Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times: Treasures from the 60s and 70s

The top shelf of one of my bedroom bookcases is home to hardcover gothic suspense novels published in the 1960s and 1970s. Loads of women were writing gothics in those two decades. And then, suddenly, poof! Sometime in  the early 1980s it seemed none were being published. Historical romances hit the bookstore shelves to replace the gothics, and I was cut adrift, with no interest in a genre that was mostly romance with a smattering of highly questionable history. Although I searched at every bookstore I could find in Greater Boston, it was clear that contemporary gothics were gonesville. Romantic suspense novels were still in vogue, however.

I was initiated into the cult of the 1960s gothic fiction at my high school library and quite by chance.  It was a Friday afternoon in the autumn of 1968, and I was a sophomore looking for something fun to read for the weekend. I bumped into a classmate, who was one of the "popular" girls. I was in awe of her beauty, and she was not a mean popular girl, although I'd never exchanged words with her. 

I tried to figure out why on earth she was in the library, and on a Friday afternoon! She was alone. In fact, we were the only two students in the library, both of us rushing to snatch a book before catching our respective buses home. I was stunned when she actually spoke to me. “You have got to read this book.” And she pulled Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt off the shelf, thrust it in my hands, and  dashed off with another title from the same shelf.

I had no idea that I would be completely swept off my feet by Saturday morning. The young, naïve
governess, the brooding manse, and the two enigmatic leading male characters, all set in Cornwall. Part of the formula for the gothic at this time was that there had to be two men. For the naïve reader, it was impossible to tell which one of the two was bad, evil, and dangerous, and which was trustworthy, good, and heroic. I had to have more.
That next Monday I returned to the library and picked up Bride of Pendorric. My next was Kirkland Revels. I did not mind a bit that the plot was basically identical to Mistress of Mellyn. I did not read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier until after discovering the Holt gothics, and Jane Eyre came next, which occurred when my mother noticed my absorption in the Holt novels. 

 

As far as my personal collection of Holt novels goes, I originally owned a number in mass-market paperback. After moving to the Adirondacks, I found lots of the hardcover originals at library book sales and bought them. 

The Legend of the Seventh Virgin, to my mind, is the best Holt novel. It is more creative generally, strays from the "formula," and mixes Cornish history with the modern-day tale. It was the one I forced my mother to read,  and she loved it.

 

Of course, Victoria Holt was the pen name of the prolific English author, Eleanor Burford Hibbert (1906-1993). Hibbert used many pseudonyms for the various genres she wrote in. (Jean Plaidy, Phillipa Carr, and others.) Hibbert's biography on Wikipedia is fascinating, particularly when one considers all she accomplished. Do check out the section "Writing Discipline." 

I never cared for the Phillipa Carr novels or the Jean Plaidy, despite the fact that I have always loved historical fiction. It was the style of those series that just didn't grab me.

Also on the bookshelf are a number of Mary Stewart's novels of romantic suspense, and a few of Phyllis Whitney's. I did not discover Whitney until my 20s, when I found them a good escape from the stresses of my teaching job. The best Phyllis Whitney romantic suspense novel in my opinion is The Winter People. (It was very hard to find a description online that fits the novel I know. Click on "more" to get the full blurb.) I read that for the first time just 12 years ago. Superb drama, superb suspense. A close second is Snowfire, which I read more recently and which I highly recommend. Not all of Whitney's novels are as interesting as these two, and, yes they are formulaic with one huge exception.
Whitney was obsessively particular about physically, personally immersing herself in the locale for each novel before setting pen to paper. Her settings are richly atmospheric, which as many of you know, is key for me.

Starting in the 1980s, the Holt books became romantic suspense novels set in exotic locales. I did not like them as well as the gothics and read only a couple.

By the way, I love some of the gothicky fiction that's been published since 2010, when the genre seemed to be making a sort of comeback. What I find most interesting in many of these novels is how they combine elements from lots of other genres to create completely satisfying fiction for people who have gothic blood running in their veins. The finest example I can think of is a standalone gothic thriller by Elli Griffiths, The Stranger Diaries (2019). I gave it five stars when I read it last year.