White Rose of Avalon

Romance

  • Death and the Maiden Motif

    The Death and the Maiden Motif is a classic motif in art and literature.    It all goes back to the ancient Greek myth of Hades and Persephone.    The motif is centered on a beautiful young woman being pursued (and loved by) a man who is death incarnate.    The male side of the…

  • The Difference Between Romantic, Dark Romantic, and Gothic

    All three of these literary movements are connected and entwined.   They have small differences among them, and that is what this blog post will discuss.   The Romantic literary movement had its roots in a rebellion against the industrial revolution.    Romantic literature and art desired to focus on feeling instead of on rational…

  • Immortality: Gift or Curse?

    Poe, Dickinson, Polidori, Stoker, Shelley, and Le Fanu.    All of these authors have written about immortality, both as a gift and as a curse.   The nineteenth century was a big time for supernatural tales, as a reaction to all of the technological advancements. The curse of immortality has been used in literature featuring…

  • Idealizing Mortality: Doomed Women in Gothic Fiction

    Women in Gothic fiction in the nineteenth century are known for being doomed.   Poe himself said that nothing was as poetic as a dying woman.   It is a very interesting concept of the romanticism of death.   Death and beauty are linked, and this is shown in the Death and the Maiden motif…

  • My Top Five Edgar Allan Poe Inspired Films

    Today I will be counting down my top five films inspired by either the life or the works of Edgar Allan Poe!    As a huge Poe fan I had to do some thinking to narrow it down, and to pick an order. Number 5: Twixt (2011) ~This mystery ghost film starred Val Kilmer and…

  • Ligeia: Poe’s Masterpiece

    Today I would like to focus on my absolute favorite tale by Edgar Allan Poe.    Ligeia is a beautiful, romantic, and dark tale!   Poe actually invented the name Ligeia for this tale.   If you are curious the name is pronounced Lie-G-a, but is sometimes pronounced Ledge-E-a.   Personally I prefer the first…

  • Coleridge’s Gothic Influence

    For today’s post I would like to look at the influence of the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge on other writers!   Christabel is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.    This poem was in fact never fully finished, but was nevertheless is one of Coleridge’s masterpieces. This poem was influential to later authors, such…

  • Heathcliff as Byronic Hero

    Anyone who knows me knows that I adore classic literature, and my favorite classic novel is Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights!    In honor of this today’s post is devoted to the character of Heathcliff.   Heathcliff is often named as a Gothic Villain, and he does bare many markers of the term, but he better…

  • Lancelot du Lac

    Lancelot du Lac was the bravest knight in the court of Camelot!   His most famous tales involved his love with Guinevere.   Lancelot was added to the Arthurian legends by Chretien de Troyes, a French poet in the thirteenth century.    His first ever tale was the Knight and the Cart. Lancelot’s surname du…

  • My Top 10 Love Story Books

    In this post I will count down my favorite love stories that have appeared in books! Number 10: Possession by A.S. Byatt ~This book is unique in that it tells two love stories.   One set of lovers are Victorian poets, and the other are scholars who are studying the poetry of these two poets. …