Ladies of the Gothics: Tales of Romance and Terror by the Gentle Sex

by Seon Manley (Editor), Gogo Lewis (Editor), Edward Gorey (cover artist)

Book by

Genres: Gothic, Fiction, Short Stories, Horror, Classics, Horror Thriller

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I initially stumbled on the title of one of the books in this series and had to know more. Somewhat curious, slightly offended, the subtitle "Tales ... by the Gentle Sex" definitely caught my attention. Ladies of the Gothics contains 10 tales written in the last 250 years. Several were interesting and left me wanting to read more, easily 4 stars, but a couple were such that I'm not sure I would have finished if they weren't short stories. If you like gothic tales, a little romance, a little suspense and some bizarreness, then this book may be for you.

[JY · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay sampling of writers, but that's just it--a sampling. Neat cover by Edward Gorey, dated and ever-so-slightly condescending introductions to each story.

[Christy Aldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ladies of the Gothics was a book I picked up at my local library on a whim. You see, I have a novel idea and it leans into Gothic territory big time. But I'm a novice at best at writing Gothic themes, so I felt this book would've a good way to get a feel for what really makes something Gothic fiction.

I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but these ladies sure did.

From Emily Bronte to Mary Shelley, to Jane Austen, to Ann Radcliffe, each lady brought something different to the table. Something uniquely them. Each story was a new adventure, filled with romance and dread. I can't say I disliked any of them really. Some stories were obviously better than others, but none were awful. I was particularly fond of The Long Corridor of Time by Ruth Rendell. It was so wonderfully creepy. But I also enjoyed revisiting Wuthering Heights with The Housekeeper's Tale. Novels, Gothic Novels by Jane Austen now has me extremely intrigued of reading Northanger Abbey. And Ann Radcliffe's story of The Haunted Chamber now has me dying to get my hand on more of her books. Especially the one about a library. The introduction that spoke of that book is wild! I never knew libraries had such a dark past.

Overall, an extremely good collection. I really enjoyed reading through this and plan to read the rest in this series, including the Ladies of Horror that's sitting beside me.

[Ananya Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every single one of them! Gothic lit is a genre I keep returning to every few years and with good reason! There is always something more to discover, something more to yearn for. This collection was sublime. A quarter of the writers were obscure, but perhaps well known among Gothic literature enthusiasts. Isak Dinesen was an absolute delight! I cannot believe I had never read any of her works before!
Emily Bronte and Jane Austen were sort of a catfish because the anthology leads one to believe the tales included in the collection are from some of their rare, unknown works, but instead happened to be excerpts from Wuthering Heights and Northanger Abbey.
Nevertheless, rereading those chapters has encouraged me to reread both WH and NA. It has been more than a decade since I read those books, I might see them in a new light!

[James T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coworker gave this to me. It's a decent sampler of female gothic writers, but I don't understand how they're organized (they jump around from 1900s to late 1700s and back). This is not just a collection of gothic short stories as you might expect, but includes samples from longer novels like Wuthering Heights and Northanger Abbey. The chapter introductions told me more than I knew before about each author, though they could have given more context about the piece itself; this would have made it more clear when the piece was a novel excerpt and not a short story. Probably the best thing I can say for the volume is that it makes me want to read more of the excerpted novels, but it would be nice to have an edition that was more self-contained and only included short stories, since these are more able to stand on their own merit.

[handsfeetlegs · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit disappointed with this. it started off strong— I really liked the first three stories, and then it kinda fell off. they're not bad, but for stories that are supposed to represent the showcased author, they were disappointing. three of the stories here are also excerpts from novels, which I don't understand the reasoning for. I understand now why this book is so rare: no one really wants to read it 😭

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting little collection. Picked up on a whim because it reminded me of my university reading. Mostly writers I had studied before and it was enjoyable to return to them in small snippets. Slightly spooky but not too scary, at least not in a modern sense. I'm not a fan of scary stories but I love the gothic themes.

[Larry Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most compilations of this sort, some stories are better than others, but overall this was an excellent sampler of a neglected niche in literature.

[Gianna Mosser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A breezy collection of Gothic tales, with short introductions on each of the writers.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slow, old, and dull. A lot of the stories were cop outs or disappointments. Glad I stopped when I did.