, but will offer because I haven't heard any others) that the main impetus for the death of the gothic was the creation of the birth-control pill.

Not directly, but because Gothics traditionally featured ingenues as heroines, who are virtually always virgins who wanted a marriage, then children, in that order. Now one could have a sexually active heroine (without the sudden appearance of bastard children!), which led to the bodice ripper as the next subgenre of choice. (Until they got over the hang-up about women being sexually active, and liking it.)

However, most of the gothics with a sense of humour seem to date after the arrival of the bodice ripper, which may disprove the idea.