Lots of things can be passed down through the family. Maybe you’ve inherited your grandmother’s eyes, your aunt’s madness, or the fatal curse that has plagued your family’s male line for generations. But what about inheriting an affinity for writing Gothic literature? As I research deeper and deeper into the genre, I’ve noticed a few family names that recur throughout different eras. Many of the authors that we love best today built on the legacy of their ancestors, or else passed their love of the genre down to their progeny. Here are a few examples of Gothic authors who kept their literary legacy in the family:
Charles Maturin and Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde is a household name, but somewhat less well-known these days is his great uncle Charles Maturin. The two are not related by blood—Wilde was the grandson of Maturin’s wife’s sister—but they certainly share a literary legacy. Charles Maturin was a prolific author of Gothic novels and plays in the early 1800s. His most celebrated work is the Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer, which features a Faust-like scholar who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for an extra 150 years of life, but wound up spending that time searching the earth for someone to take over the bargain. You can see similar themes present in Oscar Wilde’s sole Gothic work, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Though Wilde’s titular protagonist does not make a literal deal with the devil, he does think to himself that he would give his soul for the ability to remain young and beautiful while his portrait ages instead. Sure enough, Dorian’s wish comes true, but like Melmoth, he soon comes to regret his extended life and the terrible price he has paid for it. Charles Maturin’s legacy not only had an impact on Oscar Wilde’s works, but on his life as well. After serving two years in jail, Oscar Wilde spent the final years of his life in exile in Continental Europe. During this time, he adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth, presumably feeling a kinship with the wandering outcast of Maturin’s novel.
George and Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier is another author who is quite familiar to modern audiences—if not by name, then at least by her works such as Rebecca and “The Birds,” which were immortalized by Alfred Hitchcock in famous film adaptations. But like Oscar Wilde, Daphne also had a slightly more obscure relative writing in the genre: her grandfather George du Maurier. Born in France and later living in Victorian England, George du Maurier first came to fame as a cartoonist, drawing satirical illustrations for the British magazine Punch. As his eyesight began to fail, George switched over to writing novels. One of these was the 1894 Gothic novel Trilby, which features a beautiful young model named Trilby who becomes a famous diva while under the power of the evil hypnotist Svengali. Though little known today, the novel and its stage adaptations caused a sensation at the time. The story had a significant influence on Gaston Leroux’s later novel The Phantom of the Opera. And, fun fact: it gave us the distinctive, narrow-brimmed hat now known as a trilby, which was popularized when one of the characters wore it in a London stage adaptation of Trilby. While George du Maurier’s novel fits the classic Gothic mold of an innocent female victim being terrorized by a corrupt male villain, Daphne du Maurier’s works tend to portray more nebulous gender roles. Rebecca, in particular, features a fearless female protagonist, as well as female villains, with the male characters relegated to more sidelined roles.
Nathaniel and Julian Hawthorne
The last pair I want to talk about here is a father-son duo. You most likely have encountered Nathaniel Hawthorne in an American literature course. Part of the Romantic movement of the mid-1800s, he is most famous for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, as well as for short stories like “Young Goodman Brown.” In many of his stories, Hawthorne explores the legacy of the Salem witch trials—wrestling with the guilt he felt over the knowledge that his ancestor John Hathorne was one of the judges responsible for sentencing innocent people to their death. Thankfully, Nathaniel Hawthorne left a much better legacy for his descendants. His second child and only son, Julian, inherited Nathaniel’s literary talent—if not quite his level of fame. After Nathaniel’s death, Julian published several biographies of his father, critiques of his work, and an unfinished manuscript. But Julian also published original fiction of his own in a wide variety of genres. His first novel, Bressant (1873), is a Gothic novel with Faustian themes. Among his most popular works were a series of detective novels featuring a character named Inspector Barnes, and he also dabbled in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Have you read any works by these authors or their more obscure counterparts? Is there a Gothic-novel-writing gene somewhere in your gene pool? Or, at least, have you been influenced by any literary forebearers in your family? Share your thoughts in the comments!