The Heiress

Gothic literature arguably began with Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto but gained popularity during the 18th and 19th centuries with novels such as Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. As the genre gained popularity and prominence, a series of conventions typical of the genre were established.

Rachel Hawkins’s novels are a part of the contemporary tradition of Gothic suspense. The genre has surged in popularity in the 21st century, and authors like Hawkins both utilize and subvert the traditional Gothic genre conventions in their work. In The Heiress, Hawkins references famous traditional and modern Gothic novels alike, including Jane Eyre and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

One important feature of Gothic literature is setting. Hawkins’s use of Ashby House as a setting evokes a foreboding atmosphere, and, consistent with Gothic tradition, the house almost becomes another character in the novel. The characters attribute almost supernatural properties to it, with Jules noting, “The gray stone made the house look elemental somehow, like it had carved itself out of the rock of the mountains around it” (42).