A modern Gothic delight

I love overly romanticised, dark, sinister stories. These include Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, "Dragonwyck by Anya Seton, Louise May Alcott's A Long and Fatal Love Chase, anything by Mary Stewart and Barbara Michaels, and my frequently re-read favourites, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I would now add a new title to the list: Sleep, Pale Sister.

Sleep, Pale Sister was originally published in 1993 by Joanne Harris, and reissued in 2004. One of its main characters is painter Henry Chester, whose works are influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and whose reputation is growing. His subjects are mainly young girls in scenes from Shakespeare or classic tragedies, and feature his favourite model, pale, unearthly Effie. When Effie turns seventeen, Henry, twenty years her senior, marries her. However, his vision of Effie as pure and untouched changes when she welcomes his sexual advances early in the marriage, and disgust and hate replace love and adoration. Henry vows to destroy Effie.

But Henry is not the only one plotting; Moses Harper is not only a rival to Henry in painting, but for Effie's attention. With information and help from Fanny, a brothel owner who has her own vendetta against Henry, Effie and Mose join together to ruin him.

This novel is full of what you would expect in Gothic fiction: a mad wife, a secretive husband, drugs and liquor galore, not to mention prostitutes, nightmares, large spooky houses, and the inevitable graveyard and ghost. Harris uses the device of a different character's point of view for each chapter, which adds to the book's almost frenetic pace and tumultuousness. It's a wild and bumpy ride, perfect reading for dark, chilly, windy nights.