Gothic novel
noun /ˌɡɒθɪk ˈnɒvl/
/ˌɡɑːθɪk ˈnɑːvl/
- any of a class of English novels dealing with frightening or magic subjects. Most Gothic novels are set in ruined castles or large old houses with ghosts, and were written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The style was made popular by Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), and influenced writers such as Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as 20th-century horror stories and horror films.