Gothic cover

Gothic

by R. P. T. Davenport-Hines

"In this book, Richard Davenport-Hines traces the history of the gothic sensibility, from the seventeenth century to the present day. The birth of gothic can be said to date to the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, an event so powerful it created a new landscape and inspired the desolate and savage scenes depicted by the painter Salvator Rosa. With their precipices, ruined castles, dark caves, and contorted trees, they provided the original visual and imaginative frame of the genre."--BOOK JACKET. "Whatever the medium - art, architecture, gardening, literature, photography, filmmaking, music, clothing design - gothic is about exaggeration, about immoderation. This revelatory history ranges across genres and eras, taking in figures as various as Lord Byron, Francisco Goya, Edgar Allan Poe, Jackson Pollock, David Lynch, and The Cure as it probes ongoing fascination with "twisted and punished desires, barbarity, caprice, base terrors and vicious life.""--BOOK JACKET.

More by R. P. T. Davenport-Hines

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?