John Webster’s The White Devil

[joysilence]

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dfordoom)

Horror was around well before the appearance of the gothic novel in the late 18th century. If you want horror you need look no further than the works of the Jacobean dramatists.

John Webster has to be considered an early precursor of the gothic in literature. Both The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil (which I’ve just finished reading) abound in gruesome murders, unnatural lusts, doomed protagonists, family evil, revenge and fiendish plots. And the odd ghost or two. There’s as much sex and violence as any reasonable person could want.

Webster’s plays are lurid and scandalous. They’re like 1960s Italian gothic movies. You can just imagine Barbara Steele as a Webster heroine. But with the sex and violence of 1970s eurotrash movies. They’re outrageous fun, and they have more gothic atmosphere and gothic feel than most gothic novels. I love them.

Does anyone else enjoy this sort of stuff? Do you think it qualifies as proto-gothic?

x-posted to talkbooks and my personal journal