Wonderful Wednesdays #8 (Gothic Reads)

Wonderful Wednesdays is a meme about spotlighting and recommending some of our most loved books, even if we haven't read them recently.  Each week will have a different theme or genre.

In honour of halloween approaching, this week's theme is gothic reads.  


Gothic fiction is one of my favourite genres, so it's been a tough choice for me.  As much as I adore gothic classics such as Wuthering Heights, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula and anything by Edgar Allen Poe, I've decided to spotlight a more modern book with elements of gothic style, despite it not being a horror story.

My choice is Michel Faber's excellent The Crimson Petal and the White.  It's the story of Sugar, a prostitute in late 19th century London who rises up through society when she catches the attention of a wealthy business man.  Victorian London is bought to life in all it's filthiness and grime, opium dens and brothels and the reader is introduced to a wealth of characters from all walks of life.  From stark poverty to home brewed contraceptives to abandoned children to graphic but very unappealing sex scenes, Faber's novel is all about the grimier side of life.  It's a long read, at over eight hundred pages, but they just whizz by and the imagery is just so vivid.

 If you like gothic literature at all, you should read this book!  My full length review of it from last December can be found here.

How about you?
I want to hear all about your favourite gothic reads.  Grab the image above, make a blog post and then sign up to the linky below so we can all hop between blogs.  Thanks in advance to those that do take part.