This week in my web browsing about all things Gothic, I came across a posting from The Guardian from May 2014 with a whole host of info-graphics all dedicated to the Gothic genre!

Be still my Gothic-loving heart!!

I don’t know how I missed this post throughout the past year. But clearly I overlooked something amazing. This also means that I have not been doing my job as your agent of all things Gothic! My sincerest apologies, dear reader. I have posted the images below and included a link to the original post for you.

In my professional opinion, this guide is expertly done. It includes the most important Gothic texts from the late 1700s/1800s. Plus, it’s easy to see, if you continue to read modern iterations of this genre, which trends continued and appear still today.

I don’t really feel like I need to add much of anything to this post and would like to let the work of the people from The Guardian speak for itself. I hope you enjoy these graphics as much as I did. They really took me back to my academic days and I would absolutely have used this guide if I were still writing academically. I was also surprised to realize just how well-versed I am across the breadth of this genre. I’ve read practically everything on this list. As for the ones I’ve missed, I definitely plan to fill in those holes ASAP!

If you know nothing of Gothic literature, which if you read this blog regularly, I doubt that’s the case, I hope that this info-graphic will inspire you to give one of these old texts a try. Yes, they are ridiculous and heavy-handed and the women are agent-less capsules of humanity, but this genre is an important part of our literary history and it really does have a lot of influence on the world of literature today. Many of your favorite genres can be traced back to it.

I don’t know how to pick my favorite info-graphic of all of these…but I think it’s probably #2, the scale of fainting by heroine. That one really cracked me up! I also really enjoyed #8 titled “Anyone who isn’t a white middle-class protestant is frightening.” Which one(s) is/are your favorite? Also, what modern genres would this be a fun exercise for? I’m thinking a Dystopian Lit breakdown would make a mad info-graphic series. Wish I had the design skills to execute it!

Thank you, The Guardian for creating this thing of awesomeness!! And, dear readers, please forgive me if I swoon like our beloved Gothic heroines.

(All images come from The Guardian)