I haven’t gotten a chance to read “The Lake house” yet, but it’s on my to read list. The closest I have come to a modern writer capturing that same feeling is Kate Morton’s “The Forgotten Garden”. I also love “Northhanger Abbey” by Jane Austen & “Dragonwyck” by Anna Seton. I have revisited Manderley for a lot of years now & enjoy it just as much as I did as a teenager. My grandmother gave me an old cover worn off it paperback copy to read. I read Daphne Du Maurer’s “Rebecca” every October. Secrets of the Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan The Mysterious Affair at Castaway House by Stephanie Lam I´ve played a little bit fast-and-loose with that description here, but all of the books in this list have one thing in common: they all feature a mysterious old house, with a devastating secret. I don’t think Jayne Eyre really counts as “modern” gothic, exactly, but then again, neither do all of the books in this list. Maybe she even decides to marry this man, but then it turns out that he’s got his mad first wife hidden in the attic, and … wait: I’m just describing the plot of Jayne Eyre now, aren’t I? Maybe she’s a poor, struggling governess, who has nowhere else to go, and who is forced to throw herself on the mercy of her new employer – a haughty, and yet devastatingly attractive man, who our heroine is strangely drawn to, even although his aloof demeanour suggests that he, too, is hiding a dark secret. Maybe she’s writing a book set in the past, and is doing some research.
Maybe she’s discovered an old letter amongst a dead grandparent’s belongings, and it’s piqued her curiosity. There’s normally a young woman, living in the 21st century, who, for various reasons, finds herself arriving at the gates of a mysterious old house, buried deep in the countryside. Most of these modern gothic novels follow a similar kind of format. I know there have been various spoof versions over the years, but I would totally read a real one, complete with smugglers, and monkeys, and lashings and lashings of ginger beer wine…). I suspect this is just the natural continuation of my childhood obsession with mystery and adventure stories: I’ve always loved a good mystery, and these modern gothic novels are essentially the grown-up version of the Famous Five (Side note: I REALLY wish someone would write a grown-up version of the Famous Five. Especially if it contains a dark secret, obviously. I’m not joking, by the way: I actually have a collection on my Kindle which has the title “Books About Mysterious Old Houses”, and it currently has over 20 titles in it, so… yeah, I enjoy a mysterious house story, for sure.
When it comes to fiction, my favourite genre by far is one that would probably be best described as “modern gothic novels”… but which I think of simply as “ books about mysterious old houses which conceal a dark secret“. The Ultimate List of the Best Modern Gothic Novels
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