Zofloya, The Moor – Charlotte Dacre

This is a prime slice of Gothic nonsense from the high point of the style (1806). I did an option on Gothlit back in my undergraduate days, so I know that this long-lost classic begins in the mode of Radcliffe’s “terror” novels and segues into Lewis’s far more entertaining “horror” style. The finale involves multiple gruesome murders, suicides and lust-fuelled hatred, and a final star turn from Satan himself. Utterly splendid.

The novel is also interesting because the anti-heroine clearly lusts after the black man of the title, but reconfigures her feelings as a desire for Zofloya’s boss, who happens to be her brother-in-law, who in turn is betrothed to a thirteen-year-old child. It’s all just too much fun.