Recently, I have been using Librivox, which offers audio versions of public-domain published books, for my scholarly readings, when possible. The time and frustration the service saves me is huge: it allows me to multi-task while I listen, so that I can do other activities during the day besides read, and it also permits me to listen while walking, so I don’t have to be in a sitting position all day long, and can get some exercise.
One of my goals this summer is to complete an embroidered tablecloth from a 1930s iron-on transfer I purchased from eBay years ago. I am reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch with a group at my university, but I realized recently I will need to find other books to listen to in order to finish the tablecloth this summer. I will finish Middlemarch before the tablecloth is halfway done.
This weekend, I spent some time browsing Librivox to see what I could find. The indices by subject are pretty incomplete, and to find most books of interest, I have to search by title or author. I was particularly interested in finding novels from the second half of the eighteenth century, because that time period is of interest to me. I enjoy the romance novels from that period because they are lighter. Romantic novels from the Victorian period, like Jane Eyre or Anna Karenina, often have more somber overtones or tackle serious social issues. While those novels are very valuable, I have been much more exposed to them in my classes and reading than to the lighter sentimental and gothic fiction I enjoy.
Sentimental and gothic novels were popular in the mid- to late-eighteenth-century Western world. Sentimental novels feature virtuous protagonists, often heroines, who are placed in challenging situations. Their moral or honorable choices are rewarded. Characters are often very emotionally expressive, and both men and women weep, especially in situations involving romantic love.
Gothic novels from the same time period have strong sentimental overtones, for example, in the works of Ann Radcliffe. The gothic also features supernatural situations, normally hauntings, while the gothic setting often consists of picturesque wilderness and ancient ruins, or run-down castles. The heroine in the gothic novel is often in danger from an older villain who wants to force her into marriage (My definitions come in part from the Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory from the Penguin Reference Library).
Below is a list I have compiled of sentimental and gothic fiction, with links to the Librivox audio versions. Some of these works are well-known, while others are less so. In italics are my comments about works I have read. Many of these works still have great entertainment value today, and there is no reason not to continue to enjoy them.
Sentimental and gothic fiction, and similar works:
- Amelia Opie: Adeline Mowbray
- Fanny Burney: Camilla, The Wanderer, Evelina and Cecilia
- Charlotte Lennox: Henrietta
- Frances Brooke: The History of Lady Julia Mandeville and The History of Emily Montague I read The History of Emily Montague about twelve years ago, and found it very enjoyable. The novel is partly set in Canada.
- Charlotte Turner Smith: The Old Manor House
- Eliza Fenwick: Secresy
- Elizabeth Inchbald: A Simple Story
- Ann Radcliffe: The Italian, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Romance of the Forest and A Sicilian Romance I have read some, if not all, of these works. I still have a quarter to go on The Mysteries of Udolpho. I began the novel at sixteen, which would be twenty-two years ago. I am still trying to finish it. The others were much shorter and easier to get through than Udolpho, and they are very enjoyable books.
- Clara Reeve: The Old English Baron
- Mary Shelley: Lodore This is the only work by Mary Shelley I have not yet read.
- Samuel Richardson: Pamela and Clarissa Harlowe, or the History of a Young Lady
- Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Dangerous Connections This book is the original idea behind the movie Dangerous Liaisons. I read this book, and watched the movie, years ago, and while the book is an epistolary novel, comprised of letters, and not a straightforward narrative, the events in the movie follow it very closely.
- Oliver Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield
- Maria Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent
- Tobias Smollett: The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom
Shorter ghost and fairy tale works near the late-eighteenth century:
- Friedrich de la Motte Fouque: Undine
- Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont: Beauty and the Beast
- George Gordon, Lord Byron: The Burial, a fragment
- John Polidori: The Vampyre
Sunlight-Colored Roses 