The Mansion of Penetralia

[rachelmanija]

The bookshop had a Gothic section! Complete with a series with titles like Alice, the Desperate and Ilene, the Superstitious. There was a complete list on the inside cover, but sadly the shop did not have Rachel, the Possessed.

Every single Gothic had a cover with a girl and a house. Some variations included a nurse, a doctor, and a house; a girl, a zombie Abraham Lincoln-esque figure, and a house; and, in the exoticized ethnicity category, a girl and the Taj Mahal, and a girl and a casa (according to the back cover.)

I now own...

The Satan Stone, by Louise Osborne. The great isolated mansion of Penetralia loomed bizarre and forbidding...

(There's no way that isn't deliberate, right? Right?)

Return to Darkness, by Willo David Roberts, author of many charming children's books including the seminal psychic kids novel The Girl With The Silver Eyes. Her Gothic heroine is a private duty nurse.

The Veil of Night by Lydia Joyce. Recced by Oyce as a sweet revisionist Gothic. Some desires flourish only in darkness...

Seimaden # 1 by Higuri You. What becomes of a man who spends his life in the underworld for a love that lasts beyond the grave?? This sounds Gothic, but it's actually manga, and very '80s-looking manga at that.

Two children's books, The Battle for Castle Cockatrice by Gerald Durrell and The Tiger's Apprentice by Laurence Yep.

Anyone ever read any of these?

Comments

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

...Penetralia?

...you really can't make shit like that up.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Seriously.

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

I've read some of Seimaden.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

OMG SEIMADEN MY BELOVED GOTHIC SHOUJO CRACK MADE OF THE CHEESIEST CHEESE SOMEONE ELSE WILL ACTUALLY BE READING IT!

*cough*

Though...it takes a couple volumes to get going. And Higuri You seems sometimes seems to be stealing glances at X/1999 for imagery ideas.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I loved The Battle for Castle Cockatrice back in the v early eighties when the Santa Fe Public Library had it as The Talking Parcel, but I'm not sure how it would stand up now (haven't seen it in decades).

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

_Castle Cockatrice_ / _The Talking Parcel_, I was fond of that one too. But my sister was more fond of it, so she wound up with the book, so I haven't read it in a very long time either. There's a wizard named Hengist, which must make up for any possible lacks.

(I kept _The Mural Master_ in trade for it.)

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

The Tiger's Apprentice is pretty good, but if you want to read his *best* work try the Dragon Of The Lost Sea quartet or Dragonwings. He's one of my favourite childhood authors. I read every single book the library had of his at least twice. ^_^

[lurker-lost.livejournal.com]

XDDD I love your icon. I agree with the sentiment completely, and it is one of the reasons why I love YA books so much. ^^

Various googlings of Ratanji have proved fruitless. Who is s/he?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It's a quote from my memoir, which I am signing above (info and ordering info here: http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/profile)

He was a very strange person whom I knew when I was a child. When someone pointed out to him that without sex, there could be no babies, he replied that people could go to the forest and pluck the babies from the trees.

[reichelle.livejournal.com]

Wow I have been gone way too long around LJ. I havent commented in forever! They sound like interesting books, but I can't say that I have read any of them. Might start though ^.~

[rmthunter.livejournal.com]

"House of Penetralia"?? That's can't possibly be happenstance. (Sounds like a yaoi series to me. By Yamane Ayano. But funnier.)

Haven't read any of them, but I'm a big fan of Gakuen Heaven. I'm not sure how much of that is Higuri and how much is Spray, though.

[anatomiste.livejournal.com]

No, but I love Laurence Yep!

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

Oh, Seimaden is quite fun. The bad guy is far more interesting to read about than the hero, mind. Lots of long-haired pretty boys, gothic brooding over millenia-old reincarnated love affairs, chaining naked people up to pillars... Sorry, it's been a while since I read it and the details blur. (And I don't want to be spoileriffic.)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I adore THE GIRL WITH THE SILVER EYES. Let us know how the Gothic is!

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Durrell did kids' books? Awesome! I've always liked his memoirs...