Doubles and Duplicity: Gothic Themes in The Woman in White Featuring Eleanor Bourg Nicholson
Risking Enchantment
"I looked at her, with my mind full of that other lovely face which had so ominously recalled her to my memory on the terrace by moonlight. I had seen Anne Catherick's likeness in Miss Fairlie. I now saw Miss Fairlie's likeness in Anne Catherick." - Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White We are joined for this episode of Risking Enchantment by Catholic author Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Eleanor has recently published two Gothic novels, A Bloody Habit (2018) and Brother Wolf (2021). She joins us to talk about the Gothic genre, and why it's both relevant and interesting to Catholic writers and readers. We also delve into the theme of gothic doubles, a theme powerfully explored in many of the classic novels of the genre including Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We also look at how the trope is explored in Sensation fiction, a genre adjacent to Gothic fiction, in particular in the novel The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. While Gothic fiction has the source of its uncanny doubling in the preternatural and phantasmagorical, Sensation fiction looks to the find the horror in the real societal problems found in the Victorian Age. Where the former genre examines how find ourselves reflected in the falleness of literal monsters, the latter genre examines how we find ourselves reflected in the villany and duplicity of our society. Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson Follow Rachel on social media: @seekingwatson Follow Eleanor on Facebook here. Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast Buy A Bloody Habit by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson here. Buy Brother Wolf by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson here. Find out more about Eleanor Bourg Nicholson's work with Homeschool Connections here. Related Risking Enchantment Episodes: Dracula: The Presence of Evil and the Power of Sacramentals Monsters and Morality in Romanticism Works Mentioned: A Bloody Habit by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson Brother Wolf by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Dracula by Bram Stoker Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson The Victorian Age in Literature by G.K. Chesterton What We're Enjoying at the Moment: Eleanor: The Lord of the Rings on Audiobook Rachel: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke